Update

Well, it's been quite some time since I have written and unfortunately I have not done a lot in the way of mission work.  A lot of my time has been given to my education and I will graduate May 2014 with my teaching degree.  So, I have now created a new blog called Jen's Jottings from the Classroom.  This is where my energy has been and will be spent for a while....

Life's A Garden...Dig It!

As I stated in the last blog, the St. Luke Youth (aka SLY) went back up to Leadville to put on a retreat for middle schoolers in the community. It was a lot of fun again even though our numbers were much smaller this year. SLY really stretched themselves as their jobs & responsibilities changed daily. The view was gorgeous as always and there was a lot of fun playing games when it was free time. Tim worked with Peggy and Sarah to get work completed such as a concrete job, some painting jobs, bathroom work, and roof work. It’s amazing to watch the youth grow and take on the responsibilities to pull off a retreat like this. We had youth just now entering 6th grade up through college-aged and young adults – God is good ALL the time!

Wednesday night was talent show night and we booked 22 acts this year! It was awesome! So many of the youth danced, played music, sang, did comedy, and of course the adult sponsors couldn’t be left out so they showed their stuff as well! Thursday night was a special night. Tim wanted to give the youth a special dinner and talk about servanthood. All of the adults decorated the room with lights, candles, table cloths, real plates and silverware, and a special table for our three seniors – Becka, Darcy, and Ruth. Bob and Roger got ham from Eades’ meats and made salad and potato casserole along with some awesome cobbler. I spent some time with the kids doing verbal affirmations (holy moly it was a huge cryfest I didn’t anticipate) in the sanctuary as the adults prepared and served the meal. Whew! Time came up to the sanctuary and got small groups of youth and as they came downstairs they met Pastor Jim or Pastor Peggy who washed their feet. Everyone had their feet washed! After dinner Tim talked about servanthood and how important the work they do every year on these mission trips means to those they serve. It also means a lot to the members of St. Luke knowing they have helped teach these youth in a Christian environment. Of course the kids felt it was time for the adults to stand up and affirm us so we spent a lot of time crying Thursday night.

Friday we traveled to Denver (where we saw snow on the pass!) and enjoyed a day at Elitch Gardens. Everyone had so much fun and they had something for everybody there! Before heading to our hotel room we stopped at Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli for a fantastic sandwich. This particular restaurant is owned by the Botsonis family who had been very involved with SLY before they moved to Denver. Saturday we traveled home! What a week of fun we had! I heard several youth say next year we needed to do disaster work…

Mission Trip 2011

This past school year kept me busy so it's been quite awhile since I last blogged. I'm not the best at it either but I try. This year our youth are heading back to Leadville, CO to hold a middle school retreat and our youth had a huge part in planning the retreat this year! So proud of them. The theme will be "Life's a garden...DIG IT!". They felt it would be great to talk about how God cultivates us like we cultivate a garden. Pastor peggy will be installed the day we get there so that will be an exciting day.

Bob and I will take on the role of organizing the next mission trip for 2012. Tim won't be organizing it but he will be available to go when we need him. We've heard snow is in the forecast this week and we are glad to hear that with so many record-breaking hot days already this year.

Blessings,

Jennifer

Jane's book

Well yesterday I finished Jane Els' book "Journey to the Kingdom of God". I loved it! It's all about mission and where she's been. She's been to Guatemala and formed relationships there between her church, several Dallas churches and the Norte presbytery. She also has done a lot of PDA work - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. She's been to places hit by hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike. Little did I know she was a camp manager and such.

Jane and I met at Synod and I met her in 2007. My friend Sharla was in Jane's small group, Jane was the SGL or small group leader. This year Jane coordinated our mission projects for about 350 people in Tulsa. I wish I had more time to talk with Jane - she's a neat lady!

Anyway, I encourage you to buy the book. She's mission-oriented and Presbyterian! And an ordained elder. Anyway, I like her take on life, people, and doing God's work. I laughed and cried throughout the book. I could relate to some situations and often wondered about others.

Excellent book - now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do...

SLY Mission Trip 2010 video

Tonight we got to see Kary's video of the mission trip. She had 2 hours of video documenting the whole trip and it was great! It was so nice to see all of the kids talking about their roles in the week and what they were getting from this trip. Of course it's hard to talk about this particular trip without thinking about Susan (see blog "Susan's House). Kary dedicated the video to Susan's memory. Also it was decided to take up a memorial for the church in Leadville in Susan's memory.

This trip was totally amazing! I've written about it from what the kids do but truly it is such a blessing to see and experience what we had that week this summer. The kids have transformed so much over the past few years and as Pastor Jim says even this past year the kids have grown. I've watched kids who used to have no friends sitting at lunch by themselves grow into small group leaders, energizer leaders, and so on.

We hope to have the video or parts of it on YouTube and possibly Godspace. Anyway, our fundraiser for the mission trips sponsored by the mission committee will be September 12 after church. What an amazing lunch it will be!

Susan's house

Ashley and I were discussing mission and my new blog so I thought I better write stuff down before I forgot! Ashley, my youngest daughter, has been on two youth mission trips. Last year her dad and sister and her went to Little Rock, AR for their mission trip. They stayed at Camp Ferncliff and worked at the PDA (Presbyterian Disaster Assistance) headquarters. They also worked in a soup kitchen and went to Heifer International. Pretty cool trip - they got to see the materials that get sent to all the disaster sites. But Ashley said her favorite was the 2010 SLY mission trip to Leadville, CO. Her favorite part...Susan's house! My favorite too I think or maybe that day was my favorite day.

I have to back track a little. Two years ago SLY (St. Luke Youth) went to Leadville to First Presbyterian Church to fix up the church. They had been without a pastor for a long time and the congregation itself was struggling. One of their members died the day they left in 2008 too. Tim Lacey, the man who had been our guru and organizer of mission trips for the youth, made contact with FPC Leadville. God was definitely in control and we went back this year.

I was one of the adult sponsors and let it be known that if I could go on all the mission trips I would! I love mission trips. Anyway, our job was to put on a retreat with a lunch for the community for middle school age youth. It was great and we planned quite a bit before we left. I assisted with the small group leaders and they were awesome! We taught them energizers with a team of our youth (Ashley was one of them), we had a team of recreation (Nicole was part of them), we had a music team, a work team, and food team (Bob and Roger did that). Every day we started at 9am greeted our guests or campers, moved into energizers and music then keynote speaker (our youth director, Carisa) and small group discussion. Break for lunch, maybe a team did some community service projects, then recreation and goodbye. Then the afternoon was ours!

Some went into town, some went swimming, some went to the cemetery to tell ghost stories, some went down to the community field for play. It was great! Leadville is the highest incorporated town in the USA, I think that's what I was told. So altitude was over 10,000 ft and we drank lots of water. It's funny how creative kids will get on a mission trip. Presbyterians in an old cemetery telling ghost stories and laughing... FUN! Of course there's the story of Michael and Sweet Betsy. In town there is a shop by that name and he and Keegan apparently had a weird experience there. And of course as the story was told it got better, so much better that most of us could tell the story ourselves. I got most of it on video too!

Well, when we arrived at the retreat center of the church Pastor Peggy met us. She's a neat mountain woman! And her faith story is quite interesting. She told us she went on a hike to Windsor Lake and offered herself to be our guide if anyone was interested. Wednesday was the day we went for the hike. Many of our youth were getting tired so only a handful of us went. Sarah, one of the members of FPC, and her dog Sugar went with us. She actually drives the church van for their "bus ministry" to low income kids so she drove us in the van. Our drive was about 10 minutes down the road. Lynnette, another member, met us by Twin Lakes which was about halfway to our starting point of the hike. Pastor Peggy brought Kodiak, the mighty yellow lab also referred to by many as "you dawg!"

Along with us was Pastor Jim, Lily, Keegan, Ruth, Ashley and myself. We began the hike crossing a waterfall. It was quite a hike! We ended going up 1.5 miles and close to 2,000 ft. At one point we played in the snow and threw snowballs, the mosquitoes were bad, the thunder moved in, we hid in a cave (stinky cave full of very cold water!), and Pastor Jim and I weren't sure we were going to make it. But Pastor Peggy gave us small goals to achieve and we made it to the summit. I also might mention that when we arrived at FPC Pastor Peggy said "Welcome to God's country!" and she was so right when she said the hike is so breathtaking and worth the hard work to get there. We sang, laughed, got wet by Kodiak shaking off the water from his swim in the lake, took pictures, and marveled at this beautiful place. This place God created for our enjoyment. The trip down took far less time but we were still late to dinner. Bob and Roger had brisket waiting along with members of FPC and lots of good food.

Back track again... earlier in the afternoon before the hike Tim and Peggy were talking about visiting a lady in the church. Cool! Sounds good. We were also going to sing a few songs. Pastor Peggy had brought her guitar out and started playing and showed me her play list for the evening. It was like being at Cursillo!! She is a fellow Cursillista (someone who has attended a Cursillo weekend like Walk to Emmaus) and planned a serenade. "As the Deer", "Servant Song", "Sanctuary" were a few. It brought tears to my eyes. Peggy told Tim and I a little bit about Susan, Susan Hockenberry. She's a 57 year old faithful servant and dying of peritoneal cancer. This cancer is a rare cancer and actually is formed outside of the body over the intestines. She did not get a good report when she went to Denver and missed the worship the Sunday we arrived - she told Pastor Peggy she felt guilty and that it was terrible she didn't make it. I also had something to share - a prayer shawl for Susan.

Our church began a prayer shawl ministry this past year and I started knitting using a knitting board. I get so much out of this project! Anyway, Marlis Fisher made a shawl for me last fall and gave it to me. It was such a nice token of her love for me and I cried like always! When we left on the trip I meant to grab some extra shawls just in case. I had some incomplete ones and mine that Marlis gave me and that was soon to be Susan's. I spent some time writing the prayer for it because a prayer must accompany the shawl. Also, prayer shawls are NEVER to be sold only given. Kary, Cheri, and I are all shawl makers and we brought our looms hoping to get some kids interested and to give Pastor Peggy a shawl. Her shawl was dedicated at our church on Father's Day and I wrote a prayer for it while we were there.

Back to dinner on Wednesday... we arrived a wee bit late from our hike, ate some good food, and practiced singing for Susan. Pastor Peggy gave us instruction for the evening and mentioned we had a gift for Susan. I think we were the ones who received an amazing gift that night! We loaded up and caravanned to Susan's house. As we arrived our group seemed so much bigger; all of us from St. Luke (adults and youth) and members young & old from FPC. Pastor Peggy went in to tell Susan she had a surprise for her and we gathered at her bedroom window. We sang our songs, shed some tears in the rain, then Pastor Peggy told Susan that we were coming in. Well, we all surrounded her home on the outside, hand in hand. Pastor Peggy, Lynnette and her husband Neil, and I all went in to Susan's house and greeted her with her husband Martin and a friend. It's still so hard to tell the story without getting all choked up! Pastor Peggy introduced me and I told Susan the story of the prayer shawl. She had already been standing at her bedroom window with all her tubes and oxygen listening to us and she cried and was humble. I gave her a hug and forgot our plan... We were all physically connected and Pastor Peggy was going to pray. I never felt love like that before! You could literally feel 60+ people hugging her home with Christ's love! I held Lynnette and Neil and Pastor Peggy prayed. I stepped out as Pastor Peggy and the others were saying goodbye. Tears running down my face, cheeks all red and I see the group on the lawn, oh boy! Pastor Jim told us later we were standing on Holy ground. And we were!

Martin came out and said "Wait! She wants a picture!" So we stopped and waited and most of us couldn't keep back the tears by that point. Martin got her wheelchair out of the van and she was carried out to us on the lawn. It was like the parable of the paralytic. In the picture one has a full moon in the background and all of us smiling surrounding Susan. Pastor Peggy asked Susan if she wanted communion, so we had communion and Neil led us in several tunes we just followed. Whoa! The feeling is almost indescribable!! It was so powerful. By the end of the night we had hugged Susan, cried, sang, we did a good thing! We shared Christ's love for a woman and her family.

I immediately was on the phone to Marlis back home and she was already in bed, so I chatted with her husband as I cried. I texted Ann (another woman who helped get the prayer shawl ministry going) and my parents and friends back home. We had to debrief a little and Pastor Peggy shared with us that Martin was a non-believer and that tonight he got to see God's love through strangers. And we really weren't stranger but brothers and sisters in Christ. Several kids shared their feelings, some were still crying and not sure why, Carisa and Tim spoke, then Pastor Jim. It was hard to keep the tears from coming but that is what we were there for! To share Christ's love to our brothers and sisters. And we did it standing on Holy ground.

So... Ashley and I agreed that Susan's house was the best part of the mission trip. The feeling of surrounding her house, people coming together and doing a good thing. Like I said the feeling is almost indescribable. It's Holy, humbling, somber, laughter, sadness yet joy all wrapped in one piece of God's quilt woven with His love.

Getting started...

I started a blog five years ago and my intention was to encourage people to stand up for themselves and do something instead sitting and doing nothing. It turned out more to be a rant when I got ticked off and I have deleted the blog. So now I've read some other people's blogs and decided I could have a blog too. Most of the time I feel like writing when I can't sleep.

This morning I was sitting on the back porch enjoying the peace and quiet and thinking about mission. I was in junior high school when the older adults in my church asked me to give minutes for mission. I really liked to do that because I learned so much about the church, not just my church, but the national and global church. I thank Leah Buckland for her constant prodding and encouragement for that! I soon was on my way to being a liturgist as well and I loved that too. That's how I started my public speaking.

So mission...I feel the heart of any church is it's mission. And mission within the church but also to your neighbors and beyond. What does mission look like? As I get older it adds more and more categories. Mission is about the "outside of the box" thinkers. I'm not always thinking outside the box but I always question why do we do this... fill in the blank. This summer mission for me was what I dream of! Seriously! I was an adult sponsor for our mission trip at church and mission was many things like providing a hot meal for community kids, yard work, cleaning debris off land of elderly people, scraping and painting a house, bible study, worship, song, dance, arts & crafts, recreation, storyteller, prayer shawl making (more on that later), prayer shawl giving, serenading, driving, late night talks, walking, climbing a mountain, and so on! Mission was all over us that week and how glorious to be in that presence!

I also was an adult sponsor (that's only by age because you know I'm one of the biggest kids working for God!) at Synod Youth Workshop (SYW). Our small group walked 2 blocks to a Methodist church to roll flyers and rubber band them and distribute them to a certain neighborhood within walking distance for the church's food bank. Maybe it's not the mission we had hoped but the church needed it done and we had a couple of encounters with people. But we had fun together learning about one another.

Mission... the heart of the church and the very essence of your soul!