“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.” -Romans 12:9-10

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church Group

Week one of work in Atlanta has officially begun. Throughout the week the large group from Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas has been running kid camps, digging trenches, and navigating the highways of south Atlanta with one goal—to build real relationships.

The students of Memorial Drive’s youth group are no strangers to hard work. Many of the students have served on mission trips both domestically and internationally, so the team came ready for a week of physically demanding work. Although they have tackled several tough, meaningful projects—painting and digging an irrigation trench at the Initiative for Affordable Housing’s newest worksite, most of their Atlanta projects have been an exercise in developing relationships.

Trevor, a summer intern at Memorial Drive, spent Monday morning playing Bingo and chatting with an elderly man at Hapeville Care Home. Although the conversation seemed difficult and forced at first, Trevor was persistent—he wanted to be a real friend to the wheelchair bound man with a fading memory. He succeeded.
One of the adult leaders, Mary, said that she was impacted by the kids at the Kroc Day Camp because of the way they responded to a Bible lesson. The kids seemed genuinely interested in the skit and story that the team presented—grasping pieces of truth from the simple Bible message. When the afternoon ended, the team was sent off with a round of hugs from the campers. Another success.

Despite the successes of the team, they admit that doing relational ministry is difficult because you don’t always get to see the results. In fact, sometimes it might feel like you’re failing. Unlike a building or painting project, you don’t always get to see the difference you’ve made in the life of another person. You might walk away from a kids’ camp or a nursing home wondering if you made a lasting impact. But one thing the EM staff and Memorial Drive team has learned this week is that building relationships is rewarding work. At the end of the day, loving people and reflecting Christ into their lives is what matters most.

Atlanta, GA

Heather D. Moline

June 2010

Note: Experience Mission is sending out many more great trips to Atlanta and many more great communities throughout the summer of 2011! Check out our website for more information at www.experiencemission.org.

Diogo helping build his house

Greetings!  This week has gotten off to a great start with an energetic team from Jupiter First Church (Florida).  The team arrived in San Jose on Sunday afternoon and after our 5+ hour bus ride, we arrived on the Bribri reservation.

This week we have chosen four different sites within the Watsi community: doing Kids Club, building a house, building a porch, and repairing a community center.  Though many this week are feeling the struggle of communicating in a foreign language, so far the teams have accomplished a great deal and seem to be having a lot of fun.

The house that we are working on this week is being built for a woman named Karen and her family.  Since Karen is currently studying English in school the group is doing a great job conversing, partly in Spanish and partly in English, in order to get to know each other.  It has been wonderful to watch the relationship grow between the team and Karen’s family.  Karen’s four-year-old son, now being more comfortable with the team, brings smiles to everyone’s faces as he runs and chases them around their home.

Karen has been very hospitable and has offered many refreshments to the team, including a native sweet and sour fruit called the guanabana.  The team has been appreciative of her gratefulness and is noting the love and hard work that emanates from each member of her family.  The bond that has been forming within this group of people is just one of the many ways in which we can see God working in our lives this week.

Team Costa Rica

June 8, 2010

To learn more about Costa Rica mission trips, visit www.experiencemission.org.

Chicago Skyline

Chicago Team Picture

The windy city greeted us harshly our second day here with 80 mph winds. Having now been appropriately acquainted, we have also become somewhat oriented with the area. Blue Island took us by surprise, being a very separate city from Chicago, as well as a friendly and welcoming neighborhood.

The first day of our work trips has led to bonding, stories, a workout, and many a paint stain. We have been openly accepted by all of the communities in which we are working and relationships look promising. People are eager to help and to inform us about the areas where we are located as well as about their own personal stories. From Stephen the friendly Menard’s paint expert to Von the seeming life expert, we are anything but short of outside support.
Rain and storms have tried to slow us down, our group has been perseverant. Significant work has been: raising the enormous tent at Circle Urban Ministries for their annual Harvest Fest, painting for H.O.M.E., and gardening/cleaning as well as activities with the children at Blue Island Salvation Army. Much more is to come in the next day of work!

The evenings have been full of worship and devotions, basketball, Frisbee, ping pong, Bang!, and Quelf. Dull moments are scarce with this “Dream Team” from Atlanta, but every activity has been enjoyable. We’ve learned new games, including Foot tag and Ninja, and have participated in such daily activities as Awkward Day and Dramatic Comment Day.  We now look forward to Sarcastic Tuesday! Mount Pisgah has had much to offer us since their arrival, and we are already dreading their departure in two days.

Experience Mission is offering summer 2011 mission trips to Chicago. Learn more at www.experiencemission.org or by calling the Office at (360) 554-8060.

Youth Mission Trips: I can’t imagine a better week. We had two short term mission trip teams this week- Voyagers Bible Church from Irvine, CA and First Presbyterian Church from Ashland, OR. They worked so incredibly hard and from the minute they stepped off the busses they were serving everyone they met.

All of the girls from the CA group had determined before-hand not to wear or bring any makeup at all. What beauties they were too! They also wrote PHIL. 4:12 on their arms (“Do everything without complaining or arguing.”) And that’s just what they did! Even at meals, each person would ask someone “May I serve you?”, and they would go down the line together, each making the other’s plate, just as an act of service and a good way to get a chance to talk together. The Lord taught each student so much and I was amazed at the growth that happened as each of them shared with me what God had taught them through a new culture, new people, hard work, and lots of laughs.

The Lord displayed His divine pursuit this week as well. On Wednesday night as we sat in on the Navajo service, the Lord impressed on my heart to share my testimony with the group this week. So Friday night, while we were out having worship at the base of Shiprock, looking out across the plains, I shared my story, hoping it would be used by the Lord. That night, one of the girls came to me in tears, telling me that she shares a very similar story and she didn’t know how to escape from a bad upbringing and the traps of the world. I was able to encourage her in the Word and share with her more about the freedom in Christ. She experienced such a breakthrough and relief!! Praise the Lord for divine appointments and relationships!

-Navajo Nation staff

*Note: Experience Mission offers Christian mission trips to groups of youth, college, and adult. Interested in finding out more about the Navajo Nation? Check out our website at www.ExperienceMission.org for more information and to sign up for Summer 2010 trips.

Short term Mission Trips: The restoration project in Pearlington has become a national affair. With the four year anniversary of Katrina making land coming up in August, Pearlington is still in need of volunteer efforts to completely recover. In the last two weeks, youth mission trip teams from California, Chicago and Houston have come to Pearlington to play a part in the rebuilding effort following Hurricane Katrina. The groups have made significant progress on houses for four deserving families in the community, including an elderly woman who looks to move into her finished home in three weeks.

The mission trip teams have been working hard on insulating the walls, installing hardwood flooring, tiling the bathrooms and getting the electrical outlets up and running. In the two weeks that teams have been over at the O’Neal house, the site has been transformed from an empty house that had just been walled in, into a beautiful home that is a couple weeks of touchup work away from being completed.

Every week, Ms. O’Neal, a vivacious 76 year old woman who doesn’t look a day over 50, stops buy to offer her encouragement to the teams and tell them how inspirational they are for the community. On Friday the 19th, Ms. O’Neal and her fiancée cooked up 30 pounds of turkey necks, an enormous pot of sausage as well as corn on the cob for lunch for the mission trip team from Chicago. We ate and laughed and talked about the future of Pearlington and the importance of a continued rebuilding effort. Ms O’Neal had to fight legislation for nearly three years before her plans for a house were finally approved and properly funded. After partnering with community member Glenn Locklin and Experience Mission, her dreams are finally coming to fruition. She told us that “without people like y’all, we wouldn’t ever have our homes back.”

Ms. O’Neal has been an inspiration for the Experience Mission staff in Pearlington, and her incredible attitude is a driving force for every group that comes to her house. We are excited to finish her house soon, and look forward to seeing how God uses her testimony as an example of hope for the community.

*Note: Check out our website at www.ExperienceMission.org for information about upcoming Summer 2010 mission trips.

Rural West Virginia: Besides the construction duties, cooking, cleaning, and keeping a group of 35 organized our EM team has also had a few other success stories.  While in West Virginia, Crystal, Robby, and I want to make sure that we are changing people’s lives through help and relationships, if we do this then a natural change will occur in us as well.  During this week’s mission trip, while at the Eaton family home our team was surrounded with nothing but love, giving, and selflessness.  The grandmother, Dot, of the family’s home was with our team every step of the way.  She was constantly walking around making sure we didn’t need anything, giving us cold bottled water, offering food, and of course offering to help.  She not only was attending to the needs of 14 people while we worked, but she was also watching her three grand children and her special needs brother, Chubby.  I really can’t even begin to describe how being able to hear a little of Dot’s story, playing tag with the kids, or laughing with Chubby when some of the kids got in a water fight has already changed mine and I know many others lives after just one week.  Sure we worked hard and successfully finished the house but more importantly we made connections, built relationships, and slowed down long enough to hear other people’s needs above ours and it is an amazing feeling.  Trying to describe the kindness and hard working grandmother Dot was is impossible, trying to explain how perfectly Chubby sanded a piece of ceiling tile for me is indescribable, and trying to share how Montana Eaton (10 year old girl) made a new best friend on our team, who may be inspiration for her later on down the road is unreal.  What I can tell you is that after one week of hard work and many emotions my life has been changed and I have truly been touched by the Eaton family and the mission trip team I got to work with this past week.  Even trying to briefly type out some of the feelings makes me emotional.  The Eaton family kept saying “this is truly a blessing”…all I can think is how blessed I feel to have been able to meet and work with this family in West Virginia.

Signed,

Alisha Butler

Note: If you would like to help with the restoration that is taking place in Rural West Virginia, join one of Experience Mission’s trips to the Appalachia. Go to www.experiencemission.org to view our trip dates and watch for our soon-to-be posted 2010 trips!

2/26/2009

The last two days have been somewhat less critical than the first. Yesterday we spent the morning at an Internet cafe, and then we met with Timoteo again. We discussed plans for him to meet the team on Sunday, and he offered to make breakfast for the teams. He was going to be busy today, so we made plans to purchase food with him for breakfast on Friday, which is tomorrow. We also have plans to meet with the Bribri president tomorrow at 2:00.

After returning to the hotel yesterday afternoon, I decided to take advantage of the remaining daylight, and I took a walk along the beach. I met a gentleman who was quite disconcerted about the possibility of falling coconuts. He warned me that I was risking death by continuing to traverse the coconut laden path, but I courageously carried on. It turned out to be a beautiful walk, and I even found a rocky cliff with a great view of the sea. Though it was completely dark by the time I returned, I managed to make it without a single coconut falling on my head.

Since we were not able to meet with Timoteo today, we had to put some of our objectives on hold until tomorrow. This allowed time for me to take a long walk this afternoon. As I meandered along the beach, I noticed a man in the water cleaning off his legs. I passed him by and glanced back and saw that he was now sitting on a bench when a woman with two police officers approached him. He appeared to be a tourist from the United States or Europe, and she was clearly a local Costa Rican woman. She was irate! She walked up close to him as he sat on the bench and began screaming and yelling profanities at him. I further noticed as she was yelling that his leg was all bloody. The oddest aspect of the scene was that he sat on the bench apparently unmoved. He did not respond indeed he looked the same as he had when he sat there alone. The two policemen stood by but let her say her piece (and it was a long piece.) I eventually continued to walk away in spite of my curiosity, and she was still yelling as I left. I can’t can’t imagine what he could have done to illicit her furry, and I wonder how he hurt his leg, but now I will never know.

As I walked around, I was struck by the diversity of people in this town. There are many English and Creole speaking people from Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean. Additionally, there are Europeans speaking an assortment of languages; some are tourists and some have moved here. Of course, you have your share of American tourists. Rich, poor, dark-skinned, light-skinned you will find everyone here. Traveling in a country in which I speak little of the language, I find myself people watching. Sometimes a unique looking individual catches my eye, and I can’t help wondering, “What is his or her story?” Where are they coming from, and what brings them to Costa Rica? Even though I will never know most of their stories, it doesn’t hurt to wonder. Diversity is a good thing. It keeps things interesting.

When I was walking up to our room earlier today, I did have the privilege of learning a bit of one interesting person’s story. His name is Jason and he lives in the hotel room next to ours. He was on the table drawing a design. I struck up a conversation, and he began to show me his art. He makes artwork and writes poems to insert into his designs. He began to explain that his shapes needed to be flowing, but they also need to have form and commented that this was a difficult balance to reach. Once he pointed out different examples I understood what he meant. It was evident that he was passionate about his work.

Jason is from England, and he makes is living selling artwork on the street in the United States. He is staying in Puerto Veijo because he can live very cheaply and work on his art. He says that he makes barely enough to survive, but he feels that he is doing the right thing because his art encourages people. He jokingly told me that someday when he’s famous, I can tell my friends that I knew “that guy.” He said that I could start all kinds of nasty rumors about him and sell them to the National Enquirer. I laughed and told him that I would claim that he ripped me off back in Costa Rica, and he really owed me half his fortune.

Yes, the great thing about traveling is that you meet interesting people. The opportunities that we have to meet various kinds of individuals broaden our perspectives. When I see people I naturally make projections based on my impressions; some people are likable and others seem a bit odd. It’s strange to think that when God sees all these people, he sees his children, and he loves them. God loves coconut man, bloody legged tourist, irate woman, artist Jason, and mission trip leader Josh. My prayer is that God would help me to see people as he sees them, and this is also my prayer for the teams during these next couple of weeks because that is when we become a picture of God’s love.

Josh G.

**To learn more about what Experience Mission is doing, visit our website at www.experiencemission.org.