This weeks "Show Us Your Life" is about mission trips. I am so thankful for the opportunities I was given through my youth group while growing up. Our awesome youth pastor encouraged us to get out there and just be "the church" to our community. Sometimes it was snow shoveling driveways in our subdivisions, and sometimes it was traveling to South America to share the Gospel.
Not to sound prideful by any means--but my favorite opportunity was partnering with a church in the inner city of St. Louis. We did everything from serving in a soup kitchen to demolition work in old buildings. As a young teenager it was a wonderful experience to meet people from all walks of life. I quickly learned that all people, no matter skin color or financial status, pretty much want the same things in life.
My mission trip to Guanare, Venezuela in the summer of 2001 was so awesome that it would be impossible to describe it all here. One week we had church in the middle of a dirt road, with the only light coming from a light bulb strung from a broom handle. The next week we had church in an abandoned movie theatre, with half the roof missing.
One of my favorite memories from that trip was during a siesta one afternoon. (We should totally adopt the custom of siestas here! Everyone goes home for like 3 hours in the middle of the day to rest) I was sitting under a tree in someone's front yard when a boy came up to me and said, "Beisbol???" Pulling me by the arm he led me into the house where they had a small black & white tv hooked up. I couldn't believe my eyes. On the screen was a very fuzzy broadcast of a Cardinal baseball game!! The kids knew we were from St.Louis, and it was a way to connect without having to speak the same language.
One of my biggest pet peeves about the older students I teach is their attitude about themselves in this world. Not to lump them all into one stereotype, but I had quite a few high school students who just felt like they were better than everyone else in the world just because they lived in this country. I'm not talking about patriotism, just plain arrogance. I hope they have the opportunity some day to see that we're all the same.
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