Our missions trip was great! Sure, at some point, I think every one of us had a meltdown or a not-very-good-moment or whatever you want to call it, but I think we all really enjoyed it.
In the first part of our trip, we went to a women's rehab center in Indianapolis, Indiana, where our worship team (Ami, Erica, Brach, Glenn and Grits) and Glenn had a concert which the ladies really got into and loved Then, the girls of our group stayed there while the guys went to a men's rehab center in Bloomington, Indiana. The next day, the girls of our group watched the women's children and played with them while our guys worked at the men's center helping heard cows and chop wood and stuff. That afternoon, we (girls) left Indianapolis to go to the Hebron Center (where our guys were). We listened to fun music the whole ride down dancing and singing at the top of our voices =) and we had a great picnic in a parking lot.
Hebron Center was so beautiful! It was on a very big land with woods and a lake. We spent most of our time there relaxing, having fun with each other, getting to know each other better, having bonfires with the men and their families. We also had a concert there Saturday night (when the girls got there) and led worship on Sunday morning (where Stephen and Rich also shared their testimonies). I was kind of sad that the men didn't really look like they were getting into it as much as the ladies at the women's center, but Sunday evening the men asked us if we could have a time of worship with them...and that was definitely a lot of fun!
Monday morning we got up in the dark, had breakfast in the cold of the extremely early morning, and left while still half asleep. That day we traveled for a LONG time.
We finally got to Baton Rouge, Louisiana at about 11:30 pm where the Fasullo family (who used to live at JPUSA some years ago) welcomed us with a great big dinner of delicious homemade Southern food.
The next day, a group of us helped out at a storage place where volunteers get a bunch of donations of all kinds of stuff (from toiletries, to food, to clothes, etc), put them into boxes, and give them out to people in need. A small number of the rest of us (not me) went with Glenn to a high school where he had a concert.
The day after that, we left to go to New Orleans. There, we helped a company build a house and (some of us) cleaned up a little in the ghetto and painted a finished house. It was really cool to see how a house is built and to be a part of it. It was also really cool that the wood that was being used to build the walls was donated by people who wrote prayers and Bible verses on the wood! How awesome is that?!?
We also got to see some of New Orleans, and ate a lot of good food.
Our last stop was in Missouri, at the old JPUSA farm, which is now The Rocks Cry Out Christian Retreat Center owned by Aaron and Angel Allen, who are a great couple. This place was so beautiful and it's incredible to think that old JPUSAs (including Hannah's dad) built this over 20 years ago with no electric tools!! We had a very nice time there. We hung out, played in the pool and hot tub and with the pool table and foosball, shared testimonies, worshiped and had communion together, worked on the big yard, and celebrated my birthday.
Every place we went to was different, but every one of them was a blessing. We had a lot of fun and I wish we could've done more!
Here's a slide show of pictures that different people took during our trip...
It's crazy how, even after 3 years, New Orleans still has damage from Hurricane Katrina! I can't imagine how all those poor countries in Asia are doing with natural disasters occurring all the time...
No comments:
Post a Comment