How to Live A LT Day

So LT runs their mission trips in a number of ways that differentiate us from other mission organizations - probably one of the most noticeable ones is our busy schedule.

A normal LT day looks like this:

6:30 - Breakfast Prep

(students are broken up into groups and a different group cooks each morning)

7:15 - Breakfast
8:00 - Devotionals

(We set aside 45 minutes every morning to spend with God. We guard this time and it may start at different times, but it's never shorter than 45 minutes)

8:45 - Fast Break

(Time to grab gear and get to the cars)

9:00 - Leave for Work Site
12:00 - Lunch
12:30 - Work Site
2:00 - Leave for VBS
3:00 - VBS
5:00 - Leave for Team House
5:30 - Dinner Prep

(again, students cook, during dinner prep students not cooking get time to shower and hang out)

6:30 - Dinner
7:30 - Team Time

(this is our evening meeting, typically lasting 1 1/2 to 2 hours we evaluate the teams performance, discuss the morning's Bible study, talk about our personal growth and take time to encourage each other)

9:30 - Free Time - to Bed

(once team time is over it is up to the Youth Pastor to set lights out time, but we try to allow them enough time to give the students the option for 8 hours of sleep. We've found that students who are not rested are not ready to be challenged.)

As you can see, there is not a lot of free time. We try to be intentional with every moment of every day. Some people come on the trips and think this is bad - "kids need to work hard yes, but they also need to play hard" - and I agree, to some level. But I also think they can work a lot harder and a lot longer than our society gives them credit.

I love the schedule on trips - it's tiring, but good. However, I also see it as one of the biggest temptations when students return home, when I return home. 

Satan tells me that because I don't have a busy schedule like this that I can put off my devotions. That there will be time to pray later, to read my Bible later, just do it later. And we listen, because we are relaxed and not on a mission trip. But the truth is, schedule or no schedule, we are not promised a later. It should not be about the mission trip, it should be about a mission life.

Lord, Please give the students I've worked with this spring that urgency. May your voice be louder than all the other things calling to them in their daily lives. May they choose to spend time with you NOW. May they choose to pray NOW. May they choose to live a mission life NOW rather than waiting for next year's trip.

Luk 10:2

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.