Skagit Valley Mission Trip - Day One

We made it safe and sound!  All 36 people on our team (18 from St. Thomas and 18 from St. Margaret's) have settled into our camp site and are getting ready for our first big day tomorrow.  The purpose of our mission trip is to support, serve, and partner with La Iglesia Episcopal de la Resurrección - an Episcopal congregation in Mt. Vernon, WA that serves the Hispanic population in the Skagit Valley.  Many of the families of Resurrección work as laborers on the many farms here.

After we settled into our campsite this afternoon we went to Resurrección to share a meal with their youth group and several other youth groups from churches around the diocese.  Following the meal we attended Resurrección's worship service and shared Eucharist with the community.

This is the second summer Resurrección is running a day camp for the children of this community in partnership with the school district.  The purpose of the day camp is to provide children from kindergarten through eighth grade with academic help during the summer so they have the tools needed to move out of grueling farm work.  This year,  Resurrección is hosting 100 children at their day camp!

During our time here, we will be supporting the Resurrección community.  Initially, that meant volunteering at the day camp as classroom aides, recess helpers, and kitchen staff.  But over the last several weeks of the day camp, the professional staff in the classrooms has provided feedback that too many volunteers is actually detrimental to the learning environment. That provides us with another opportunity to serve, support, and partner with this community.

So tomorrow morning, instead of heading to the day camp, we will be heading out into the fields to work with Salvador - one of the members of Resurrección.  Unlike many of the members of Resurrección who work on farms owned by landowners not connected to Resurrección, Salvador has his own farm that helps support Resurrección.  Many children - even young children - work with their parents in the fields to help make ends meet for their families.  With the children attending the day camp this summer, there is an added burden on both the families and the community to provide.  Our work with Salvador will not only give us a glimpse of what life is like for children, teenagers, and adults in the Skagit Valley, it will also be our way of partnering with this community to provide even a small portion of what is needed.

Farm work means rising early in the morning - in our case we will be meeting Salvador at 5am!  As we discussed it with our youth this evening, they were excited about the opportunity and (not surprisingly) wary of the early morning.  A lot of our discussion in preparation for our trip and again tonight was what it means to be in solidarity with others. What our youth articulated was that solidarity means "togetherness" - present with others in their experiences. Tomorrow we will be present with Salvador as we work together, but we will also be present in the experience we are sharing with countless other adults and youth the same age as ours as we wake up early to go out and work.

We'll update more as the week goes on, including pictures of our time working in the fields.  Your prayers for strength, open hearts, busy hands, and true "togetherness" with this community are much appreciated!