Souled Out Camp

Last weekend was Camp and it was SO much fun. We took 35 10-16 year olds from all 3 centers to Trinity Pines Camp. The theme was Souled out and we got awesome t-shirts which were designed by one of the kids at Fletcher.
We left friday morning on a school bus and arrived in the afternoon. Straight away, we got to have an adventure and climb the ropes course and rock wall. It was super hot, but at the end there was a zip line which gave you a great breeze. There was an easy and difficult rock wall. Some of our summer missionaries were very persistent and gave the difficult side seven tries. They finally made it up. Then a few skillful ten year olds impressed us by going up the harder side as well. Most of us got very emotionally involved in the climbers' endeavors.

The kids got to attend four small group sessions throughout the weekend. We also had full group worship with Sandra's band...Aviator Love, and our preacher Larry was a local youth pastor. The band was fun and sang in Spanish some. Larry spoke on the sermon on the mount. He talked about the good and bad fruit, the wide and narrow gates, and the firm or sandy foundations.
We played some awesome group games on Saturday. They were human foosball with a balloon, shuffle your buns, and never have I ever.
We got to spend a long time in the pool between night swimming on Friday and Saturday afternoon free time. There was also a blob and canoeing.
One highlight was the Saturday night variety show, in which the counselors got to do skits for the teens. Jasmine and I choreographed a lively dance that we taught to seven of the other missionaries.
After worship and group sessions on Sunday morning, we headed home. We each received a happy meal for the bus ride.
We were exhausted on Sunday afternoon, but I completely enjoyed getting to know more of the teens and spend time with them at camp.

Pre-Teens

The pre-teens come on Thursdays and Fridays from 3-5 and are one of the most fun groups. We have about 10 pre-teens and most of them are boys. Five of them are named Jose and one is named Joe. They come in and have free time for a while. We usually play basketball or soccer. Last week we played soccer for almost an hour. Then we play organized games like elbow tag or an awesome circle game called signs.
We take turns teaching them and yesterday was my turn. They are studying about Paul this Summer, so I was teaching about the persecution of Paul, how he was lowered out of a city in a basket and stoned and expelled all because people wanted to kill him. They were so much fun to teach because they are eager to look up the verses in their Bibles and read them. I feel like I kept their attention so hopefully God had something for them to learn.

Block Party

To back up a bit... The block party was actually last Saturday.
The way it worked is a church donated money for all the centers to buy block party games. Each center had a different theme and they will trade materials so every year we'll get a new theme.
Our block party had a farm theme. We had several adult volunteers from a local church and were lucky enough to have two teenage volunteers to wear a pig and a chicken costume.

Everyone else was very festive, with farm animal hats and bandanas.

The first hour was fair games. My game was guessing which chicken had an egg under it. Unfortunately, when one kid won, it was hard for me to sneakily relocate the egg.

Our party also boasted face painting and balloon animals. After games, we did crafts and a puppet show. Some of my team members are quite talented at puppets despite our lack of selection when it comes to puppets.
We sent the kids off with hot dogs for lunch.

Field Trip

Today was the best day ever! In an amazing undertaking, we took 60 of our kids (4-12 year olds) to a place called Oil Ranch. My class had 18 kids, but they are all well behaved and we had fun. It was hard at first because we went to the petting zoo, but only 10 could go in at a time and my class was last. We played for a while, and some of my kids started to fall apart, due to the heat, so that by lunch I had one threating to throw up and one minor injury. But we gave all the kids gatorade and everyone perked up.
After lunch we continued on to a train ride, where we saw some cows and pigs. It was so incredible hot. We let the kids keep their gatorade bottles and they continued to fill them up with tap water all afternoon. For myself, I drank two caprisuns, a big 32 oz bottle of gatorate, and a bottle of water. It was crazy hot.
We also had the pleasure of a moon walk and a poney ride. My favorite moment of the day was when one of my particularly enthusiastic and somewhat chubby eight year olds finally got his turn for the poney ride. When he was half way around the circle, I heard him screaming, "What is he doing? What is he doing?" Well, his horse had stopped and was pooping, so we all found that hillarious.
We saw a lot of other animals, including baby rabbits, and a baby lamb. I have a child who complains a lot that told me he hates farms on the way there. But for some reason, the baby lamb made his day.
Taking 60 kids on one school bus with five summer missionaries and a few volunteers seemed like madness to me, but somehow we pulled it off and the kids loved it. Most of them were very tired by the time we got on the bus to come home.

VoBS

Vocation Bible School is a program designed to teach work skills and how work and God's word relate. We are offering VoBS to a few of our teens for the first time this Summer. I teach the class Tuesday mornings, Sarah teaches it Wednesday, and on Thursday the teens work on a painting project as application of what they have learned. The class is two hours, and it was definitely a challenge to enthusiastically fill up all of the time.
The first week that I taught VoBS was somewhat discouraging for me because to be honest, I felt like the class was boring. I kept asking the kids questions but everyone was tired sounding.
Today, VoBS was a lot more fun. I spent a lot of time creating games out of the lessons. I made a memory game that matched verse references to pictures of what the Bible says our purpose in life is. (To be ambassadors for Christ, to be the light of the world.)
I also taught that money is not the root of all evil, but the LOVE of money is.
Next, we covered the ten commandments. The VoBS book, much to my delight has a song about the 10 commandments that I learned as a child. I recopied the song on a white board and let the guys fill in certain blanks.
Unfortunately, I only had two guys today. Please pray that the teens will be able to come to VoBS and that they will enjoy it.

Joy Fellowship Center

Out of the three centers, I was assigned to Joy. The summer missionaries working there with me are Catherine from Georgia, Sarah and Jasmine from Mississippi, and Eric from Houston.
Joy has the following ministries:
food pantry
clothing closet
Kid's club
Preteen club
teen club and
Senior ministry
So, we had a lot to learn last week.
We do some everyday work, such as cleaning, sweeping, unloading food, organizing clothes, and bagging bread. But we also have the involved responsibilities of teaching classes for teens and kids and leading games and crafts. There have been plenty of fun moments too, in the form of playing basketball and uno with the preteens, and of course getting to know our fellow summer missionaries.
check it out at
www.missioncenters.org

Welcome to Houston

Well I have been in Houston for almost a week and a half but this is my first blog post. Working in Houston is very busy, but so much fun. To review, I am a Summer Missionary at Mission Centers of Houston. The organization has three separate centers in the inner city of Houston.
First, our group... There are 13 summer missionaries this year- 11 girls and 2 guys. Five of us, including myself, were placed through GA BCM. The other missionaries come from Mississippi, Texas, and Puerto Rico.
The building we stay in is next door to the Gano Mission center. Our room upstairs is like a dorm, with ten sets of bunk beds, a giant closet, and a bathroom with four showers. We eat all of our meals, which are donated by local churches, in the mission center too.