Little Rock Missions Trip

Today is saturday; day six of our missions trip. We have a cookout at the Boys and Girls club and then we are done. It has definitely been one of the best missions trips I have ever been on, but it has also been one of the hardest; physically, mentally, and spiritually.

We get up and meet at the church by eight o'clock. We usually get to our individual backyard Bible clubs at ten til nine to set up. My crew (led by Allen Thornton), Lauren Howell, Rebekah Magnus, Alyssa Romand, and Andrew Etherington were at Jessica Bunting's house. The first day we had a girl named Justis come and towards the end of the day two brothers, Brent and Javon.

Then we pack up and head to the DreamCenter around eleven. We are there playing with the kids from 11:30 to 3:30. We have music, a lesson, games, crafts, and a lot of time to hang out. Most of the boys from our team would get there and start running and wouldn't stop until we left.

Next was the Boys and Girls club. Our team then split into about half. One have went into the gym to help with the basketball camp while the other half stayed in the craft room, snack room and game rooms to play with the kids that didn't want to play basketball.

While this trip was trying physically, it was more trying spiritually. These kids weren't the good, bible belt Christians that we were used to. Some of them were rude, disrepectful (especially to women), and openly selfish. We faced the smae things everyday. "Hey, We don't say those words." "No, you can't have that. I said no. Give it back." "Don't hit that kid." It was a lot of repeating ourselves just for them to barely obey us.

In all that though, we did have great conversations and we began to impact them. Most of these kids don't have fathers or any authority figures. That being said they are still faced with rules (from the dreamcenter, etc.). When faced with rules they will do everything in their power to kick and fight against them. Even if they do end up obeying, they let you know they don't like it.

They also take advantage of the weak spined. They would ask for things we were instructed not to give them. They would try to tell us that the leaders said it was alright. Anyone that gave in a bit were preyed upon. Most of the people I saw on the trip did well. They loved on the kids. They played with them. But when they needed to they stood strong. They spoke strong and confident telling the kids what they could not do. The kids seemed to respect that and eventually started to submit more.

This is a brief overview of what we were doing and some of the things we were faced with, but I will be writing more about our trip. The second day was a very impactful day for me. I got to see a team member go through something and God taught me through it. I will write about that tomorrow.