St Paul’s Youth Mission 2007

Well I’ve been slacking compared to everyone else. I just could never get into the mood while we were there to write and now that I am sitting on my back porch, relaxed and having taken a shower I feel much better. I know at the beginning I was saying i wanted to build and not clean. But I soon realized that if I wanted to make an impact on these peoples lives it didn’t matter what kind of task or how small it was, we would have a positive impact. God has his ways that we all realize at one time or another in our lives. Whether it was whacking weeds with Bill, moving dirt and then some more dirt and then some more dirt and then some more dirt, or pulling out nails and staples no matter how frustrating it got i just kept in mind that i came down to Mississiippi to work and not just to socialize and screw around. The work was only half of the job though. The other half which was just as important was making friends with the people and seeing how happy they were to have some company and see progress being made on their property. One thing it has changed about me, is that I probably won’t complain about doing tasks and I will be glad to assist. I was always excited about taking on the tasks, like moving an extremely large dirt pile or hanging sheetrock and drywall. That was the most important task I learned this week, not just doing drywall, but how to do it when you dont have all the convenient tools. Most of these events will probably never leave my mind and I now realize that the media can cover the destruction but they can’t cover the actual people who suffered and their devastation. The only way to discover that, is to do it yourself. I was really impressed with how persistent we were no matter how frustrated we got with the bad directions. This trip was hard work and I am really happy that I participated in this trip. I would like to give a big thank you to all of the adults that chaperoned us, Paul, Debbie, Maggie, and my mom. You guys were great and I don’t think it would of been the same without all of you. Especially Paul, thanks man, moving the dirt would not of been as fun plus we wouldn’t of had a chaperone in our tent.

-Ray

Oh and the cots were not too comfortable. There was a bar that would stick in the middle of your back and the springs would sink down on both sides of it and therefore I can’t wait to get in my comfy bed.

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