Group picture before we left!
When most people think about missions they think about going overseas or to someplace far away and out of the US. But our goal was to do missions close to home. We trekked 2 hours to Destin, FL. We were representing a new church there called New Day Church. They are a church that is just getting started and wanted our group to come in and help them reach out to others in the community. Basically we went to two parks in the area and held a "backyard bible club" type event. We called it the Summer Bible Adventure (SBA). Our theme was this year's Vacation Bible School theme....Colossal Coaster World. I was in charge of crafts...which was so much fun!
We held SBA from 9am-11am. Our schedule started with music, then Bible study, crafts, snack, recreation, and ended with more music. We had no idea how many children would show up that first day. We had 10 children attend...and it was storming outside when we began!
We found out later that week that most of the children that came didn't go to church. We were able to give each one of them a Bible. :-)
Yep that's my Sawyer in the middle helping lead music! :-)
Bible Study! All the kids were so engaged!
Crafts! In this picture they were making "Facing Fear, Trusting God" Rollercoasters!
Recreation! We played so many fun games with them using hula hoops, pool noodles, balloons, and sponges!
Funny group picture on the last day!
One of the most amazing parts of the week was seeing how our kids interacted with the new kids that came. We told our kids that they were missionaries this week and our goal was to tell new friends about Jesus. Our kids did an amazing job with that and making the new friends welcome! I was so proud of them!
Since the missions part of our trip was only two hours long, we also had some free time to do some fun things with each other and our family. We went shopping at the outlet mall. We also went to the beach on one of the afternoons that it didn't rain!
We stayed at a church in Destin called Village Baptist Church. We were housed in their office building. We all slept on the floor on air mattresses. There was only TWO showers that all of us had to share! Very cramped but we made it work! Everyone there was so nice and accommodating to us and we were so thankful to them to let us stay there! They also had the COOLEST playground that the kids enjoyed!
My friend Paige and her boys were there too and it was awesome to spend the week with her!
I also got to know some of the ladies in my church a little better! I loved that!
A few words from the trip that I will NOT forget (yeah you had to be there):
Bee-do, Bee-do, Bee-do!
Wha-wha-what?
Oh mylanta!
It's so FLUFFY!
It was an awesome experience! I LOVED loving on all the new kids that came to the park! They were so cute! I feel positive that we planted those seeds of Jesus inside the children's hearts! And it was awesome to experience this with my boys! It will be a trip we will remember forever!
"And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." Mark 16:15
QOTD: Have you ever been on a mission trip?
