Mission: St. Louis

Day Three (Monday, March 16, 2009)

From here on out we will be serving God in an extremely hands on approach. Long days are taking a toll on a lot of us already, and for whoever is reading this post I pray that God will give you the strength to make it through the rest of the day/week and that He will meet all your needs and continue to sustain you throughout our time here in St. Louis.

As always, we started off the day with 8 a.m. devotionals which today was led by Ryan. Devotionals provide a way for the team to prepare our hearts and minds for the rest of the day and to give us a reminder of who should be at the center of our lives. After devotional we then got a chance to meet Pastor Josh and some other members of Mission St. Louis who went through the history of MStL and what being missional actually looks like. James Amos was the director of Empowerment who talked about relocating to the neighborhood in which you're actually trying to reach. At Hill Country being able to reach out to our dorm and to our people group is a sure fire way to drawing people into your life, and more relevantly who you live for.

After talking for a little bit about relating what MStL is doing in their community back to our community our team split up and half of us got a chance to get some more free time and make dinner with one another and the other half of us were actually able to go into the community in which we toured earlier and talk to individuals who were hanging out on their porches.

Personally, I will be the first to admit that I was practically in tears when I was told that I had to go out and engage people and actually talk to them. I was scared senseless and had a complete loss of confidence. However, good 'ole Daniel was able to stick close to me and reassure me that they're just people. Just like you and me, and we all have similar needs that can be met both immediately (with physical food) and in the long term spiritually by accepting the ultimate sacrifice, our daily bread, Jesus Christ.

Being able to just get involved with these people and hearing their stories was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. I can't believe I lived my entire life in such ignorance of the divisions within our own cities. I can't imagine living in a world where I can't cross the street into another part of town because I might get shot. The need for a sense of security is definitely a huge part of this town, but we constantly need to reevaluate what the needs of our city looks like. Just off the top of my head I can think about depravity, loneliness, self-confidence, and acceptance as needs which some UT students live every day of their life.

What will it take for us to get off our butts and engage in our own community? What will it take for us to take the first step in talking to someone we don't even know and dealing with the awkwardness of the situation? How can we best serve God and what does that look like on campus? By learning from these people in St. Louis and by serving their basic needs we can begin to assess what it is students put their worth in, and what it is, as believers and as a church, we can meet for our fellow students.

Change is coming. We're called to be at the forefront of change, living a life that makes people wonder and ask "What is it that they have, that I don't?" As students, our daily actions and the way we reach out to the communities we find ourselves in is a public expression of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for us, while we were still sinners. We are all in need of a Savior.

Your sister in Him,

Joanna


Verse of the Day: Ephesians 4: 1-7

"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift."

The Journey

Day Two (Sunday, March 15, 2009)

Back in the early days, Christians before they were actually called "Christians" were referred to in the Greek as "the way, or the path, or the journey." Today we had the opportunity to actually go to two amazing services at the church we're partnering with called "The Journey" and listen to both Pastor Darrin and Pastor John preach about giving and being called to sacrifice and what it looks like to live at a level that God provides.

What would this world look like if we were all a little bit less self-centered? If for once in our lives it wasn't all about us? If we had a whole body of people acting in the best interests of others and not themselves, what would change look like? Both pastors at The Journey related this change back to our pocketbooks. So often we either spend too much, or save too much, and we give too little to the things in life that matter. Essentially, the things that matter is our church and our community.

If, as college students, we can learn to live generously with our money, then other people will start to take notice. If we are able to say tithing to the church is something I can easily spend a hundred dollars on, then we are assigning value and worth to things not necessarily of this world but of things that further God's kingdom. If through our actions we can portray the love we have for Christ by the love we have for the church, then good things will come of it. Revival and growth are two things that are rarely used to describe the modern day church. In America especially students need to extend their generosity to the church and to others around them in an authentic way that says "I'm here to serve you."

So basically that's what we learned both at the morning service and the evening service. We did get to have some free time toward mid-afternoon and we had the opportunity to spend time together as a group in the park just posing in front of the Arch and playing random games that gave people like myself really large bruises on their ankles (calling out Dani on this one!) But I'd have to say just being able to enjoy the evening eating at Chipotle and ending with some deliciously smooth gelato was the perfect end to Day Two.

Until tomorrow, yours in Him,

Joanna Lynn. (ha, that rhymed)


Verse of the Day: Malachi 3:10

"Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need."

Party Van v. Sleeper Van

Day One (Saturday, March 14, 2009)

What it do. It's yo girl, Jhttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=32953132&postID=870557779661590492.D. from the hood hollerin' atcha from StL. Today was crazy. Picture this, 16 hours of driving from the ATX all the way to StL (aka St. Louis). Two vans. As we all know, I was in the crazy van, or shall I say the party/movie van.

We decided to do some team bonding by getting out Ms. Kelly's laptop and starting the day off right with a lil bit of V for Vendetta. After that most inspiring and saddening of films we decided some comedy was in order and popped in Pineapple Express. Now you might ask: Aren't you supposed to be on a mission trip? Well my friend, we had 16 hours to kill, what would you do with that much time? After a quick bite to eat at Quiznos we decided to take the drive home with good 'ole 300.

Meanwhile in Van #2, they were having a ball just sleeping the day away. Naturally, Day One was spent mostly in the van and I have to say I definitely saw some interesting relationships pop up. There was most assuredly some Daniel and Eric love. Now you gotta understand, Daniel likes to sing, get down, and drop it like it's hot. Eric on the other hand is chill. I mean real chill. Literally... the guy is from Alaska. Eric is the type of guy who in a van full of people singing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is sitting in the corner shaking his head asking why God would put him in a van with such crazy people. Of course, Daniel would consistently tell Eric to break it down with the boys and get dirty... but unfortunately for this story, he never did. One day though, it will happen.

Finally, we get to our hotel, and are able to chill and have some quite time. Everyone is exhausted and yet every night we have these things called "devo's" or basically devotionals where as a group we get together and just go over what has happened throughout the day and how we can apply it to our lives. At the end of all this, as a group, we hope to take what we learn here, from Mission St. Louis to UT Austin and reach out to other students and friends in an authentic, God-centered way, that touches the hearts of people around us. This is our mission, this is our goal, and throughout the week I'll be filling you guys in on what's the latest scoop and how we're applying it to our lives. Peace out kids.

-J.D.


Quote of the day: (ducks flying in V formation across the sky...)

Amelia: "Wow, that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
Daniel: (pulling out imaginary shotgun) "You know (Nathan) if you go 65 I think I might be able to get a head shot."