senior high mission trip recap

So, I got to spend last week with some seriously sweet young ladies. I chaperones the senior high mission trip to Benton Harbor, Michigan where we stayed in a Salvation Army and played with sweet kids all day. Three of the girls in my group were from my church and the other three were from Minnesota. We went with an organization called YouthWorks that does some pretty cool stuff in communities. One thing I think is cool is that they have staff all year long in these cities even though teams only come during the summer. This gives an opportunity for the organization to build relationships with the people, churches, and organizations already in place.

Monday through Thursday we did a VBS in the afternoon with some kids from the daycare downstairs at the Salvation Army. Even though we only had 9 kids on our biggest day, I think we were able to plant some kind of seed in these children’s hearts and hopefully in the youth as well.

On Tuesday night, we took the kids across the river to St. Joseph. It’s a little tourist city not too far (as I said, literally across the bridge) from Benton Harbor. It was kind of shocking to see the difference between the utter poverty on one side and the materialism on the other side of the bridge. We did a little scavenger hunt around the downtown area and then got some ice cream.

This is my little buddy from Vacation Bible School. I seriously wanted to scoop this kid up and bring him home with me. He was adorable. Apparently northerners don’t call people “sweetheart”, “baby”, or “buddy”. Sorry Charlie. That’s what I’m used to. This kid would giggle and hide from me every time I tried to talk to him. On the last day, we ended with some ice cream and I had to get a picture with this kid before I left. (Okay. Pretty much everyone did.)

And that was our week in Benton Harbor. Busy busy summer guys. I'm pretty sure I’m all traveled out. I started classes this morning at 8 o’clock AM. Seriously. Monday morning came early. My schedule and things look a little different now. Class in the morning, work at church in afternoon, and hang out with kids and get Sno-Biz whenever possible. Teenagers are actually kind of fun to hang around…and I think I’m going to like this internship. Haha. :)