Youth Mission Trip

I am writing to you from the Mississippi Delta on land that was once a slave holding plantation but is now producing crops of catfish. This area, Sunflower County, is considered the poorest county in the United States. The homes that we have been working on have been waiting for someone to come and help them for 4 years. We are putting on three roofs and remodeling a bathroom. A little boy at the home next to the one that I am working on asked me why we were putting a roof on the house and I said because the old one leaked and we wanted to help. The current waiting list for residents hoping to become finished projects is over 700.

The first two days, we were freezing out on the houses and it made the work of removing the old roofs really hard. Each team only has five or six kids with two adults. It finally warmed up on Thursday and all the same kids who complained about being cold got sunburns. The team in the bathroom were burning up in the house and there was not room for all of them to work at the same time. The work is not difficult but it is very physically demanding. Every muscle on my body hurts! Having a desk job has not prepared me for this kind of work.

Our theme this week is “Making the World a Better Place” and Mark has put together a wonderful program. Our students have led devotions every morning and one student each evening brings a message during worship. Our youth praise band leads the music for worship. It has been a rewarding experience to get to know the personalities of our youth. It has been a joy to watch them and be with them. We even had an interaction with someone that made them so proud of me that they gave me high fives me and told me how proud they are of our church. As we end the week, emotions are high and everyone is tired. Yet, the kids are so proud of what they have accomplished and the families that we have helped. Tonight we have invited all the families to join us for dinner and worship. We will have a slide show and we will celebrate being the hands and feet of Jesus this week. Faith, you should be so proud of them. And thank you to all of the adults who have given up their vacation time and have traveled this road with these young disciples. I had completely forgotten how loud they can be! And thank you to those of you who donated the funds to make this work possible. We are truly leading with love.

I hope you will celebrate with us after we get home!

I love you,