Things I Learned on the 2011 CCC Mission Trip

Last week was the CCC Youth Mission Trip to Galveston, Texas. It was me, Trent, two other adults and 17 youth. We stayed at a church in Dickinson, which is about 20 miles onto the mainland and helped out Galveston Urban Ministries, a new ministry that Josh and Danielle Dorrell are starting up. We also played with sweet kiddos at the Wright Cuney Recreation Center close by and sent a small group each day to Streetscape Ministries, a place that helps feed homeless folks. It was a tiring but rewarding trip.

Here is our big group at CCC before heading out on Monday:

Here is the building we helped work on:

G.U.M. has this building and a house next door to it that they got together for $30,000. They were damaged from Hurricane Ike and needing a lot of attention. We helped move some lumber and supplies from the building to the house and then tore down old insulation from the ceiling in the building. Then we installed a lot of the new insulation. It was hard sweaty work but we got a whole lot done!

This is Josh, Danielle, Zoe and Baby Brother Dorrell, the family behind Galveston Urban Ministries:

They were great leaders, took care of us bringing us water, snacks and lunch each day. And they were a whole lot of fun too!

On the last evening of the trip, we stood in a circle on the beach and each said what we had learned from the trip. So here are a few things I learned.

~ Insulation makes a good bed? Itchyyyyy.

~Prayer and Bible study on the beach are awesome

~Girls are waaaay better at showering quickly under pressure than boys (we had one shower and 21 people)

~I can conquer my fear of unknowns in ministry with perseverance, including my cluelessness of how to minister to underprivileged, urban children

~the children in that area are precious and just want to be loved on

~Mission trips are exhausting!

~We made a good insulation installation team

~Trent and I make a good team

But we already knew that...

~this is an awesome group of youth

~My cat baby doesn't like it when we leave for a whole week

~Mission trips produce an epic pile of dirty laundry...