Our All is Our Best
by Paul Bailey
How do we have the energy? After a sweaty and eventful summer, our high school group, ministers, and servant volunteers went to Medina, Tx to the Arms of Hope campus. There, we were able to assist the staff with many projects that they have been working on all summer. Mowing the grass, pulling weeds, knocking down old walls, cutting down trees, breaking down freezers, and moving steel metal pipes were just a few things that we got the chance to help with. A small group was also able to help out at the daycare center on the campus each day.
Chainsaws, sledgehammers, power washers, and shovels were tools that we entrusted with our youth to use to complete that day’s tasks. Watching an inexperienced person using such tools is both scary and funny. Knocking down walls is harder than it looks! “Swing the sledgehammer harder, aim for the corners,” were suggestions often expressed by bystanders. Hard swings, small swings- the wall will come down eventually. Just be determined and our youth were determined. They were determined to give it their all and that was enough!
Our last night on campus a mother came up to Raemi and I with tears of joy thanking us for bringing our youth there to show them love but most importantly Jesus’s love. She expressed how our youth genuinely loved being there and how they encouraged her and her kids. Amos 5:24 teaches us how to treat others and the cause and effect of it.
Mission trips are life-changing moments for everyone involved! Being together serving others and God is always a blessing. The first day of any mission trip is the start of something new; and the last day is the start of something new. New friendships, new servants, a new meaning to life in a spiritual way. So many lives were changed for the better because we gave it our all, which was our best!
