Atlanta - Day 5

It's Thursday! That means two things for our mission trip. It means a lot of good-byes as we have our last day of serving. Good-bye to those we are helping, the kids we are working with, the sites we have worked on. It also means that we will have a time of prayer together as we reflect on our service this week. In this we wash the students' feet and pray for them, then allow them to pray for each other. It's incredibly moving and they love to pray with each other (it took us about 2 1/2 hours).

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us, tomorrow we are up early, we clean and pack, then we head to our pit-stop for the night were we relax a little and all share stories and decompress from the weekend. So, hopefully we will have a blog tomorrow but we'll see what happens. Either way, here are some stories from today, enjoy!

T

Today I spent the morning working at an Atlanta Food Bank, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was nice to see all the things people had donated, and to see so many people working together to pack the food or other items to get them distributed. Packing boxes was actually calming, even though it was fast paced and in the midst of organized chaos. It was also satisfying to see all the boxes we had packed. At one point the table behind us was so full we couldn’t put anymore boxes on it and had to put them on the floor. At the end we were told we packed about 10,900 lbs. The sense of accomplishment and feeling like we made a difference was nice, and pretty much sums up how I feel about this whole trip. -Sabrina

Today we did a lot of things, we went to Atlanta Food Bank in the morning and I packaged food; then in the afternoon we went to Books for Africa for the second time and we sorted books so they can be shipped off to Africa. Afterwards we returned back to home base and did meal prep for dinner. Youthworks tradition dictates that you do a cook out for the community at some point during the week and for us that was today. Meal prep involved moving boxes and serving the community in a more literal sense. I was able to meet a lot of people while giving them a burger or hotdog.

After the cookout we returned back for Large Group Gathering (Nightly Church) where one of the Youthworks staff shared a very personal and touching story before we moved into Church Group Time which has its tradition on Thursday. On Thursday we learn about the foot washing at Passover and then kinda replicate it where the Youthworks staff wash our adult leaders’ feet and then they wash ours and pray for us. After that we are able to pray with other students and chillax. Praying with others is a very moving experience and every students cries at least a little during the process and it brings us all closer together. Thursday is my favorite day of Youthworks trips for that reason. – Carson

My mission trip until today was incredibly bland and uneventful. The worksites were easy and incredibly low interaction wise. Then today, my group was able to move on to work at Books for Africa because we finished the tasks which were required of us by the Salvation Army. Books for Africa was  where I was able to work in an actually challenging environment where the work made me feel as if I am making a difference as I could see the fruits of my labor. The joy this brought me was great and made all the doubt that I was making a difference flood away. Feeling this sense of accomplishment allowed for me to look back on my week and realize all my other accomplishments this week. -Rachel