St. Louis recap

Aaron and I got back from St. Louis on Friday after a week with eight of our senior high youth on a mission trip with an organization called Youthworks. This is the fifth mission trip for our youth and the fourth one with Youthworks. Having been on all of them so far I would say that it was probably the best experience so far! The reason for such platitudes is that the group we took down was overall different than any other and I think perhaps more impacted than any other. I have to say that there is something that these mission's trips provide that you can't make up or create in any artificial way. We were eating lunch with women who had just recently come off the street, playing with kids who thought a squirt bottle and some attention were heavenly, and praying for people with nothing but difficulty as immigrants and who at the same time wanted to express their thanks in some very tangible ways. I have to say that even a forty something pastor who has been in a lot of places can't help but be touched and challenged by interacting at that level. The challenge is to take those lessons and apply them in a more local context, which is the ongoing challenge to all of us to make application to what we know. I for one believe that these kids come home and are not quite the same as when they left. They will of course have the same challenge of having to apply what they experienced to their life going forward, but they now have a responsibility to the things they saw and I trust that by the Spirit it will make a difference first in them, and then ultimately through them. This must be our prayer.