It was the last night of Mission Columbus. We were tired from traveling, sweaty from playing games at the Illinois Baptist Children’s Home, and anxious to find our rooms. It was also one of our last opportunities as a group to share about our week. Because it was late I asked that the students and staff to sum up the week in one word. Immediately the words came one by one. “SURPRISING” “HUMBLING” “AWESOME” “REAL” “CHALLENGING” were among the heartfelt descriptive terms mentioned by the exhausted but focused members of our mission team. Each word accurately describes our week.
“AMAZING” is perhaps the word that I would use to describe the week. It is simply AMAZING that we were able to take 23 teenagers, who for whatever reason must live away from their families, from two very distinct programs and mold them into an effective mission team. The Stowe Baptist Center pastor, Rev. Mike Brooks, said that he did not see them as from two separate campuses but as one united mission team.
Our young people and adults alike were “AMAZING” in their willingness to do all they were asked to do and do it well: interacting with complete strangers, sleeping on crowded floors, unloading pallets of food, feeding the homeless, swinging sledge hammers, scraping peeling paint, cleaning bathrooms, leading in worship, playing with dirty children, cooking in a hot kitchen over an ancient oven, etc.
The ministry of the Stowe Baptist Center “to the least of these” through the leadership of its director and labor of its volunteers is “AMAZING.”
“AMAZING” are the prayers of those who lifted us up daily during our 10 day, 1,500 mile trip inner parts of a large American city.
Above all, “AMAZING” is the protective love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
David Perry
home back to Arkansas. I am sitting here on the van thinking about my week in Columbus, Ohio. We worked 3 days around Stowe Baptist Center and the neighborhood in the mornings. The first two days I worked with Mrs. Debbie in the food trailer that held corn, beans, juice, etc. I stacked food on shelves and packed up bags to give to the people who needed food. I also worked in the basement where they had cereal, peanut butter, oatmeal, pop tarts and other things that needed to stay cooler. On the third day I painted the walls of the center. That was fun because I think I got more paint on me and everyone else than I got on the wall. I even painted everyone’s nose.
and we just got everyone settled (I hope) into their rooms in Marion, Illinois. We made an unplanned stop today at the Abraham Lincoln Childhood Boyhood National Memorial in Indiana. We were ahead of schedule and thought it would be good to include an educational stop on the trip. Our kids took the 1.3 mile walk and learned much about life in the early 1800’s. The walk included a stop at the cemetery where Lincoln’s mother is buried.
At 6:00 pm we joined the residents of the Illinois Baptist Children’s Home at Carmi and a church visiting their campus for hot dogs and games. Our group presented their song interpretation song and the song with sign language. We ate and played until 8:15 and then made the hour long drive to Marion. After a brief meeting in the lobby we sent everyone to bed.
This morning I called the zoo to find out where we needed to buy our tickets. When I told the lady at the zoo we were from Arkansas she let me know that she had just read the story in the Dispatch and she got us approved for discount tickets.
many of them enjoyed the zoo.
trip is almost up now and man it has been a lot of fun. Today it was raining but we still did work. I panted a wall behind the church. It was a lot of fun. We also did painting in the pastor’s office. It was also fun. So by now I am guessing that most of you guys have heard that I have shared my testimony in front of the church and man I was nervous. I was shaking like crazy but I guess that most of the people here could relate to it. I thought that was cool. Oh one more thing. The block party and park days were awesome. We got to hang out with a lot of kids and make a lot of friends. You might have seen the picture of me and that little boy. He is my home boy and he LOVES!!!!!!! cotton candy.
my promise to this little boy, Tay-Tay, about going back to Lincoln Park. I spent a lot of time in prayer. I was praying it would at least slack up raining so I could go back to the park to say my goodbyes. We had told a lot of kids we would have cotton candy and games. We showed up and it was still sprinkling a bit, but kids starting storming out by the dozens. A lot asked where the cotton candy was and we had to say “We have none because of the weather,” but they still stayed. They (the children) were just as happy just playing tag, red rover, and with the love we gave them! It amazes me that they are as happy as can be just being showed love and blowing bubbles with them, but we take that for granted and are just like “whatever.” Maybe if we would just realize how blessed we are to get all the “I love you” and materialistic items, and just think me saying “I love you!” to Tay-Tay could be the only “I love you” he gets for a long time! We just all need to stop and think before we take so much stuff for granted.
Well today my work crew and I went at it hard. We had a very hard job to do, but we were a very motivated bunch of boys. We worked hard until we got the job done. What we had to do was bust up some concrete and let me tell ya, it wasn’t very easy. I had some hard working people helping me. We got a three of four hour job done in about an hour. I enjoyed working with them. They are very motivated.
What I did first was cut tomatoes about 30 of them. It was super fun. Next, I to cook about 10 boxes of spaghetti and broke them into a bowl. Then I put the spaghetti into a bowl of boiling water so it would cook. After that I put about 20 jars of tomato paste in to a huge pan. When I started to serve we got a rhythm going so it went by very smoothly. It was very hard but I did it and had fun. We served about 200 people on this day. I served some very hungry people and I felt so good about it. There is no feeling better than the feeling of help someone out. This is the best mission trip ever.
