We're home!

I think it was with mixed emotions that we drove up the church driveway last night just before 9pm. I heard several students and adults say they could have stayed in LA to work a few more days, but by the last half of yesterdays trip, I think we were all thinking HOME sounded pretty good after all!

I can't say too many times how great of a week we had! Both in relationships among the team, as well as relationships formed with the community of New Orleans there was very little negative reaction or attitudes. The students displayed a genuine love for the people they met AND worked alongside. They worked as hard as the adults...sometimes harder! They ate what was put in front of them, slept wherever a spot was available, volunteered whenever help was needed, and just in general, displayed very mature attitudes.

Thank you, students, for making this trip such a delight to be on! I speak for all the adults when I say we are proud of you....proud to say you were with us and represent our youth group! There was a buzz all week about NEXT year's missions trip.....you're already starting to think about signing up for Gabon next summer!

I think sometimes the hardest thing about going on a missions trip is coming back home. Not because we don't love it here...or because we don't WANT to be here...but, because what we experienced was life changing, and if we're not careful, we can be tempted to step back into life as we knew it here and forget all that we've commited to changing in our own lives. We had a remarkable example of "friendship evangelism" this week....both in Pastor Willy's life, as well as in Troy's life. We've seen that when we choose to live as Jesus lived....loving people where they are, not judging and condeming them with our words, but loving them because Jesus did first...people turn to that like magnets. They are drawn to love and acceptance....it's different than tolerating they're lifestyle....it's showing them that God wants to meet them right where they are and begin a new thing.

We saw a picture of what it looks like for God's House to be open to all...not just the lovely or the beautifully dressed....but to the needy and the hopeless. And we were challenged that maybe this is not the way we are in Lancaster...maybe we'd rather have the cleaned up, not the dirty. Maybe we'd rather keep things safe and predictable. Maybe we are still in the process of learning what it means to truly live as Jesus lived.

My prayer for each of the 33 team members is this:

May we be marked for life because of where we've been and what we've seen. May the generous spirit of those we've met along the way, the selfless attitude of Pastor Willy, the search for acceptance we saw in Troy, and the sense of community we saw every day etch a permanent mark in our lives and flow out wherever we are.