Summer Rewind - Week Three

Originally written on July 8th, 2012

Saturdays are always the hardest - Teams leave and my energy just drops, but I know the Lord sustains me as I continue to push forward and cross things off the never ending Trip Leader Check List.

Today, we said goodbye to a great team of 15 amazing people. This past week we became part of a team from Northwood, MN. Our 1st high school team of the summer and what a refreshment. 

This was also the first team to run an Educational VBS. Our Dayton missionary partners work mainly with African refugees who have been relocated here. There are so many needs for a person who is on the run from war and strife. One that we're trying to meet is the educational component for the kids. They are struggling in school because of language barriers, teasing and un-acceptance from american kids, and a general lack of care from the school system. So the students from NorthWood church were set up with the difficult task of taking a VBS and making it educational. Instead of crafts, skit & Bible Study - they taught math, reading, & writing. Games of course stayed because what's a VBS without a games rotation. This team really stepped it up. Everywhere I walked around at VBS I saw the students loving on kids, telling them they care for them, and teaching them in fun creative ways (reading stories, creating math games & writing about things they loved). By the end of the week, the students weren't just teaching these kids educational skills but fully communicating the extent of God's love.

We not only got to complete 4 work projects on Neil Street (a street with several refugee occupants), but also spent Friday morning building 3 new picnic tables for Emmanual Lutheran. This church has been such a blessing to me and my fellow staff members over the past 3 weeks it was fun to get to bless them with new, safe & pretty looking tables.

God also gave me an opportunity to think on my toes Friday night when a huge storm rolled in and knocked out the power around 5:00 pm. Luckily we were already planning to go out to eat to celebrate, but we had to get creative for our final team time (evening meeting where we evaluate, discuss scripture, worship & encourage together). I had planned to move the meeting to the church sanctuary for a more special night, but with the power out I knew it would get quite dark in there. So I pulled a Pinterest Idea out of my back pocket and attached my headlamp to my clear water bottle. The water in the bottle refracted the light and with about 10 water bottles we had enough light to sort of make out faces. Without being cheesy it gave us the right mood lighting for a great final team time. The power stayed off all night, but luckily came back on shortly after the team pulled out so we will hopefully not have the same challenge as we greet the new team on Sunday.