Mission Orlando - Day 4

Opening each day with our prayer partners was a refreshing way to start the day. I encouraged each team of partners to be very specific in their prayers to the point where they would ask God for no rain between 3pm-5pm. This helped to be more open and more specific with our requests that we made known to God. This was designed to even help our mission team continue to be specific and deeper with God in prayer and not just the surface level prayers we can get in a routine of doing.

After breakfast and meeting with our prayer partners, we were off to Concord Street for the day. This morning we would be working with Second Harvest Food Bank and what an interesting day this would be!

A little about Second Harvest Food Bank first. It's a private, nonprofit organization that collects, stores and distributes donated food to more than 550 feeding partners in six Central Florida counties: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia. There mission is to fight hunger in Central Florida by: Providing access to food and other grocery products in order to meet the need, Promoting and supporting the development of our partner agencies’ ability to fulfill their missions, Mobilizing leaders and communities by bringing visibility to the invisible problem of hunger and poverty, and Developing more holistic and county-specific solutions to hunger in Central Florida. (Source: www.foodbankcentralflorida.org)

Columbus, GA also has a Second Harvest Food Bank that distributes food out to regions in Georgia, so it was neat to see the food bank in action in a different part of our country that was trying to curve hunger within our country.

We arrived at the food bank to sign-in to find out that myself and 3 other adults had not been listening when we were told we would need to wear closed-toe shoes; therefore, forming the Open Toe Shoes Club. So, we waited out in the lobby while the others went inside the warehouse to sort through packaged and expired meat. (I truly believe that God was watching over me that day when I wore the wrong shoes after hearing the stories of the meat they had to sort through)

Eventually, a worker would come out and ask us to help them build a display stand for literature and material they wanted to display. So, we were glad to do that in order to feel like we helped in some small way.

After leaving the food bank, it was time for lunch and to rest/prepare for the second day of bible school.

It was time to share with the kids about the beauty of Esther and her selfish ways. We felt it was important to share with them about an amazing woman of the bible considering most of their homes are single parent homes with just the mother. This day we focused on helping others and putting others above our self.

Once again, we had kids waiting for us as the bus arrived in the neighborhood. We arrived earlier today, so we could setup and be ready to go by 3:30pm. The kids kept coming and come from everywhere, with over 60 kids being a part of our bible school when it was all said and done. Some kids arrived with flips (frozen kool-aid) that was made by a lady in the neighborhood... more on that later.

We had a beautiful afternoon and once again those acting in the skits, our station leaders, and tour guides all did a wonderful job. You could really tell that we were all becoming very comfortable within this setting and understanding what our jobs were. Once bible school had ended, we hung around for a little while and some of the guys played basketball with the kids, the girls played around with some of the other kids on the grass and playground, while the adults watched our kids continue in their growth. What a wonderful sight that was!

After we were done it was back to Concord Street for dinner and back to the hotel for devotional and bed.

Aaron Cole led our devotional and directed our thoughts on anger. This was appropriate at this particular point in the week because some of us had begun to be frustrated with the trouble kids (the ones who wouldn't listen or refused to participate or simply had a bad attitude). He helped to understand we should look for the positive even when we find ourselves getting angry or frustrated. Those kids, as much trouble as some caused, were there and were learning about God through it all.

It was off to bed because we had another early morning and long day the next day.

God is good... All the time!

Mission Orlando - Day 3

"Where have you seen God today?"

This was a question that I asked each night. There was a two-fold reasoning behind asking this question: 1.) In our ministry we are trying to produce disciples of Christ who seek after God and 2.) I was curious to hear where they had seen God especially in the places where I had not noticed.

Each night the discussion revolved around the kids we came in contact with, the volunteers we worked with at the different organizations, and among our own group. I hope to share with you some of the answers when we give a report about our mission trip on August 31st at Rose Hill Church of Christ.

This is a question that I contemplate in my day to day life. It is easy to see God during mission trips, camps, campaigns, workcamps, service projects, etc. but can you still find and seek after God when things get rough or in your normal day-to-day life. Usually when I ask the question, "Where have you see God today?" during a regular week, I am met with silence because when our mind is not geared towards doing spiritual things we often forget to look for God in the most routine places.

Monday we began with our prayer partner time before heading to Concord Street Church of Christ for the day. This day was going to be unique because we were finally going to see what all this talk about "Clean the World" was all about! We had talked about it, read about, and held a soap drive at Rose Hill for it. Now, we were going to see it in action.

Clean the World distributes hygiene products to impoverished people in the United States and developing countries through NGO partnerships, such as World Vision, Feeding America, Harvest Time International, Children’s International and The Floating Doctors. Since inception, Clean the World has collected and distributed over 340 tons of soap, shampoo and other hotel amenities to dozens of countries worldwide including Haiti, Zimbabwe, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Swaziland, Mali, Mongolia, Uganda, Honduras, and Romania. Clean the World is a natural disaster First Responder. Through Haiti Earthquake Relief efforts, we collected and distributed over 180 tons of hygiene products, medical supplies, water, and other essentials.
Clean the World has sent soap to 96 different countries and distributed over 17 million bars of soap around the world. Clean the world partners with hotels in the Orlando, FL area. When housekeeping comes to clean after guests have checked out, they will save the bars of soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, body wash, and anything else in a bottle. It will be then be given to Clean the World to sort through, sanitize, and redistribute. For the bars of soap they melt each bar down, slice it up, and re-mold it. For the rest of the hygiene products, if the bottle is 80% full, they re-use them for hygiene bags that are distributed here in the United States, the rest go into a recycling program.

Our job at clean the world was to sort through all the bottles and soap. We had to check and make sure the bottles were 80% full and place them in the right container. All soaps were placed in an individual container to be sent through the sanitation process.

While we (probably) won't ever see the "fruits of our labor" from this project, we all realized the kind of impact we were making not only in our own country but all around the world just by offering hygiene products to those who do not have. Children have been dying all over the world due to diseases that could have been prevented with proper hygiene. We helped to be a part of the solution.

In everything that we did in Orlando, FL during our mission trip we were constantly reminded of one verse from I Corinthians 3:6 when Paul says, "I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." We may never know the impact we made on the lives of people around the world and in the Lake Mann Community, but we planted the seed for someone to water and for God to give the increase. I truly believe that.

Monday afternoon we were off to Day 1 of our Neighborhood Bible School in the Lake Mann Community (a housing project in Orlando, FL). As we arrived, we already had kids who were waiting for the bus, eager and ready to learn about David and Goliath. Sometimes we take for granted that kids know the stories we were taught growing up, but for some of these kids it was their first time hearing about David and Goliath. They were so excited for bible school!

We were a little overwhelmed at the beginning due to arriving right on time, but some of our youth took the kids to the playground to play while we setup for the afternoon. Let me brag on our students for a minute, like I said in my previous post, a lot of our students had not been on a mission trip before, so they did not know what to expect when they arrived. However, you would have thought that our students were veterans with the way they handled themselves, not only with door knocking, but with the kids during bible school. Yes, some had a wide-eyed look on their face and you could tell they were reaching uncomfortable levels, but they settled in nicely and had a great week.

Everyone did a fantastic job with the skits. This was probably most difficult for some because they had to memorize their lines in the skit. If you haven't been around theatre, you may not have developed a technique to memorize your lines, but everyone did a great job!!

We had somewhere close to 50 kids the first day and it would only grow from there!

After we finished, we headed back to Concord Street for supper and then back to the hotel for our nightly devotional.

Sutton Smith gave the devotional on Monday night and did an excellent job talking to us about "Think the Thought". He emphasized that when we are frustrated and negative thoughts run through our head, we should quickly get rid of them before they turn sour. This is something, as a mission team, we needed to hear because there was going to be times where we were frustrated, times were things would not go the way we planned, etc., but it was important to get rid of those thoughts so they did not affect the work we were doing. Each guy on the trip showed a lot of maturity with the topic they chose to share with us each night. I am particularly proud of Sutton, because this was his first time delivering a devotional thought.

Off to bed we went for another jam-packed filled day of doing the Lord's work!

"And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." - Colossians 3:17

Mission Orlando (Day 1 and 2)

Disclaimer: In my last post I said I would try and update daily about the work we were doing in Orlando, FL; however, the hotel we stayed at did not have a strong wi-fi connection that I could use. 

On July 5th a group of 15 from Rose Hill Church of Christ departed for a week of mission work in Orlando, FL. We didn't know what to expect when we arrived but we just knew that God had called us to GO and we went. For our group it was mostly first timers who had not done mission work before but had a desire to go do the Lord's work. For the rest of us, we trusted in God to see us through.

Orlando, Florida is a 6 hour trip from Columbus, GA. So, with stopping time and lunch we made the trip in around 8 hours arriving at our hotel at 5:00pm after leaving at 9am. We got settled into our rooms, cleaned up, and headed out to supper at Joe's Crab Shack for the evening.

After supper, we came back to the hotel for our nightly devotional together. Each night one of our young men who was on the trip shared some devotional thoughts from their heart. On the first night, I shared with them about how we were called to be messengers of God like Isaiah when he answered God, "Here am I, send me." (Isaiah 6) Each one of us made a commitment to be a part of the mission team because we heard God's call and wanted to be messengers of His word. Each one of us, in our own way, said. "Here am I, send me!" We talked about how we should expect the unexpected and to be flexible that not everything will go according to our plan, but God's plan. He would not give to us more than we could handle during our mission trip. It was interesting to listen to the first-timers talk about their expectations and why they chose to be a part of the mission team. Most of them did not know what to expect when it came to the children we would meet and the community we would work in this past week. They all said they wanted to do mission work because they had a desire to help other people. It was an uplifting evening just getting to talk about the week and what was in store for us. Bottom line: We knew that we were there to spread the love of Christ in everything that we were going to be doing.

Each morning our mission team members met with their prayer partners (who would also be their door-knocking partners) and this began Sunday morning as we prepared for the day. I asked them to talk with their partner about specific things that needed to be prayed for, how they were feeling about the day, expectations, etc. I believe most of our team embraced this time with their partner to share in prayer to begin each day. Most of the time this was done during breakfast, so they had some added time together.

On Sunday morning we worshipped with the Maingate Church of Christ which meets in one of the ballrooms provided by the Baymont Inn and Suites-Celebration. This service is overseen by the elders of Concord Street Church of Christ. Each week they have a guest preacher come in and speak, as well as, teach a bible class. The compensation for their time is a free week stay at the Baymont Inn.

The plan originally was to worship with Concord Street since we would be working with them during the week; however, on Wednesday I got a call saying the preacher for the Maingate service backed out and they were needing someone to fill-in and could I do it. So, I said of course! and I am glad that I did. I saw a family that I knew from Rossville, GA, met the parents of a youth minister in North Alabama that I knew, and met two ladies from Bermuda who wants to take Joy and I around the island when we visit their on our cruise next month. If that wasn't cool enough, the song leader that morning was baptized at Rose Hill Church of Christ many years ago! It's truly a small world but it helped us to see that no matter where you come from that as long as you belong to the body of Christ we are a family doing God's work from everywhere.

After services and bible study, we loaded up to eat lunch and head to Concord Street Church of Christ. When we arrived at Concord Street we were met by Dan and his son, Daniel, to discuss the afternoon door-knocking and the week's activities. We also met Bertha who would be helping to provide the meals to us during the week.

Door-knocking pushed our group out of their comfort zones, the chatty and outgoing people became the quiet and shy. Dan had gone over some tips to door-knocking, so that we wouldn't make people mad or let them think we were the police just by how we knocked. It was a great experience watching our kids and even adults grow through this experience. We knocked every door in the Lake Mann community, so they would know about the bible school we would be putting on Monday-Wednesday in their community.

After door-knocking we headed back to the hotel for some relaxing time before traveling to Downtown Disney to eat at Rainforest Cafe. On the way home from dinner, we had our devotional for the evening on the bus. Neiman Etheridge shared with us from his heart about how God has created us all in His image. We all may look different on the outside, we may not share things in common, but we all were created in the image of God. This was something we all needed to hear as we began our work sharing God to a community who was very much different than we are.

It was a wonderful first two days and I already knew God was planning some amazing things for us!

"Here Am I, Send Me"

On Saturday a group of 15 from Rose Hill Church of Christ will be leaving for Orlando, Florida on a mission trip. Our team consists of adults and students who have committed themselves to allowing God to do amazing things through them in the inner-city community of Orlando. Over the week we will meet interesting people, teach kids about God's love, bond as a group, work together to serve others, and much more. We will come back with many stories to tell and an experience that will be life-changing for our mission team.

I am reminded of Isaiah 6 when He begins writing about a vision he has of God and the holiness of God. He speaks as if he is unworthy to see this vision as Isaiah is a "man of unclean lips" (v. 6). However, a Seraphim touches Isaiah's lip with a burning coal thus taking his guilt away for seeing this vision. This all precedes a particular moment in the Old Testament that I think is prominent, even for us today. Verse 8 says, "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” Isaiah hears God's calling. Isaiah understands God is in need of someone who will deliver a message to His people.

God is still in need of people to deliver His message. Only the message is now about His son and the good news of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. God is still calling out for people to take His message into all parts of the world, so that with God's message people will be saved (Matt. 28:19, Mark 16:15). How are you answering God's call for messengers?

For the group of 15 going to Orlando, we heard God's call and answered by taking the gospel to Orlando, Florida. Each night I hope to be able to write and tell about all the wonderful things happening each day. To get updates about our trip, please subscribe to this blog and I will post updates daily (or as much as time will allow).

Thank you for your prayers and support this next week! Thank you for the continued love and encouragement as we seek to do God's will and to glorify His name in Orlando, FL.