Mission Arlington

Our spring break mission trip to Mission Arlington was absolutely incredible.  One of the major words for key leadership people during any mission trip we do at Crossroads is "flexibility."  You all know the story of my crazy 2 weeks before this mission trip, so I won't bore you with those details.

I felt totally exhausted and unprepared before we even left Marshall.  Sarah tried to reassure me that everything would be fine and that we were ok.  Well, we WEREN'T prepared.  Students didn't even have jobs!  But, Sarah was right, everything was fine.  As a matter of fact, it probably went better than if I would have prepared for months out.

Our typical day looked like this:

7:00 - Wake up / Eat breakfast
8:15 - Arrive at Mission Arlington for a morning devotional / bible study
9:00 - Leave for Work Site (backyard bible club @ an apartment complex)
10:30 - Begin Rainbow Express
--10:30 - knock on doors/start games
--10:45 - Sing some songs
--11:00 - Memory verse Activity
--11:15 - Teach bible story
--11:30 - Games until we left
12:00 - Depart for Mission Arlington / Cram lunch down throat on the way
1:00 - Worship at Mission Arlington
2:30 - Go back to apartment complex to play with the kids!
4:30 - Head back to the place we were staying
6:00 - Dinner
7:00 - Worship
8:30 - 11:00 - Any manner of crazyness
11:00 - Lights out

Each day was super busy but super gratifying.  We repeatedly heard this from the Mission Arlington staff while we were there as well as from our pastor (who was teaching pastors in Ethiopia over spring break) when we returned...that when we are loving on others in Jesus' name, we are filled with incredible joy, and our 'problems' don't seem like such a big deal.  And that was the truth

Each night, we could lay our heads down thinking, "I've done work for him today, and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else."  We got to speak to over a hundred children about Christ, and at one of our two groups, 3 children accepted Christ!!!  We also had one student, Anna, decide that God was calling her into missions, while another, Davey, is feeling God's call to go and teach!

There's so much more to say about the week.  Comment if you have any other questions!