I'm Back, By the Way...

As my title says: I am back! I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend my Spring Break and I am so so glad that I mustered up the courage to ask off right after getting hired. Just in case you weren't paying attention to my other blogs or have just forgotten because it has been so long: this Spring Break I went on Grace Bible's annual Spring Break mission trip. We teamed up with Habitat for Humanity's Collegiate Challenge and were able to send out 5 groups of 10 students. (you are correct Justin, that does make 50) Speaking of Justin, we had both mutually decided before hand that we were going to split up for this trip. Wait, let me clerify that: we did not "break up" we were just in two different groups. Why did we do this? Well, we thought it would be easier to make more friends that way. Hey, now we have more stories to tell each other anyway!

My group--Team Tiger--went to Jonestown, Mississippi. (can you spell that backwards?) Wow, when we got there we realized just how different it was than we could have ever imagined. Jonestown was the most poverished town that I have been able to see with my own eyes. The kids don't even go to school! The houses there are horrid, and the local grocery store buys out-of-date food to sell. We had to go 30 minutes out of town just to buy supplies, groceries, and drinking water.

I'm not going to walk you through my everyday experience in Jonestown so you can keep reading without fear of too much boredom. My heart ached for the children of Jonestown...their houses were unlivable in our eyes, but their parents had enough money to buy fancy cars. The Wal-Mart in Clarksdale was the nicest place around.

My experiences this Spring Break will last a lifetime. I made new friends, saw places that I've never seen before, and learned many new things about the Lord. Not everything was perfect, but I loved this mission trip! I can say that now a few days later, but I have to admit that the day I got back I was a little bitter. Other groups were sleeping in cabins, canoeing, and made a lot of progress on their habitat house. We slept in what a lot of people would call a "ghetto", had to be escorted by a male most of the time, and made very very little progress on this house that has been under construction for 2 years. If you would look at things on the surface it would seem that my group accomplished little. God had his reasons why he put us in Jonestown. I can understand that now. Maybe, just maybe, we planted a seed somewhere. Hopefully the children were able to get a taste of God's love. And the fact that 50 college students spent their Spring Break working instead of laying out on the beach is a witness to other as well. So many good things for the Lord can come out of what we did...so I'm really not that bitter anymore. Heck...I would do it all over again!!