Day 4 Charleston, WV Mission Trip

Devotions:

Today's theme was Restore.

Definition:

Verb
Bring back; reinstate.
Return (someone or something) to a former condition, place, or position.

Is there restoration happening here in the work we are doing? In us? In the church as a whole?
Show me I prayed before we headed off.
There's still too much of a sense that this is supposed to be fun all the time. 

We need to connect Jesus to our daily lives.

Work Sties:

Came to hope community development corporation.
Sat through a long orientation. Waited forever to do anything. It's hard to wait because we are so tired. It makes us sleepy.
Hope is a community restoration project. They go in to run down neighborhoods and renovate. They take men from the community and train them to do the renovating. It's pretty awesome.

We headed over to their warehouse. We didn't get to do any renovation. They had us sort and clean their inventory of household items. Very dusty! With my allergy to dust I needed a mask. They went and got all of us masks.
That was some of the most miserable work! I thought I would die from heat exhaustion!

We finished everything they had for us to do and they were very grateful. 

The place will be used as a free exercise facility for youth and senior citizens as well as a resource center.

Dinner 

Pizza!!
Then we were supposed to be able to go to a black baptist church. But that changed. We were actually all looking forward to it. :(

We ended going into town to see fireworks. What a terribly confusing trip! And so many people! It was too nerve racking for me trying to keep track of all our students. 

I felt like a sheep herder :)

Worship
The prodigal son
My thoughts so far from all this week leading up to this day's theme are:
Have we missed something? Do we need to restore our relationship to God?

So many of the youth seem so disconnected from what we are trying to do (not so much our youth group. Just youth I've observed in general here).

Many of the youth leaders talk about decreasing youth groups and low attendance at their churches.

I need to think on this some more and try to get my brain around it.

Church Time:

Our youth group seem to be "getting it" more and more. 

Their prayers and highlights from their days reflect some real thought going into what they are doing.

I'm encouraged overall by them. 

Tonight we talked about not forgetting this experience. 

All of them expressed their desire to continue to stretch, grow, and get involved in their community back home.

We need to encourage them.

This is an opportunity to step up and really follow through with these young people.

Lord, make us yours. Fully. Completely Yours.

Jesus finish this good work that has begun in us. Amen

Good night y'all!