Mission Trip 2007

This past week, I was greatly blessed with the opportunity to go on a senior high mission trip with my church. We went to Picayune, Mississippi and helped out with an origination called "Walls of Hope" building houses for Katrina victims.

Not only was this trip a great blessing spiritually, it really helped me to see how blessed I am. I have an amazing youth group, church, friends, everything. I am blessed with a God who is omnipresent, grace that will never fade and a relationship with Jesus that cancels out everything else that I could ever care about. This trip really helped me see and understand that I really can become a disciple of Christ, and by disciple I don't mean just a follower, or someone that goes to church. I mean a living breathing example of the love that is in God and the grace that follows.

People don't need our money (although yes I am sure in some way it helps), or our church services. They need our time, our love and care. It is so great, to be able to go somewhere that is out of your way, and help these people who have lost everything, people whose only entertainment is to sit in the humid weather and watch a bunch of kids build a house, and learn from them. I can't say that I would be able to be so chipper, so trusting and understanding if everything I ever loved was gone, and to be able to say to someone that God has blessed me and always has. Because that is exactly what the owner of our house said to me. I told him "God bless you", and he responded with "he always does...he always will." And you could see in his face that he wasn't putting up a front in anyway. He was a child of God.

We can show we are Christians by our love. We are meant to show are faith by our love, by our example and our actions. I don't think we become focused enough most of the time to remember this. We need to remind ourselves that we have an influence, we have the power to keep each other accountable, reliable. We have to be vocal about our faith, we have to go to people. We can't expect them to come to us, to strike up a conversation, and we can't go to them and practically force a bible into their hands.

We have to show them love, caring. I really think this is the key. It all comes back to being a disciple of Christ. We have to have a relationship with God to be a disciple, and before we can lead anyone else to being a disciple, we have to be one our selves. We have to have that love of Christ embedded deep in our hearts. The kind that overflows onto others when we walk into a room. The kind of light that people see from miles away. We have to be on fire for him.

Romans 12:1-3

THEREFORE, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living scarifies, HOLY and PLEASING to God- this is your spiritual act of worship. DO NOT conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve of what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and PERFECT will."

"Disciple" = "living sacrifice"

When we devote our selves to becoming a living sacrifice to God, or a disciple of God, and we set our hearts on him...then our minds are renewed and we have the love and the light of Christ inside us that is greatly noticeable.

I pray that everyday I can strive to become a disciple of God that is unmistakable to others. I want so badly to be on fire for him, every single day. And yes I do think that is possible. Sure we all need encouragement, reminding. But it is also absolutely true that EVERYTHING is possible in Christ, there is no where that says I can't be on fire for him 24/7. I want this.

God bless you and hope you can respond with "He always has...and always will." :)

Kayleigh

P.S. I added some pics of the trip below. I hope this was an encouragement, it certainly was to me.


1 Corinthians 2:9
Romans 8:11
Romans 15:13
Romans 14:7-8



This is our whole youth group on the last day.

This is Andy, Haylynn, and I in front of the house we were building.

We went and prayed at the Levie protecting the lower 9th Ward.

Holding the walls in place so they could be nailed in and supported.

The inside after we got the outside walls up, with the interior walls in a big pile.

I beileve this is after the jigsaw puzzle was finally solved. :)

Andy and Josea...:) he was one of our group leaders, the one that didn't speak much english but he was awesome. :)

LOVE!!

A much enjoyed break.

Our whole group on the last day after we were flooded with rain. (this was only a 5th of the people, we had 5 groups on differn't sites.)


What an amazingly true statement.