My Missions Trip

Okay. Where do I even start with this post?

Well, as you can see by the title I’m talking about the missions trip I went on. I’ve had some requests to post about it. So here I am. I know it has been a few months (a little over three to be exact). So you may be thinking, why now? Well, I found this post completely written and edited sitting in my draft box and wondered why it was never posted. So I am here today to post it. Without explaining further let me just start.

Before I left for the trip I thought I would be journaling often and taking plenty of pictures, when in reality I didn’t. I was way too busy to grab my camera or sit and write. So, I don’t have pictures or journal entries. So this is all from my memory.

Background

Every year my youth group goes on missions trips. They have been going to Maine for almost 20 years.

We drive up, hold a VBS (Vacation Bible School) Monday-Friday and then drive back. They don’t have any other camps throughout the summer in this town, so for most kids this is the highlight of their summer. We hold the VBS at the school and this year we also slept there.

On Wednesday night we hold a carnival with food, games, and a small program.

The day after we arrived home (Sunday) we share something that God taught us and a favorite memory from the trip in front of the church.

Preparation for the trip

We started to think about and prepare for the trip in January. I signed up and began sending out support letters. I had to raise $595 to be able to go. I raised the money through asking for donations from people I knew. Our team also had meetings about once a month where we learned more about each other and were taught different ways to share Jesus with the kids.

Since we were volunteering with a VBS we were on different teams (guide team which lead the kids around, crafts, worship, teaching, and 7th-12th team.  The middle and high school were combined and had their own separate group and games).  I was on craft team with two others teens and an adult. We decided what crafts we would create, tested them, and practiced teaching them.

The one other thing I had to do was pack. Everyone is given a giant duffel bag (big enough to fit both my little brothers in) to pack their stuff. We also could bring a bag to carry in the vans (most of us used school backpacks). We slept on air mattresses the whole trip, so we had to pack those as well.

The actual trip!

We had 51 kids show up on the first day for VBS!

Their were 17 teens and 10 adults that went on the missions trip.

Our VBS day consisted of an opening (where we sang the VBS songs and watched a little video skit), then there were four rotations (crafts, games, worship, and Bible). There were four groups PreK and Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade, 3rd and 4th, and 5th and 6th. Then we finished up the morning by singing more songs and talking about the day and what the kids learned.

We ate breakfast and lunch cafeteria food.

It took two full days to drive-each way!

Some favorite memories

I have so many memories! This trip was so awesome and I had such a great time. Ever since I reached home I’ve been missing it. Some of the things listed below are general, while others are more specific.

-I really liked the long car rides to travel there and back. We listened to music or talked.

-I liked that it was sort of like a nine-day sleepover with my friends. We were serving but we also had fun!

-It was amazing to get to bond with people who I didn’t know very well and now I feel like I’ve known them forever.

-Something super special was that my mom was able to come with me on the trip! It was cool to be able to serve along with her.

-I liked watching the kids make their crafts and singing and dancing to the VBS songs at opening and closing programs.

-We would sit outside on a hill and watch the moon come up (after the sun went down) and talk.

-I tried peanut butter and ketchup on a hotdog and it was awesome (you can’t judge it until you’ve tried it!)

There were many more, but that’s all I’ll share for now.

What God taught me

Well, God taught me a lot of things. The two main things that I learned were:

1. To trust God more. He has a purpose and a plan, even if we can’t see it. He taught me that He is in control, so I don’t need to worry.
2.  God does answer prayers. There were lots of things I prayed about (including staying physically healthy, having a place to sleep {for a few months leading up to the trip we didn’t have a given location where we were going to sleep}, for the kids to be open to hear about God) and God answered them. I also grew closer to God when we had our devotions, which made the prayers feel even more real.

I went to Maine to serve and teach kids but in a way I was being taught by God in so many ways!

I learned so many different things from the mission trip and not just in relation to my faith. I spent nine days with my peers. We had to bond as a team and learned team work. I was amazed at how even from different backgrounds and being different ages we became unified.

I’m so glad I went and I would really encourage you to pray and ask God if He is calling you to serve! It was such a special time and it encouraged me so much in my relationship with God. I’m so thankful for this experience and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

^^This is my team! Thanks guys for being such an awesome team. It was awesome to work with all of you 😀

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I hope that answers everyone’s questions! If you have any more you can comment them and I’ll be sure to answer them.

Have you ever been on a missions trip? Would you like to go on one?

That’s all for this post. Bye 🙂

It feels really fall like outside! Yeah!

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