Mission Siloam

I am SO behind on blogging, that I don't even know where to start.  So, I'm just going to jump right in.  The next few posts may not be in chronological order, but I've just got to start somwhere and catch up before it kills me!!!

During Spring Break I got to go on a mission trip with some middle school kids from out church.  The pre-requisite to get invited on this trip was to memorize and quote a bunch of scriptures in front of the whole group on Sunday morning.  It was a pretty big deal, and a lot of kids REALLY took it seriously.  Blake got invited, so I decided I wanted to go also.

I talked my sweet friend Dana, who I teach 5th grade girls with, to go with me!  We had SO much fun, and I got to know some great girls even better.

Travis took off work to stay home with Evan and Beau while Blake and I were gone.  He is just SO sweet like that:)

I had a hard time leaving Beau.  This was the longest I have ever been away from him.  Here we are before we left!

 Dana drove the van and so I got to have fun with the girls on the way down.  There were 9 girls + me, Dana, Becky, Devon, and Rachel on the trip.  They were WELL chaperoned!!! 

Silly girls on the van!

 My home sweet home for a couple of nights.  Yes, I am a boy mom.  This was the best blanket I could come up with that I was willing to take to "camp".

 We all worked REALLY hard.  My group spent the first afternoon picking up big chunks of concrete, loading them onto a trailor, and then unloading them at the city dump.  Here is sweet Natalie posed next to some of our concrete as a garbage truck unloaded behind us.  This was definitely not a "glamorous" trip.

 Another afternoon we went to a place called the Manna Center in Siloam Springs.  We went out into the community and collected canned goods/non-perishable foods for the center.  The kids were divided up in groups of 3 and were instructed to asked for a donation and then offer to pray with the people at their door.  This was HUGE for our middle schoolers.  They were really stretched spiritually, but I was SO proud of them.  There were other groups there who were much older, mostly 10-12 grade, but our kids were SO much better behaved and more mature than

most of them. 

 My Blake hanging out with his friend Nathan.  I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with Blake, but I loved that I got to "see" him on this trip.  He worked so hard and I was very proud of his attitude the whole time.

 Some of our girls were a little on the messy side.  Miss Darby had stuff strewn from 1 end of the cabin to the other:).  I realized during this trip that there are some really good reasons God didn't give me girls.  I just don't think I could handle the "messiness".  Ha!

 Some of our sweet girls!!

 My group that I worked with during the trip.  Logan, Clay, Ethan, Natalie, and Carrie.  Super good kids and HARD workers!!!  This day we raked and cleaned 2 beach volleyball courts by ourselves.  They never complained and finished the job!!!

 A picture of me and Blaker!!

 Me and my sweet friend Dana.  I had SO much fun with her.  I can't wait to do it again sometime!!

I"m SO thankful for a church that encourages our kids to grow with God and really stretches them to expand their boundaries.  Grant is such a good leader and I am thankful that my boys are learning from his example.