Mission Trip

We have just returned from our annual 5^th and 6^th grade mission trip. This year we took a group of 53 (about 30 kids/20 adults) to Possum Kingdom Lake in Texas. This is one area that was devastated by wildfires earlier this year. The camp where we stayed was unharmed and things in that area are slowly coming back to life, though there is a desperate need for rain as it has not rained in over 3 months. Because of the dry and burnt conditions many regular tourists and campers have chosen alternate locations for vacation much like what happened in the gulf coast after the oil spill last year. This put a bit of a damper on our plans for children’s day camps and drama performances, but this could neither have been predicted or corrected. Flexibility is key in mission endeavors. So plan B was to pass out cold water in Jesus’ name to the construction workers and people cleaning up from the fire damage.  This proved to be a very moving experience for many of our kids and adults as they saw up close the destruction of the wildfires and asked the prayer concerns of those they gave water to. 

We were able to do our drama performance “Kickin’ it Old School” twice while we were there; once at Stanley’s home church, First Baptist Mineral Wells, and again at the state park. I was so proud of these kids who literally spent hours learning the songs and motions and skits to make this a real production. This was the same drama by Go Fish we used for drama camp a few weeks ago but some of these kids didn’t do drama camp so they had to learn all this in just 2 days. Incredible! They did awesome and I’m so impressed with their poise and perseverance even when crowds were less than expected.

In addition to these missions activities we did a lot of team building activities. Some say this might have been God’s plan for this whole trip – to teach this group how to be a team. We played games that taught us to work things out without giving up, work together as a team, and trust others to not let us down. And sometimes we just played…in the lake, volleyball, hiking, canoeing, etc. Although this trip had more challenges than most that I’ve ever been on (lack of audience, bus troubles, a few squabbles), it had a purpose in God’s plan and I’m glad we went.