Mission Trip Ozark Style

Third times the charm! Naomi and Danielle spent another summer week serving Jesus with Crossfire Youth. Normally the youth director coordinates all the activities, but this mission trip was managed by an outside organization: Ozark Mission Project. And something else new: Naomi attended as an adult! She's out of high school so no longer a "youth", but they were still thrilled to have her around.

Always the first order of business before getting too far down the road: feed these people!

Takin' over Wendy's

The group headed to Bentonville, AR in two rented passenger vans and a Tahoe. They met up with over 125 other kids from other churches -- all staying at the United Methodist Church Bentonville. Morning wake up was at 6:45a, with breakfast at 7:30a, followed by a briefing for the day. Then it was go time! 

Crossfire was split into two smaller work teams, with 7 kids in each group - Naomi, Danielle, Ari and Emma were together at the daily work site. At the first house, they helped a lady clean out her house (tons of stuff had piled up for years...)

And they constructed a handrail on an existing ramp.

While Naomi was classified as an adult, she did float between both worlds. She was able to get involved in a little bit of the work, but most is left for the youth to experience and complete.

At the second house the crew laid a stone path and did oodles of yardwork. Apparently the lady at this house was so nice and used language like "groovy" and "far out". It rained while they were working, but the show must go on!

When not working, they had fun racing through a scavenger hunt and the prize was ice cream! Each night included worship time and sharing where God had shown up during the day.

Everyone returned home safe -- another successful week! Naomi acknowledged that this might have been her final mission trip with Crossfire, while Danielle is looking forward to doing it again next summer! Go Jesus.