St. Louis: Middle School Enthusiam

Wednesday, June 13, 2012
This week I am on the leadership team for the St. Louis mission trip put on by the Missouri United Methodist Conference Council on Youth Ministries. The trip started yesterday evening and will conclude Saturday morning.

Today I worked alongside middle schoolers from Manchester United Methodist here in the St. Louis area. As we got ready to depart from Kirkwood UMC, an eleven-year-old named Ben bursted with enthusiasm. He couldn’t sit still in his seat from all the energy bursting out of him. He proclaimed his excitement to all of us, hollering about how excited he was and that he couldn’t wait to get to work.

As we arrived on the worksite, the kids leaped from the van, ready to get to work. We started by unloading the vans and placing our supplies in Ms. Pearlene’s backyard. Once everything was unloaded, a safety check was made to point out all possible hazards on the worksite. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity for the poor middle schoolers, the work began.

Paint and foam brushes were distributed amongst the youth and silver fence paint soon found its way onto the fence. After working diligently on painting the fence until 2 pm. Our team cleaned up and headed back to the church. A short detour was made at Home Depot. Never in my life have I seen middle schoolers so excited to stop at a hardware store. They jumped from the vans excited to get supplies for the next day’s work.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Today consisted of running around from site to site checking up on all of the groups. We took pictures, and marveled at the awesome work the youth are doing. And did I mention that we got lost? We always manage to get lost. It’s almost as if our gps is programmed to get us lost. Or maybe it’s the fact that we don’t listen to him… This evening our ears were blessed by a choir from Florida that was traveling across the US doing performances. They were awesome! We all came together after the concert and dined on pizza!

Friday, June 15, 2012

As a high schooler, I couldn’t imagine that the St. Louis City Museum would be at all entertaining for me. But, of course, I was wrong. It was AWESOME! After all of the hard work the middle schooler’s did this week, we decided a night out at the City Museum was deserved. While I got lost a couple of times, and was scarred by the images of Brody in tight turquoise pants, I must say today was very exciting and fun!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Today ended one journey and began another. A really long one at that! This morning we concluded the St. Louis mission trip and sent home the 50+ middle school youth and adults. It has been such a great week, and I’m excited for the rest of the summer and whats to come. After we departed Kirkwood UMC, we journeyed to Columbia and stopped at the conference office. Bev needed to work on some things and Brody, Erica and I searched for supplies for the Arlington mission trip in the coming weeks. After our stop there we departed for Kansas City, where we would meet up with Krista and her family, along with Tristan. From Kansas City we caravanned out to Colorado Springs. It seemed like today’s journey would never end. After 16 hours 22 minutes and 51.4 seconds of driving, we finally made it to our hotel in Colorado Springs. I must say the trip seemed never ending, but I’ve made some pretty good memories and can’t wait to make more.