Alternatives

Since our annual Mexico Mission Trip for our high school youth group was recently canceled we have planned an alternative trip for our seniors. We only opened the alternative trip up to the seniors because this would be their last trip with our youth group before they graduate. There were about 40 seniors signed up to go to Mexico and we are now taking 28 high school seniors to go to New Orleans to serve. This trip is quite a bit smaller than the Mexico trip but God is going to move through it in amazing ways. On April 5, 35 high school seniors and adult leaders will be leaving for New Orleans, Louisiana. Throughout the week we are in NOLA we will be gutting the inside of a house that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina, doing homeless ministry in the French Quarter of New Orleans and playing with little kids in the projects. A lot of the houses that were damaged by the hurricane have not been opened since crews went through them to check for survivors days after the natural disaster occurred. As a team we will gut the inside of a house for a family so that another crew can come in and repair and rebuild the inside so families can move back into their houses. Since the hurricane, the homeless population has increased greatly and many people living on the streets simply want their story to be heard. We will spend time listening and talking (hopefully more listening than talking!) to the people we encounter in the French Quarter and hopefully we will have the opportunity to also buy a few meals for friends we make. Some afternoons we will also go to the projects to play with little kids. We will bring craft supplies and possibly put on some skits.

Last year, we took a team to New Orleans and had an incredible time. We came away with numerous stories and memories from the people we encountered and I am so glad we have the opportunity to go back.

We have had a great deal of disappointment within our youth group because of the cancellation of our Mexico trip but it is my true belief that God never planned for us to go to Mexico this year. I know God will use our group in ways that we cannot imagine right now.

Because we are only able to take the seniors to NOLA we have planned numerous local service projects to help people from our own church body as well as local schools in low income areas for the freshman through juniors.

Check back after April 11 for a recap of our New Orleans trip and our local service projects! Your prayers for all of our projects would be greatly appreciated!