~Mission Trip 2008~

Two weeks ago I went with my youth group on a mission trip to Arizona and had an awesome time!!!

We stayed with our youth leaders parents. They had a pool and room to fit all of us. 4 leaders, 4 girls and 8 guys.

We left on Friday and drove until we got to El Paso and then stopped for the night. That night for dinner we ate at Fuddruckers. I was one of the few that had ever been there to eat. After we ate, all of the youth went and played the arcade games. One of the guys and I played the game where you have the guns and you shoot the bad people. He started playing after I did and I still had 1 or 2 lives left when he died in the game. It was funny! The next morning we had to get up really early! We finally got to their house on Saturday around lunch time. The rest of that day we unpacked and then went swimming.

On Sunday we drove 2 additional hours to get to a national park that had a natural water slide! It also had some cliffs you could jump off. There was a 35-ft, 20-ft, and 10-ft. cliff. I only jumped off the 20ft. and 10ft cliffs. The water was melted snow, so it was really cold! We spent all day there! That night we went out to eat at this really good Mexican restaurant. I had Nachos, the plate was so big! I didn't even eat a 1/4 of it!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we volunteered at this organization called "neighborhood ministries" It was hard work but worth doing, knowing you are doing it for God. God can use us in so many ways.

The first day my group scrapped gum off the carpets. It wasn't very much fun! We had some spray stuff to help get it off. We started spraying each other with it and then we had to go buy more and found out that it was $8.00 a bottle (And that was with a discount because we were buying so much) After finding that out we stopped spraying it on each other.... At least we tried not to spray each other anymore :)

The next day my group painted. One of the guys and I painted the bathroom hall way. We spent 5 hours in that hall way with no AC! When everyone else was done we still hadn't finished painting so one of the other guys came in and helped us while everyone else left. When we were driving back the pastor told us if we found a Sonic on the way back, since there was only us 3, him and another leader, he would stop and get us something to drink. So we were looking everywhere! We found one but he wasn't in the right lane. And he wouldn't turn back around! We weren't so happy. But we lived :)

On Wednesday we all were working on the floors. In the class rooms we had to scrap the floors, sweep, mop and wax. We did 4 or 5 rooms. Four of the guys and I were assigned to clean the halls and bathroom floors. They didn't give us anything to put on the floors so while we were painting we got paint everywhere! I think we got more on the floor and each other then what we got on the walls.

Every night when we got back from working we had a Bible study. We study the whole book of Galatians. We started out the week with a group which had 3 kids and an adult. We stayed in our groups for 2 days. The next 2 days they split us up in groups of 2 people. The oldest guy and me were put together. For the last 2 days we all had to do the Bible study by ourselves. But each day right before bed we all got together and went over everything we learned (or should have learned) that day. I learned a lot!

On Thursday we started our trip back. They drove all the way to Odessa and then stopped for the night. I finally fell asleep at around midnight and had to get up the next morning at 5am! On Friday we finally made it back home.

It was a long trip and like ever trip it had its ups and downs. But for me there was more ups then downs. I loved sitting out ever night talking with everyone and just watching how everyone got along and how some people just didn't get along. I can't wait to go on next years mission trip! Its going to be so much fun!