10) In the late 80's and early 90's the Springfield Friends Meeting group spent a lot of time serving at Our Father's Table, a soup kitchen in High Point. We usually prepared a basic soup and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I remember one week we had lots of leftover food from Furniture Market caterers that we served the patrons- really quality stuff. They couldn't eat it. It was too rich for them. They asked for more PB&J's...
9) I think the hottest place I ever been in my life was inside the Orlando Second Harvest Food Bank warehouse on our middle school mission trip from FUMC-K in 1994. We also worked in another 2nd Harvest in Nashville in 1999, and it was not much cooler. But those places provide amazing support to the communities they serve in the name of Jesus.
8) Jennifer Minnigan Kuramochi (FUMC-K) told me recently that she was a little embarrassed to admit to the youth pastor at her current church that her high school mission trip was to the Bahamas- twice! We did good work on those trips, but we didn't exactly suffer for it...
6) The previously mentioned 1999 Nashville trip was the first time I partnered with the Center for Student Missions (CSM). It was an amazing experience. We worked our rears off in 100 degree heat and 200% humidity, slept on the floor, and had about 75 people sharing one shower (with a strict time limit!). It was awesome!
4) The following year we went to Tijuana, Mexico and worked at an orphanage. The children there could recite entire chapters of scripture in English and Spanish. Some of our teenagers couldn't even recite John 3:16. Plus those smart little kids conned us into eating habanero peppers and almost dying! UC's traditional Work Tour closing ceremony, called Candle, took longer than the rest of the trip- or so it seemed!
3) The group from Wesley Memorial UMC headed to Washington, DC to work with CSM in the summer of 2002. We spent a fair amount of time building bunk beds for future groups to sleep on, so we made a long-term contribution to that ministry. We also delivered meals to AIDS patients. It is the only trip I ever went on, mission or otherwise, in which this peace loving Christ-follower almost killed a student. Thank you, Chris Morneau.
2) In 2003 we went to Spartanburg, SC and served for several days with a variety of ministries. I especially remember sorting hundreds of pounds of clothing into gender and size specific piles, and then throwing them all back together in another room. Seemed pretty pointless, but it was what we were asked to do. We also slept over a homeless shelter. Each night they locked us in and told us NOT to leave. It was a little scary...
So there you have them- 10 wonderful memories! Come back tomorrow and catch the story of a concert gone terribly wrong- and how God used it to His glory anyway!
Because of Jesus,
I also remember doing a hunger retreat where we did not eat for like 30 hours, and then Erin Augenblick tried to play a basketball game in teh middle of it. We went dumpster diving to see what it was like to be homeless. I learned a lot about being hungry. ~BT
ReplyDeleteI am confused,Erin
ReplyDeleteConfused about the basketball game? It is true- I do not remember where you played, but we all went to your game and you had not eaten in 24 hours. You played hard but you were tired. I think you may have fouled out. Hope that helps, Erin!
ReplyDelete