West Virginia

About a month ago I was in West Virginia with a group of some of my favorite friends. These were my Youth Group friends. I love them. We went to West Virginia on the annual mission trip. I did not go last year because my allergy alert was so new and we didn't want another hospital episode. This year I was allowed to go, and I was thrilled. I'm not sure what it is about mission trips but while I'm there I feel so happy and glad to be alive.

A week before the mission trip I was in a dreadful state. I needed to be with God more than anything else and I knew it. I prayed and I felt like I was getting no response. Then I talked to my friend Bob, he sent me a short skit to listen to and then I read some in my Bible. I felt so much better after that. I wasn't completly where I wanted to be with God but I was so close and I knew the mission trip would be the key to getting back on track. I was correct.

I don't understand how people survive in this world without God. I go a week feeling lost and I'm in a state of utter terror.

Before the trip we had several meetings to prepare. At the first meeting Andrea and I noticed that all the girls were wearing pink and the boys were all wearing black. After this realization we decided that our mission trips official colors would have to be pink, black, and white (for neutral purposes). We thought that it would be fun if we had shirts that were our mission trip colors so we started planning to tie-dye the shirts for everyone. Andrea also found a 'mission trip packing list' that consisted of a list of small items along with a bible verse for each one. I will go into more detail about that later. We decided to make a little bag with these items for each person on the trip as well. So Andrea and I picked a day and we went to Michael's and found tie-dye (pink and black) and pink bags for the little items. Then we went to Walmart and bought shirts and all the items for the little bags. We had so much fun shopping for these items it was insane. Then we went back to Andrea's house and we began to put the bags together with Jay's help. Jay was not going on the mission trip but he's fun to hang out with and since he was driving us around everywhere he was invited to stay, which was nice because he drove me home at the end of the night.

So, since I told you we were putting the bags together I should probably tell you what went in each one. Here is a copy of the list that Andrea got offline:


• A toothpick - to remind you to pick out the good qualities in other people (Matt. 7:1).
• A rubber band - to remind you to be flexible; things might not always go the way you
want, but it will work out (Rom. 8:28).
• A band-aid - to remind you to heal hurt feelings, yours or someone else's (Col. 3:12-14).
• An eraser - To remind you that everyone makes mistakes, and it's OK (Gen.50:15-21).
• Chewing gum - to remind you to stick with it and you can accomplish anything (Phil 4:13).
• A candy kiss - to remind you that everyone needs a kiss or a hug everyday (1 John 4:7).
• A pencil - to remind you to list your blessings everyday (Eph.1:3).
• A tea bag - to remind you to relax daily and go over that list of blessings (1 Thess. 5:18).


We included a paper with this on it in the bags along with something extra. I bought pink, black, and white M&M's at the mall and Andrea, Jay, and I sorted them by color and then later I divided them and put an equal number of each color in each bag. Because we added an extra element into the bag we had to add an explanation for it. So after the teabag on the list I added:

And M&M's because Andrea and Laurel love you!

Anyways, Andrea and I packed the bags up that night and then decided we would have to make the t-shirts another night. So a week or so later I spent the night at Andrea's house and we tie-dyed t-shirts all night. It was insane we did a few and thought it was fun but by the end it was just exhausting. We had a lot of fun though.

So we showed up on the day of the trip and we had thirty bags and thirty t-shirts each with the name of a person going on the trip. Before we left we made an announcement about what we had made and we passed them out to everyone. So many people it and we received lots of 'thank you's and hugs. We were really happy that the other people were really happy.

Anyways the way the mission trip worked was in the morning everyone had the option of helping out at Vacation Bible School or going to the worksite. Then everyone came to the VBS site for lunch and after lunch we all headed to the worksite for the afternoon.

Andrea and I worked at VBS every morning. I love VBS I think its fun and I love working with kids. In the afternoon we went to help and it was kind of fun because there were two worksites, there was Russels house, we were taking off the roof of that house and replacing it, and then there was Dot's house where we were fixing pipes and tearing off a bad addition on the house and cleaning a bunch of trash out of the basement.

One of the days Andrea and I spent the whole afternoon just talking to Dot and Russel. It was a bit sad hearing Dot's story. She has a fairly big family but only one of her daughters keeps in contact with her really. Dot related a story where she needed money to pay a bill and only her one daughter would help her. It was really nice talking to Dot we were glad we took the time.

When we talked to Russel it was a completely different story. He has a very big family and he talks to some of them everyday. He was amazing to talk about. He said he loves living in West Virginia, it is his favorite place and he wouldn't want to live anywhere else. He has been to every state except Hawaii and he doesn't think he wants to go there. While we talked to Russel he brought out one of his two dogs. The dog he brought out was named Tiny. Tiny was an adorable little pomeranian cockerspaniel mix. We all loved playing with Tiny even though Tiny liked to bite. We found out I have the highest pain tolerance because I didn't mind Tiny biting me. I left that day with teeth marks all over my hands.

It was also fun working on the roof, which I got to do two of the days we were there. I love being up high. I only wish the house had been two stories.

The last day we worked on the house Russel and his wife had a picnic for our group and the group working on the house next to us. It was very nice. Russel owns a farm up the street and at the farm they have pigs so we had very fresh ham along with some other yummy things.

It was wonderful working for them.

Wednesday was our day off from working so we went to our favorite spot. It is a national park type of place with beautiful rocks and a stream/river. We had lots of fun climbing all over the rocks and then we had lunch right there on the rocks. One of the boys threw an apple into the water after lunch and it was very fun to watch it go with the current down the river. We watched it for several minutes and then some people followed it a way down the river. After lunch we took a picture on the rocks and then headed back to camp. Then a few of us girls went to the mall with Joe to shop. We each bought some clothes. I bought a skirt and a shirt and we wore our new clothes to the church service that night.

The service was wonderful. It was very different the guy started by asking biblical questions and giving out candy to whomever answered correctly. Then he went into a story with the song Amazing Grace. He asked for volunteers to come up and help him at this point and so he picked...I think there were six people and they would sing Amazing Grace. Andrea said I should volunteer I said I would go if she did so we both went up. He told us to stand in different areas of the sanctuary. His wife sang through the song once and then she started again and he started adding people in with the singing. He added two or three boys and then me and then Andrea and the other girl. This was a lot of fun I thought because I love the song. I didn't realize that Andrea didn't know the words. So she was a bit clueless but she got it in the end. We had a lot of fun there.

At the end of every night everyone in our group got together and we debriefed about the day. Since David, Chris, Laura, and I were there and we lead Youth Group Joe had us alternating leading for every night. It was really fun to talk about all the stuff that went on during the day. It was also really fun to lead the discussions. Another thing that we had everyday was a speaker talked to us. I had heard this speaker before. He is not my favorite speaker but he is a good Christian man and he is strong in his faith. We would sing a few songs and then hear from this speaker and then we would watch a video that was made of all the things that people had been working on that day, it was a short video put to music and it was very entertaining to watch.

Overall it was an amazing trip. The longer I write this the more I think to add. I think this post has gotten pretty long though so I think i'll wrap it up here. Then I'll write more posts about the trip later!

Loving Everyone Always Forever