Youth Mission Trip

At the beginning of July, Pastor Corey and I took 9 youth from Koinonia to the Navajo Reservation on a mission trip through YouthWorks! I know its taken a while to blog on this experience because life has been (and still is) crazy! But I did want to just give some highlights! We went for an entire week and stayed at a mission at which we slept on air mattresses and shared 2 bathrooms for 40 girls(there were a few other church youth groups there too)! This was a humbling learning experience for most of our youth in its self. We split into crews and did two days at Kids Club- providing attention and structure to the children's lives. We played games, gave piggy back rides, did memory verses, sung songs about Christ, performed skits, made crafts, read books and in general, just loved on the children! We spent the other two days painting houses... this is important because paint helps seal the houses but it also allows the residents to have pride in the place in which they live and gives us an opening to be able to share with them the love and hope of Christ. We painted Grandma Rabbit's house (they call her this because she has all gray hair except on the sides, its bright white and looks like rabbit ears). It was great to get to know and serve her and her family. During the evenings we had time to learn about the Navajo culture by story tellers and dancers and also time for worship and reflection. During one of the "church group" times (time where you meet with just the people from your church) we talked about what Christ is saying to you, personally, today. It was an amazing night! The youth were challenged to change and to be bold and to step into their callings. They were challenged to TRUST God with everything- their past, present and future. They knew that they had to start or stop doing things in their daily life and in doing that, they might lose friends but they had to trust that God has a bigger and better plan for them even when it doesn't feel like it at the moment. They had to let go of some FEAR that had bound them. It was so amazing to see youth call out to God in such a fervent way and I pray that their fire, their passion does not die, but rather grows. I pray that they will always remember the mission trip and how it felt to serve and to really seek Christ! Thank you to all those who supported in prayers and money... the youth of Koinonia and the people of the Navajo Nation will be forever changed!