The Missional Mystery Trip was a wonderful success. For those of you who did not get to hear the review from our Youth, I’ll fill you in. We started off with a special trip to an Arabian Horse Farm in Waco. We stayed the night at a generous church and in the morning headed to Austin. We visited the Central Texas Food Bank. We had a special tour of their new GIANT warehouse and an inspirational conversation with the Director of Advocacy and Public Policy. We stopped and saw the bats at Congress Ave. Bridge.
From there, we made our way to the work camp, QuestRanch (near Canyon Lake). Here we met up with Corkey, who showed us the ropes.
QuestRanch’s mission is to supply housing for victims of natural disasters. Our project was for a disabled woman whose house had flooded. FEMA would only replace her floors but her house had spent days under four feet of water and the walls were molding. We spent two days building wall panels that would be used to build her a modular house and a healthy place to live. We spent the HOT summer evenings at the Lake and drove to the river for a float. It was a nice way to relax after scorching work days in Central Texas.
Although there was an unlimited amount of work to be done at QuestRanch, we moved on to San Antonio. We joined a wonderful Volunteer Manager, JoeyLynn, at Providence Place. Providence Place is a wonderful organization that takes in pregnant mothers and disabled adults, teaching them the life skills they need to be successful. We were able to clean and organize 2 storage closets for them. JoeyLynn was truly thrilled with how fast we finished. One closet was truly a mess and was a challenge for the group to clean (rat’s nest, EW!). We joined their chapel and had a WONDERFUL, powerful worship experience. The youth would like to propose we serve chips and drinks during our worship, like Providence. JUST KIDDING!
We spent the evening in downtown San Antonio, enjoying the hotel pool. That morning we explored the Alamo and bought souvenirs, then we were off to our final destination, HOUSTON. Another generous church allowed us to take refuge in their youth area. We finished the trip on Saturday morning with another inspirational speaker, Matt Russell. He told us his story of his call to ministry and how it led him to start an all-inclusive church in Houston. Truly an amazing, God-led story!
That’s our trip! These youth are such wonderful young people; you should be truly proud of these young men and women. There is no doubt in my mind that your support, generosity, and prayers have created these amazing youth. Thank you! Thank you for everything you have done, being the community that raised these youth and that have given them wonderful opportunities like the Missional Mystery Trip. I want to say a special thank you to J.W. and Cathy Burkey; without them, I could not have done this trip. They are truly beautiful people, inside and out. They dedicate much of their time and energy (especially on a weeklong driving trip across Texas) to the Youth Ministry, and they deserve much praise and recognition. THANK YOU, J.W. and CATHY! Also, thank you to all the adults who blindly trusted Rev. Jeff, myself, and the Burkeys to take their children on this trip. Your encouragement and support are the biggest reason these youth are so amazing. Thank you for allowing your children to be part of the Crossfire ministry!