My son returned from his church mission trip to Sturgis, South Dakota on Saturday. We didn't get to catch up too much since we all went out on the boat when he got home, then he went to bed immediately afterwards.
The next morning, the entire work group went to church to share a bit of what they experienced. It was wonderful to hear how well the group did and what they got out of it. Later in the day, some of the other kids from the group came over to our house and shared some more about their trip.
The living conditions consisted of 13 of the boys in one classroom in a high school all sleeping on air mattresses. My son's mattress happened to be the envy of the entire group, who knew! The visual is not a good one in my mind as the room was described as damp and smelly...ewww...I can only imagine with 13 of them, their damp clothes, smelly shoes and sleeping attire all in one room...Luckily they had an industrial fan blowing into their room. Seriously, I would not have made it in those conditions! Then they had to share the locker room shower and bathroom facilities, which were clear down the hall.
The food wasn't a hit with the group either, but yet, these kids kept going and going during the hot temperatures and long rides to their crew projects everyday.
But the experience they had with their work crews helping a family that was less fortunate and sharing in the bonding with other crew groups from other states...sounded like they really had a great time and mostly, came out of it with an enthusiastic urge to sign up for next summer's mission trip AND the national youth gathering in New Orleans.
I would have loved doing these types of trips when I was in youth group, but we didn't have programs like these way back then. My church has now really focused on our youth groups and makes it a priority to budget for these programs for all of our youth. How wonderful is that! I feel these are so important for our youth, to be involved in the church, to feel a part of something, to belong to a group of people that are so accepting of one another, to help those that are less fortunate.
Makes me a proud mom to know that my son has such a deep passion to keep going on these mission trips.
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