July 28, 2015

Buffalo Mission Trip Recap

I've been very fortunate to experience different mission trips in my life. Being involved in my youth group in high school, I had several opportunities to go serve in Mexico. I also had the wonderful experience of serving during my sophomore year of college in Costa Rica. Those were the big trips. The "smaller" trips, here in the United States have had an equal amount of impact. 

Earlier this month Brian and I were able to take eight of our high school students and an additional adult leader to Buffalo, New York, to serve the residents in the area. We served with GroupLife, a ministry that develops work camps all across the United States. The ministry actually splits up the youth groups and puts people into different groups that you serve with each day of the week. Although we had time with our own youth ministries at night, during the day we were with 5-11 other strangers who had come for the same purpose. The amazing part was seeing the students embrace this model of serving...to serve with other strangers for 8 hours each day. None of our students had been on a mission trip before, so this was their first experience. 

My particular group I was placed with repainted a lovely lady's home. We painted it a beautiful sky blue and learned that she had been born and raised in that home. Needless to say, this house was so special to her. She lived with her son, who was battling cancer. We got to know them very well throughout the week. They even joined our group for devotions and prayer each day, and came with us to our main session/teaching on the last night. Each student in our ministry had a different story and experience based on the group they served with each day. It was so wonderful coming together each night as a youth ministry and hearing the different stories. 

There is nothing better than watching those you're leading encounter Jesus. There's nothing better than watching them show His love to those in need. As leaders, we all learn from our students and are blessed by their act of laying down their lives for a week. And in laying down their lives, we see them gain so much more. 

If an incredible 1,000 page book can be summed up in one sentence, then recapping our experience would be simple. But it cannot, and I hate that so many details cannot be expressed. I realize I'm not doing it justice. But here are a few words and photos from our trip. Thank you for reading, dear readers! :)

xx,

Court


                           


2 comments:

  1. Such a great trip + story, lady! Cool you were part of this. :)

    Happy Tuesday!

    -Ashley
    Le Stylo Rouge

    ReplyDelete