Mission Trip 2014 Prep

This week I'm excited to be preparing to be an adult leader on my third mission trip with the high schoolers of my church. Read about my other trips here and here. 
(And I just realized that I never finished blogging about last year's trip...maybe I'll go back and fix that...)

Our trip this year is (again) being facilitated by YouthWorks, an organization that organizes Christ-Centered mission trips for youth all over the U.S. This year's destination is Kansas City, Missouri!
(Apparently, I'm working my way to all the states that boarder IA. I guess Nebraska is up next year!)

The format of this trip will be very similar to last year. We will again have a "work crew" and a "family", but we will be visiting a YouthWorks mega site, which has a larger capacity than others, so our work crews may have students from other churches. We will work at various nonprofits in the city during the day and then do something fun each night. Our work sites include an urban farming site, a food bank, a literacy camp, and working with disabled adults. We will not know exactly where we will work until we get their on Sunday! This is a bit of a struggle for this type-a planner. On Thursday night we will have a cook-out where organizations we've worked with for the past week and community members will be invited to share a meal with us. 

Something different about this year's trip is that my little sister, Leah, is coming along. She is finally old enough (even though I'd be fine if she stayed little forever and didn't go to high school). Leah loves serving others and I'm very excited to see Leah experience her first mission trip with St. Paul Youth.

Trip Facts:

Miles to Kansas City: 326 miles

Number of Vehicles: 8 (Decorated with Snow White and the names seven Dwarfs!)
(My van is "Snow White" so I need to work on a costume aka red hair ribbon)

Number of Students: 62
Number of Adult Leaders: 13

Trip Length: 6 days (4 days of service)
Hours of Work per Day: 6ish (that's 1800ish hours of service total!)

This year everyone going on a St. Paul Mission Trip will get one of these t-shirts! People wearing these t-shirts will be serving other people. It is neat to know that these shirts are traveling to Kansas City, Madison (with the family YouthWorks trip), Tanzania and Appalachia. I already feel connected to others on mission trips because I know we will be wearing the same thing.  

(Plus they are super cute!) I can't wait to wear mine!

I better get back to my laundry and packing list writing!

 

 

Are you preparing for any mission trips this summer? Where are you headed? What kind of work will you be doing?