GOOTH Mission Trip Pictures

Another GOOTH Mission Trip has now ended, and everyone is feeling the effects of it. GOOTH have been walking around dazed, sleepy-eyed, confused, and dragging their feet for the last two days. Even Tony almost fell asleep during worship yesterday morning…and he only had to hear the sermon once. Hopefully, everyone will be rested up today. The week was a difficult & demanding week, because of the level of hard work, the level of heat, and the even higher level of humidity. I am very proud of the work that the GOOTH accomplished both on the houses and as a growing family.

Many youth groups have a difficult time mixing the middlers with the high school youth. But our GOOTH do not fall into that category. They mix very well as a group. Yes, they enjoy their time separated from one another, but they also enjoy getting to know the other age youth. The youth traveled in 7 vehicles on the way to SC, where they were grouped according to age and/or gender. The van rides always end up being a lot of fun. Luckily, the fun was limited to 6 hours on the road! As for the workgroups, the GOOTH were divided up according to age and/or gender. This left each group with roughly the same skill level, maturity, and age range. For the most part, each group basically had 2 6th graders, 1 seventh grader, 2 8th graders, 3 9th graders, 2 10th/11th graders, and 1 12th/college youth. They worked very well together. The older youth helped teach the younger youth when needed, and the younger youth gave assitance to the older youth as needed.

I would like to thank all of the adults who went on the trip for their time, skills, and ministry. The trip would not have been possible without their help. We had a wonderful food team of Bill & Cathy Teller, who kept us hydrated, fed, and satisfied. The workteams were led by 1) Anne Lowder, Cameron Lowry, and myself; 2) Allen Cooper, Tony & Phyllis Stovall, and Nanita Heasley; and 3) Joe McGowan, Lee Norris, and Egla Garcia. My brother, Mark, assisted on the first day with group 1.

We stayed in a church in Andrews, SC, and ate our meals together. Breakfast was done as you arrived, lunch was brought to the worksites by the Tellers, and dinner was eaten together – whether in the gym, at a restaurant, or a picnic shelter. The A/C worked all too well in the church…some nights, we nearly froze to death, while others we were hot because we adjusted the A/C so as not to freeze us. Oh well. You can’t win them all…if the A/C not working properly is the greatest of our problems, we’re doing well. The church complemented the youth on how well they kept the church tidy and clean. The cleaning lady, Diane, came in everyday and was amazed that the bathrooms were in as good of shape as they were. We all know that teenagers can mess up some bathrooms…but they treated the church like their home and kept it all clean!

As I said before, the work was difficult. But the GOOTH rose to the challenge, stretching their boundaries so that they could learn something new and help someone at the same time. The houses we worked on require more work than what one group in one week can do. The house that my group worked on had been a worksite for three weeks prior to our arrival. The other two groups may have been the first groups to work on their houses…if not, then the second. The youth learned how to use new tools, new techniques, and stretched their minds with situations that required them to problem-solve either alone or together. It was a joy to watch the light bulb come on in the eyes of the youth as they understood the need for certain action, the cause of a problem, or how to do the shortcut. As the week progressed, the youth became more skilled and comfortable with the tools they used. Some ventured into the land of power tools, while others opted to watch at a safe distance. Some became masters of measurements & fitting, while others became fantastic nail-pullers. Some learned how to lay shingles, while others learned how to put up walls. Some learned how to remove & put in new windows, while others learned how to level new doors. The variety of work made each worksite a unique learning environment for the GOOTH. By doing the work on these houses, the GOOTH helped raise the living conditions in the homes to comfortable, safe, and clean standards. The GOOTH’s eye’s were opened to the dirty and run-down conditions in which some people live.

Thank you for following our trip on the blog, and for your support – both financially and with prayer. The trip would not have been successful without the help of the church family & friends.

Here is a public link to my pictures on my facebook site. In time, some more links may be posted as comments to this post – so check the comments! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=549&id=305700031&l=89a1359df8

Peace,
Jay

Brittany’s pictures on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013104&id=1401300092&l=c424099af5

Katie’s pictures on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26834&id=1343135336&l=21afc4893e

the fifth one about nyc: the spirit

greetings from the end of a looooooong evening. tonight was indescribable, but i’m sure some thing will be said in a future post. tonight’s devotion was spirit-filled and illustrated the movement of the spirit that paul describes when he says in romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

the following two posts were written before the spirit-filled events of the evening devotion, and no one had the chance to blog anything tonight. hopefully tomorrow will include some reflection upon tonight’s devotion.

Erica Chatham (10th grade)

Thursday was fun, but it was also very difficult. The Staten Island team split into different groups; some went to a Moravian church to sort clothes and to put them in boxes and others went to the soup kitchen. I, on the other hand, went somewhere totally different. Stephen, the Stovalls, and I went across from the church that we are staying at and went to the Hospitality House. It had stories of apartments for the clients staying there. We were given a big job. We were told to dust the whole lobby. Sure that sounds easy, but when we got there, everything was covered with dust, dirt and what seemed like mold. So instead of dusting, we ended up washing everything. We grabbed a ladder, buckets of water, and wash rags to get started. I am extremely short so it was difficult to reach high places like the pipes and the exit signs. We were so determined to get the job done that we hardly took any breaks. When we finally finished it was after twelve and the four of us were the first ones back to the church. We had our lunch and took showers early, because we were covered in dust and dirt. It might have been a hard and serious job, but there were plenty of jokes for us to laugh at and that is what was enjoyable. When we left it was cleaner and a little bit brighter. The color of the lobby was a dirt white color and I hope that they paint it a dark blue, because it would match some of the weird lights in the lobby.

Tyler Hinshaw (9th grade)

Today, my group of Sara, Patrick, Ian, Niki, the Tellers, and I went to the Bronx. We worked at the Food Bank of New York. To get there we had to ride the ferry, the subway, and a bus. We had a short orientation to Food Bank using videos. Our job was to sort water, vinegar, bleach, and other similar liquids into boxes and only have a certain weight of the product in each box. Then we taped the boxes shut, labeled them, and put them in stacks. Four people (Patrick, Sara, Niki, and Ian/me) put the products into the boxes, taped them, and sorted them. The other three people got the products out of the original boxes they were in and put them on a long counter for the others. In the end, we sorted 4,183 lbs of liquids, which equaled about 3,217 meals. We finished at 12:30, so we got to leave earlier than we thought. Since we had extra time, we went to Chinatown and Little Italy. All of us teens got I <3 NY shirts for $3! After walking around for a while, we went back to YSOP for our final meeting, where we filled out evaluations and talked about our week. For dinner, we had pasta. A group from Michigan and the leaders from PH joined us. Now we are cleaning up, and soon we will begin our shareholder letters. Tomorrow is our free day. Can’t wait!