Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers while our
youth were on our mission trip. We made
it home safely on Friday afternoon after a hard but incredibly meaningful week
of work, new relationships, and deep community.
Altogether, our youth and adult leaders worked for 480 hours in the
raspberry fields and at Viva Farms. The
work was eye-opening for our group as we saw how hard, and for how little pay,
farm laborers work. We have a new understanding
and appreciation for the food we find on our tables and will never again eat
raspberries without thinking of the amazing people we met in the fields. While we certainly grew though our labor,
perhaps the most meaningful result of our work in the fields was our experience
of, and witness to, the Body of Christ.
We were told that after we left the raspberry fields each day, other
farm workers would approach the Paz family and ask who we were and why we were
working with them. Mr. Paz’s response
profoundly sums up all that our mission trip was about. He would tell the other farm workers, “They
are from our church and we help each other at our church.”
The scene at VBS on Thursday was remarkably different than
when we first arrived on Monday afternoon.
On Monday, children scattered and ran into their homes as we arrived at
Raspberry Ridge. On Friday, a group was
gathered before we arrived, ran to our cars when we pulled up, and greeted us
by name as we got out of our cars. Deep
relationships formed throughout the week and we hope that though sharing our
lives with the children, the Bible stories they heard will take root and the
love of God would grow in their lives. Our time on Thursday ended with an epic water fight that brought smiles to everyone's face.
Although we gave a lot of ourselves throughout the week, we
felt like we were leaving with much more than we came with. We received so much love, hospitality,
kindness, and care from the Resurreccion community. Our understanding of community and the Body
of Christ was forever enlarged as we both gave and received during our time.
We look forward to continuing our partnership with La
Iglesia de la Resurreccion in the months and years to come. There are countless ways that we can continue
to serve one another. Praying for one
another, learning about one another’s lives and communities, and collecting
school supplies and diapers for the families of Resurreccion are just a few
ways that we can continue our partnership.
As we packed up our campsite during a thunderstorm on Friday
morning, we had one last time together as a group to pray and share the ways in
which we were changed by our mission trip.
As we had prayed for before our trip, our youth have a new understanding
of the world, themselves, and the God we love and serve. Rather than write all the ways they were
changed here, I encourage everyone reading this to ask a youth what they
learned and how they were changed by their experience.
We will be sharing more about our trip during a dessert for
the St. Thomas community in the evening on Sunday, September 2. All are invited so mark your calendars!
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