Mission Trips:The Good and The Bad II

Okay so I am sorry you guys but i am so long winded that this post has to be a 2 part episode. I called this the good and the bad but I only alked about the good. I wanted to tell you all about how I learned from the bad too but I just couldn't stop talking about those sweet kids.
Better stop myself or else I will never stay on topic.
I went on this trip with a group of college kids. I was the youngest one but by a unamimous vote I was the most mature. The group I went with was definitly some very dedicate crazy about Jesus christians, howvever they still tend to focus on butts and fart jokes. So anyway this trip was not the serious, moving experince I expected. Have you ever had someone say to you, the experince will change and it doesn't? You feel like a failure, you start asking yourself "What did I do wrong?" Oh don't get me wrong there was some defintitly some amazing moments, for instance the children (better be careful not to get carried away) and our bus driver. Our bus drivers name was Aaron (which was funny to us because we had 2 Aarons and a Darrin on our trip with us.) He immediatly took us by opening the bus doors and saying you can not get on this bus to our leader. She looked at him and looked at us and just as she was about to question and explain he took her luggage from her hand and told her it was his job to carry on the luggage. He was funny and he had an amazing voice that sang us a wonderful gospel song. He told us that he was born in the Dream center back when it was Queen Of Angels hospital. Than the Dream center also nchanged his life around, keeping him of the streets and out of gangs. He defintly showed me about divine appointments.

Anyway, man I like to talk lol, this trip was still a little disappointing. Sure I so some amazing things, and I hate to whine but I felt like I could have helped more people. I think the biggest problem was the focus of our group, we focuses on fun. How fast can we ride down a hill or pranks on one anothers cars. Heck our dvd of the trip has like ten clips of the other van going tdown this stupid hill lol. I understand having fun, I am not a ninny but I wonder what it would have been like if instead we squeazed some extra moments of helping people in schedule. Why did we stop when the clock said to? We could have skipped Hollywood and gone on a mission or something. Man I don't want to sound like a whiner but I feel like I disappoited God. He gave me the oppurtunites and I failed to see them. I remeber that one guys I talked to was so drunk that it scared me, and was so naive that it took me a second to figure it out. I mean what if I had sepnt more time as a group helping people maybe we could have helped him instead of me just leaing becuase I was so freaked out.

I don't know guys, now I need some advice. I am a Jesus Freak and all i have ever wanted is to serve God. Did I let him down? Was there something I could have and should have done differently? Did I miss a Divine Appointment?
I am Just looking for some direction, please help.

Sincerly, your fellow sinner,
Jessica

Mission Trips; The Good and the Bad

Okay attention class, how many of been to or at least heard of a mission trip? I don't know abbout all of you but when I imagine Mission trips I always imagine a group of people who need help and serving them with everything you have. Why is it that things never seem to go the way we planned them out in our mind?
Yes everyone, I went on s Mission trip, I went on a trip down in sunny California. Me and a group of other college students went down to Los Angeles, California to a place called the Dream Center. The Dream Center is an amazing place that has some wonderful ministries, you can check it out at there website: http://www.dreamcenter.org/
My very favorite was a sunday school van that goes around to different neighborhoods and j=holda sunday school classes for children. It is one of the most fun and rewarding things I have ever done. The rode around in the van annoucing on a loud speaker where we would be at, making sure to give all us "Shorttermers" (which is he full time staffs name for the people on short term missions) a good tease. The rest of us walked through neighborhoods and apartment buildings knocking on doors and handing out flyers with the time and place. Kids caming pouring out of their houses and even though they had never met most of us before they were climbing all over us within matters of minutes. The boys had kids all over there backs and the girls walked hand in hand.
When we arrived at the location the music was roaring and the kids were running all over. I saw a group of kids cluttering around my big sister at a sign up table and thought i would join in the fun. I went over there and started asking names and grades. Pretty soon i had kids drawing all up and down my arms with permanent marker(hey, they wanted to draw and there was no paper so I thought why not). one little girl become a growth and was stuck to me like glue. When the teachers called she ran with me to the front and sat down in my lap. for some reason, even though I don't know the last time the took a bath and you could see the lice crawling on there heads, it didn't matter. Having her in my lap was one of the most unforgetable moments of my life. We started screaming and dancing to the song "SUPERHERO" and we all got lost in the moment. Even when the teachers had to get kind of boring and actually start the lesson, the kids were still quiet. Even their parents had stuck around to here the bible stories and to learn about Gods great love. OF course they were still active but the teachers knew how to handle them. They had consequences in the form of balloons and prizes. They had balloons on each side and when the kids misbehaved they popped a balloon. Whatever side, boys vs girls, had the most balloons at the end won. (Girls won!) It was a wonderfully amazing experince that opened my eyes.
It is amazing the things that are wonderful. My very favorite part of that trip was having those kids creations all up and down my arms. Oh yeah we toured Hollywood and saw movie stars (Anyone even know who Donny Osmend is? I don't LOL). But my favorite things is looking at the pictures and seeing the remenites of black arms from scrubbing at that permant marker.

I thank God for the wonderful Creations like children because even though they didn't go out of the way to make my day, they did. They are so wonderfully innocent.

Thank you God for Children.
"Jesus said 'Let the children come to me'." Matthew 19:14