Youth Mission Trip

I spent this past week in Little Rock, Arkansas on our Youth Group's mission trip. We met on Sunday morning and packed up our chartered bus (which we were SO excited to have... it was the first year the adults didn't have to drive!) and headed to Arkansas.

We spent Sunday afternoon and evening at a Behavioral Hospital with the Elementary and Teens talking about John Wesley's 3 Simple Rules:

*Do No Harm

*Do Good

*Stay in Love with God

For each rule we had a short lesson, a testimony from one of our teens, discussion groups and crafts.
Our kids put together skits for each rule
And we sang lots of songs during the group gatherings! Then we celebrated communion and called it a night.

On Monday we went to the Methodist Children's Home in Little Rock and did the same curriculum with crafts included. We also had a group of Preschoolers and Toddlers whose parents were getting treatment at the facilities so they come and stay during the day. I was in charge of helping with the little ones along with some of my youth.

We did little devotional times about how much God loves us, and "Hands Can" talking about using our hands to do good things.
And we played LOTS of games. One of our men leaders is a professional photographer, so her got lots of action shots. Just in case you are wondering what the heck I am doing... I am helping the little girl behind me run from Taylor during Duck Duck Goose and showing her where to go. :)

On Tuesday & Wednesday, we went back to the Behavioral Hospital and did power washing, landscaping and painting. Our kids worked hard in the extremely hot weather and below is a picture of the finished playgroup after they did a new coat of paint over all of it.

Wednesday night we went to Hot Springs and walked around downtown. Thursday we headed to Lake DeGray for a play day. We did some tubing, swimming, kayaking and jumping off the top of the party barge! Then we headed home for long showers and sleep!

It was a great week with a wonderful group of youth! I am so proud of all the work they did and was blessed to be a part of it