My take on the Kentucky Mission Trip

To begin with, it was a 180 degree turn around from last year's trip.

Last year was a 3 day drive with one bus and 28 people to Colorado. 

This year was a one day drive with 2 busses, a Penske rental, a truck pulling a trailer and 3 other private vehicles to Kentucky with 80-plus people.

We actually drove past where we would be working and on to Cincinnati the 1st day to see the Reds play. We got there for the start of the game but not in time for the promo giveaway that day - free camouflage Ken Griffey, Jr. jerseys to the first 20,000 people. Missed it by about 45 minutes is what we were told. It was one of those things where, you might not have liked the way it looked and it might not have fit and you would never have bought one, but doggone it, it was free and you still wanted one. Oh well.

Got up the next day and headed to Slade, Kentucky. We were supposed to get there at 3 and worship with the congregation of the church at 4 but we ran late and got there right at 4. The worship service ended up being us, 12 volunteers doing work that week also, and 4 youth from the church. 

We left there and headed to where we would be staying for the week. It was called CabinView something...it was private cabin rentals and a big honking inn near the lake. We rented 3 cabins and the bottom floor of the inn. It was nice. I was in the Jr. and Sr. guys house.

We had about 8 different projects and work sites. We did two Camp Jonah-themed Sports camps, a roofing project, a lot of indoor renovation and addition type stuff. One job was putting a bathroom into a house that had never had one. Never.  That's unreal.

Because I have a bus license and no discernible skills on a construction site, I drove and helped lead the Sports Camp in Booneville everyday. Me and 11 others would leave at 8 every morning and drive 40 miles to Owsley Elementary and work from 9 to 2 there. Then we would load up, drive back and finish the afternoon on one of the work sites helping out.

The school was cool. It was decorated and painted with a Jungle theme and a bunch of stuff from the animated movie Cars. It was pretty sweet. The kids we had were fun and the guys that worked the camp did a great job.

 

All of the work sites went well and got done what they came to do. That's always a nice feeling. The adults that came and led the crews deserve a lot of praise and thanks for their time, effort, patience and flexibility. There are some who are great construction people but not so great when it comes to supervising kids doing construction, but the adults this year were great. 

Gotta shout out to the people in the kitchen, too, because they did a phenomenal job. Jeannette, Donna Carr, Margaret, Sharon, Whitney and Donna Armstrong ...thank you.

At night we would have worship and praise time where groups would tell about their days and we would sing and break up into Sr. led groups and then come back for some more worship. After that they would have free time until about 10:30 and we would send all the non-Sr's to their houses or rooms and then have an hour or so of fun time with just the Sr.'s  It was one of the highlights of the trip for me. They were so fun and are going to be great Sr. leaders in the Youth group this year.

On the way back we went to Louisville to go to the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. Gonna be honest with you. I've been to a couple of Six Flags. This was more like 3 and a 1/2 Flags. Six Flags Express, maybe.

But ..... the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory Tour and museum was sweeeeet! You actually walk through the plant and watch them make those bad boys right in front of you. Way cool. They even had a 120 ft. bat leaning up against the building outside. The batting cages were fun, too. 10 balls for a $1.  I asked for a Babe Ruth Model to hit with but the handle was like a darn fence post, so I switched when it was my turn and got an A-Rod model. Not as heavy and a skinnier handle. 1 foul ball and 9 line drives. Sign me up.

All in all, a great trip. Large group mission trips come with certain things that aren't usually concerns on smaller trips but the benefits to the group as a whole are well worth it. I don't think Don plans them to be one or the other, he just lets God work and they turn out large or small. It works. 

And regardless of how much we kid or mess with him about it, nobody works harder on a mission trip than Don. Every question and decision comes to and through him. Every day brings new and different things that have to be weighed and figured out. Personalities and toes have to be considered all day long.  Every aspect ultimately comes back to him.

It ain't easy. But he does it better than anyone else I know. 

                                   g

TOMORROW: Pigeon Forge, Tenn. : The Myrtle Beach of the Mountains

Here's a list for you....

For whatever reason there is, explainable or not,
3 things that aren't as good as they used to be.

Mine?
Domino's Pizza - not sure what it is, but it ain't as good as it used to be. Can't hardly eat it anymore
Fast Food milkshakes - again, don't really enjoy them anymore
The small Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - Oh, I can still eat them 'til they come out my nose, but they don't taste as good as they used to.

Yours?

.....I'm not so sure about everybody else.

I wish all habits were this easy to get out of. I haven't posted here since I got back from Beach camp (June something?). My bad. Since the last post I've been on a Mission Trip to Slade, Kentucky, come back for 5 days and then hit the road again for the Journey On trip to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
(Yeah, that's not a typo...Pigeon Forge,Tenn.) Great trips. More about those later.........

Because of all the traveling this summer, I've been in town every other Tuesday. That means, for me, it's 2 weeks each time between being able to help on Tuesday Nights. What I've found out is, that each time I come back, it's the thing I look forward to the most during the week. Most of the trips I've been on have left on Saturdays and returned on Sundays, so I haven't been in church at FBC but once since the summer started. That makes Tuesday the one halfway consistent act of worship left in my schedule from earlier this year before school got out. I hope that makes sense. What I'm really trying to say is each time I come back i look forward to it more and more. Having said all that...

Tonight was wonderful. It was good to be back and doing the things we do on Tuesday night.
MENU
Hot Dogs and Sausage Dogs and choice of Ketchup, Mustard, Mayonnaise,
Chili, Cheese,Onions, Homemade Slaw, Banana Peppers, Jalapenos, Relish, Texas Pete.
Corn on the Cob
Potatoes
Desserts
Cokes

Alot of folks put every one of those things on the Hot Dogs, too. They were massive gut bombs on the plate but they liked them.
We also took some frozen hamburger patties from a couple of weeks ago and warmed them up, put them on buns and wrapped them up to give to people as they left so they could have something to take with them for tomorrow.
Helping hands tonight-
Twig Theresa Ryan Mark T.J. Connor Blake Morgan Kelsey Boggs Jon Hill Michael Cowan Caroline Hales Barry Hales
Laura Sara Frank Alex Annawyn Heather Johnson Elise Harris
Pruden Craig Chris Josh Sarah Katie Louisa me

Tons of people tonight but that's great because we had tons to do and I was glad to see everybody that came. We saw alot of people at both stops. We cooked over 240 hot dogs and gave out almost all of them. The number of people we see at the 1st stop continues to grow. I don't need to read the newspaper to know times are getting harder for some segments of the population. Unfortunately, feeding people on the street seems to be a growth industry.

One of the reasons we made our own slaw tonight is because it was a thing I could say, "Here. This is your job.", which is what I did to Caroline and her dad and, with a little help from others, they banged out some great slaw (I'm taking other peoples word for it, cuz i hate cabbage). That's the reason we have so many things to put on the hot dogs, so that I can put every body to work behind the table. It's why we make Tea just about every week. There's nothing worse than people taking the time and effort to come and having nothing for them to do.

One of the really nice blessings about tonight , besides the always humbling experience of meeting one of the basic needs of someones existence, is who I got to do it with tonight. I just got back from an awesome spiritual discipleship trip with Jon, Ryan, Morgan, Kelsey, and Caroline and the trip before that I'd spent the week living in a house with Jon and Ryan on the mission trip. I've gotten used to seeing them and spending my days with them in fairly intense spiritual settings so to see them again in an act of worship and service like tonight felt right and wonderful.

Another great thing about tonight was getting to see Sara Frank. I got a phone call from her earlier in the day asking if we were still feeding on Tuesday nights. I said yeah and she said she was coming and bringing friends. I said come on.
Y'all, I love Sara Frank.
Freshman Year. First day. First Block. Front row. Frank.
Her and about 5 other freshman girls all in one seating block.
I honestly don't think she had one single thought in her head that year that didn't immediately find its way out of her mouth one second later. Funny without knowing a single joke. She would come by and see me before class started and after my other classes were done.
One of the things I remember most about her is playing Things You Should Know. Things You Should Know was a game I would play every Friday at the end of class. Basically it consisted of me asking questions on things that had happened in the past week in the news, in sports, whatever. Get an answer right and I threw you a piece of candy. Some questions I would ask every week without fail - Who does Laney play week? - What was the #1 movie last week - Where's the NASCAR Race this week - and a few others. I figured kids would get wise and make sure they knew those. Not Frank. No clue about any of them.
And when I started seeing time winding down, I'd yell "All right, LOSER ROUND", which meant everyone that hadn't answered a question had to stand up and I'd ask questions just for them and when they got one right, they got to sit down. Frank was the first one up and usually last one down. Loser round questions were always easy and she would still need help from Rachel Kelly. But, when class was over, she'd come up and find a way to con me out of more candy than most of the other kids had gotten from knowing the answers. Gotta love that.
I'm a charter member of the Sara Frank Fan Club.

I'll try to get back on tomorrow and the next night and let you know about the mission trip and the Pigeon Forge Trip. If you need incentive to check back, here it is .... DOLLYWOOD!



I'm out again next week. Flying down to Guatemala for a mission trip. Last year's was awesome and this year's will be, too. Our goal is twice as many housing units as last year - 20. 35 people going. Took 24 last year.
Really looking forward to being with Jeff Tanner for a week. Jeff was on the 1st Mexico Trip, the New York, Bimini, and Homestead mission trips.
He's a big reason those trips are some of the times I've laughed hardest in my life. I can already tell after the pre-trip meeting, it's going to be that way again. Which is great for me and Jeff, but .....

.....some of what happens at Beach Camp, stays at Beach Camp.

After last weeks post, I left Wednesday and joined the middle school crowd at Ft. Caswell for Beach Camp. My official job was Boat Driver for the Tubing activities in the afternoons. That and everything else was a blast. Words don't do justice to the homemade Slip'n Slide we had on Thursday, and the Mountain Dew slam competition was priceless. Don and his Interns and High School helpers did a great job.

This week was another example of God providing the food and using us to prepare a table where it was needed. Amy Long gave us 220 "Sliders" (Mini-Burgers) to use, which is what we served at the first stop. Vick and Denise Griffin gave us enough Barbecue and fixin's to cover the second stop. We had enough Ice Cream left over from Youth Group on Sunday night to serve also.

The Menu

Sliders Barbecue Sandwiches Potato Salad Corn Baked Beans Green Beans Watermelon Banana Pudding Ice Cream

A quick word about the Helpers this week:

We had over 30.

Are you kidding me? How great is that! We had several of the rising 7th graders that were at Beach camp come, we had several folks from the Sunday School class that's helping while Twig and I are gone this summer there tonight, and lots of our regulars. The kicker is, even with a slew of people, we had all of them doing stuff the whole time. Nobody really got off easy. That's a good night. Here's who was helping tonight:

Ellen Jennifer John Henry Twig Butch King Elaine King Maggie Merritt Peyson Cameron Hampton Zach Danielle Mitch Cook Tracy Trina Theresa Bryan Pruden Craig Tim Tom Liz Anna Steve Leger Mark Connor Sean Grizek Jim Ashley Edwards me ...and it's possible I forgot somebody. I apologize if I did.

Like I mentioned earlier, several of the youth that helped tonight were rising 7 th graders that are new to Youth Group. One of the cool things about Youth Group is every year new kids come in, and sad as you are to see the seniors leave, it's fun to get the rising 7th graders involved. One of the best ideas Don has ever had (and he's had a lot of great ones) is Beach Camp. Basically, it takes the Middle School kids and makes them the focus of a week of fun and Bible Study, and incorporates them into the Youth Group at the beginning of Summer, so that by the time the school year starts, they're already involved and ready to go.

We used to rent a house at Wrightsville Beach and do all the programming but the numbers got too big so now Don plugs them into a Youth Week at Caswell. The great thing is we do all the Caswell stuff and do our own things ,too. Like lining up boats to go tubing every afternoon from 1 - 5:30. Like Team competitions every afternoon from 12:30 to 1:00, including the Mountain Dew Slam, the Slip'n Slide Competition, and everybody's favorite- The Toothpick and LifeSaver relay.

In the middle of all this, God finds ways to reach these kids and pull at their hearts. I saw it this year in alot of the 7th graders. Each night the speaker brings a message and offers a chance at the end for them to come make a decision for Christ or to talk to a counselor about questions they might have or anything else they want to talk about. On Wednesday, some of the 7th grade guys went up and went out back to pray with someone. Chris and I went back with them and it touched me the way they opened up. They spoke alot about their baptisms and how they understood more about it now than they did when it occurred. One of them asked me if I would help learn how to read his Bible ( All of our kids get a new Bible the 1st day of Beach Camp. Another one of Don's really great ideas and one that works on several levels. Look around church sometime at some of our Young Adults who still carry around and use their Beach Camp Bibles.) I said sure and told him that the Gospel of John was a good place to start. I told him we could do it later that night.

As I was leaving the auditorium and heading back to the house, he came up and asked if I would go to the Snack Bar and read the Bible with him and the other guys in his room. Like I could say no.

So we did. Me and seven 7th graders reading the Bible out loud in the middle of the room, answering their questions and just talking about what we'd read. And they asked if we could do it Thursday night.

And on Thursday they asked if we could do it Friday night.

And on Friday we talked about doing it once a week for the summer and beyond.

So tomorrow night at 7:00 we'll be at the center continuing to read the Gospel of John. There are several things that lay the groundwork for things like that to happen........Godly parents, who bring their kids to church and see the importance of things like Beach Camp........A Youth Leader like Don, who continues to get get better and better at loving kids and giving his life away to them.......and a God who thinks Middle School kids are just as important as anyone else and loves them enough to work in their hearts with the Holy Spirit.

And I won't tell you everything we did last week, because, like Vegas,........