Our Youth on a Mission!
The housing facilities were shabby and crowded, the work was long and hard, and the hours were late to bed and early to rise, but the blessings and fun during the Youth Missions Trip were abundant. That’s right, after a year’s worth of hard work in planning, preparing, and fundraising for the missions trip, it has finally come and gone. Fourteen people participated in this amazing event: Heather Spraberry, Kristin Spraberry, Derek Roberston, Armando Hernandez, Amber Hernandez, Gerald Anderson, Jarred Anderson, Rachel Chapman, Vanessa Tucker, Bridget Parks, Nick Sonntag, Annaliese Sonntag, Nancilea Redding and I (Rachel Redding). Words cannot really express all the things we saw and did and the blessings we received, but I will attempt anyway.
We lived at 1 Corinthians 13 Church, so named because it was loved into existence, transformed from a world famous crack house in the 1970s into a place of God today. We attended church at St. John’s Downtown, an African American congregation of about 8,000, with lively and truly Spirit filled worship. We ate dinner each night at incredible, family owned ethnic restaurants, such as a Vietnamese place, a Soul Food place called This is It, a Mediterranean place, and a Guatemalan place. The kids were brave and excited to taste the food, which was GREAT! We piled into two cars, always competing for the best seat, and drove all over inner city Houston, laughing and cutting up all the way to various ministry sites.
Upon arrival at each ministry site, we were all filled with a mixture of excitement and fear, as we knew we would encounter something great, but were also not entirely sure what to expect. Our first ministry site was many of the kids’ favorite site – Open Door Mission. Here we prepared and served dinner to the men who live there who seek to put their lives back together and get right with God. More than that, though, we ministered to these men with our conversation, our smiles, and our acceptance of them. Likewise, we were ministered to by the men at Open Door Mission through their testimonies, advice, and humor. The highlight of the time there was at the end, when the men requested that we stand together as they prayed a powerful prayer of thanksgiving and blessing for us. What an amazing experience it was!
Another special place to all of us was the READ Commission at Houston Community College, where adults take classes to prepare to earn their GED. I personally was terrified, as I know many of the kids were, to arrive at this place and teach elementary level skills to adults from ages 18 to 65. But these people were excited to have their own personal tutors as they learned how to punctuate and use quotation marks. All the kids had an amazing time here, but the most touching experience to me was the one Heather had as she worked with Judy. Judy had been struggling to understand quotation marks and other punctuations, but with Heather’s loving help, she came to master the skills and develop a special relationship with Heather. She thanked Heather in front of the whole class for her help, and Heather threw her arms around Judy with a great big smile on her face. They both will remember that time together for a long time, I think. Another lady in the class asked to adopt both Rachel and Kristin, saying they were her new children. Most of us came to realize just how much we have, having received a good education and the opportunities that affords us. The READ Commission was a major blessing to all of us and to the adults we helped.
We also received and delivered blessings when we served at Julia C. Hester House playing with children in the community center in the rough and underprivileged Fifth Ward. These kids made us laugh with their huge personalities and desire to just have fun, despite the adversity they might face at home and in their neighborhoods. Also, we worked hard and literally delivered blessings in the form of medical supplies sent to underdeveloped nations all over the world at Medical Bridges. This place receives donated beds, syringes, gauze and all other kinds of medical equipment by way of donations and then sends it to places like Haiti and Africa, where our country’s old, discarded equipment can be a new and amazing gift to the suffering people there. All the places we served had lessons to be learned, opportunities to be Jesus in one way or another to His children, and blessings to be received.
One of the most touching and effective parts of our trip was the Prayer Tour, in which we drove around Houston looking at and learning about all the suffering in the city and the ways that God is working in it. Our eyes were opened to what it might be like to be poor or homeless in a city that often forgets the poor and homeless in its attempts to replenish shabby and rundown areas of Houston. We learned that runaway teenagers and homosexuals in the city need to be ministered to, not shunned for their lifestyles. If Christians do not tend to the needs of God’s forgotten and down trodden children, as we are told time and time again in His Word to do, who will?
Hopefully, this experience will stay with the kids, Nancilea (my mom), and I for the rest our lives, driving us to be missions minded and service oriented. I don’t know how many times I heard, “Can we come here again next year, Rachel?” as we left ministry sites and the whole experience. I am pretty confident that the kids have a new seed planted in their hearts for missions and service and amazing experiences. Look forward to more stories like this in the future of this Youth Ministry!
Love and Blessings!
Rachel Redding
Youth Minister
