Today is Friday, July 30th, 2010; Karen's Korner #1875
Last week seventeen people from our church family embarked on a three-day, two-night mission trip from Thursday through Saturday. There was a mix of adults and young people.
The trek included learning and work stops. First was a brief tour of the Grotto at West Bend with work which was to follow of their trimming tree branches and bushes and us picking up the refuse. The work part was thwarted by rain. Then we moved on to our afternoon stop at a homeless shelter in Sioux City. We divided into three work groups: weeding their vegetable garden; mulching around some pine trees; and sorting items for their outlet store. Following, the 'teams' took turns serving the supper meal to the homeless people and staff.
Friday morning was a work and learning stop at the food shelf, where our one-third of our crew made individual sized plastic bags and the balance of us bagged pretzel servings, from large boxes of pretzels. In our allotted time, we were able to ready nearly half of the needed food item for the Sioux City area 'back pack' program which sends 2,000 meals home with needy students on Fridays, to assure the children a 'good meal' over the weekend. Then it was off to a boys' home near Peteson where a portion of our team painted LP tanks, another portion painted a single stall garage, and still another group interacted with the boys living there, by shooting baskets in their gym.
Saturday morning we worked in the Okoboji area: some sorting used bricks at Renew, a non-profit center which sells used and new building items, which would otherwise wind up in landfills. The other portion of our team worked and learned at the new nature center serving the area.
Each of our stops included some learning and some working; work was no longer than two hours at any one job. But when you multiple two hours by seventeen, it makes nearly one person's 40-hour work week.
Upon returning home, two of our team - sisters who will be eighth and sixth grades this fall told their mother how much fun they had on our trip (which also included some other fun events and activities).
Mom complimented them on their participation, saying, "Did you know that you helped to change the world? No one changes the world alone, but together all of us doing what you did the last few days, does change the world. You helped!!"
Today could be a good day for all of us to 'change the world'. What one or two hour project can we do today to help positively impact the world in which we live.
It's a team effort!
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