Matt Day: Mission Accomplished!

This mission trip was very different from past mission trips in the sense that we were not directly seeing and helping the people as much as on previous trips. On the first night we were asked what we expected to accomplish over this mission trip, and my answer was to help at least one person for the better.But when I did finally come face to face with a homeless man to hand him a lunch we had made, I realized why we were there. That single moment made the trip worth it because I knew I helped someone for the better. Hebrews 13:15-16 says, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of the lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased". I do believe God can be pleased by our work in Washington D.C. I accomplished my goal, and I'm sure everyone else accomplished theirs. MATT

Emily Ghianni: WOW!

Wow, this week has been so powerful in so many ways. I don't even know where to start. Monday, we wnet to help a woman garden, and to get there that meant we had to go through the "hood," and we did that before we even went sightseeing. So, I see that as an opportunity to remember that D.C. isnt just for touring and sightseeing. There is a whole other side to D.C. and just being introduced to it first really opened my eyes so that when we went sightseeing, I still couldn't help thinking, wow, we saw the real D.C. but the tourists have no idea. This whole week really showed me how great our youth group is. They go above and beyond. I loved every single opportunity given to me to learn and see more. This mission trip is my last one and I am proud of that. EMILY

Will Emerson: Friday

Today we went to Jimmy T's Place for breakfast and it was delicious. Then we visisted the Air & Space Smithsonian and that was interesting. Then we took a tour of the Capitol and the House of Representatives Gallery. That was very cool and I saw a statue of my great, great, great, great, great grandfather, John Sevier. After that we walked to lunch and then we went to see the White House, front and back. Mrs Jodi got a distant picture of Barrack Obama in a Hawaian shirt. That was cool. Then we ate dinner and went back to the William Penn House. When we got back, we had a very, very emotional devotion led by Madison.  WILL

Matthew Morris: Tank tops+D.C.+Capitol building+seeing the President= kind of a big deal

The time is currently 11:09 pm eastern time. I am blogging about one of the best, most tiring, yet refreshing 6 days of my life. First of, all jokes aside, Washington DC is one of the most amazing, breath taking, awe inspiring cities on the face of the planet. I <3 D.C. I can not tell you how many times my breath has been taken away by this place. Walking through the Capitol building, stepping into the dome... I got chills. You never know, one day I may just be working there. But thats not the reason why I trekked 13 hours up north and came to this place. The reason I came here was to help out the unnoticed, the forgotten, the "useless" men and women of this city. The people of Wards 7 and 8 that no tourists come to see. This mission trip, to me, was striving to achieve small goals for the greater good of the city, Whether that be through helping out neighborhoods via rejuvenating city gardens, feeding and assisting the homeless by selling their papers, or playing a game of football with the kids of the projects. All of these tasks were not met with smiles galore however. It doesnt take too many hours of gardening to sap your will to help people, or walking miles on end to sell papers bright and early in the morning really shortens tempers. But it doesnt take too long when you see smiles on people's faces, or laughter of a bunch of kids to revitalize you tenfold and keep you going. On tuesday I got too meet a 22 year old man named Jabrelle. He is a visitor at the McKenna center for troubled men, he goes to meetings to help him deal with his alcoholism ( he is currently 6 months sober). He really opened up to me and we talked about sports, and video games, and food. He was a great guy and I wish him all the best in his sobriety. Thursday was personally great for me. The work that we did with selling newspapers and helping kids was great. Going to a Mexican restaurant and ordering virgin margaritas with the guys was fun as well. But the best part of the day for me was carrying out the devotional that night. I got to share with the group my favorite bible verse Ps. 27:1-2 and just say what that meant to me and it just felt good to share God's love through my interpretation with other people. And now today, Friday quite a good day as well. Others may not have loved the Capitol building as much as me but I've wanted to get into law and eventually politics for as long as I can remember. So today being in the building where a lot of it all happens meant a lot too me. On a side note just walking around all the monuments and all the buildings I just wanted to chant "USA USA USA", this city brings out the American patriot in me I guess. Oh and Thursday me, Lucas, and Jack bought matching tank tops and wore them today and it was funny seeing all the stares. Thats about it.. I got to meet up with my cousin Jack Revelle so that was pretty sweet. Its pretty late and I'm tired so I gotta go to bed, believe I have more to say but time constraints are dragging me away. Its also late so if my grammar is off please refrain from chastising me. Thats all! MATTHEW

Lucas Trujillo: Can't come up with a creative enough title so it's just going to be..YOUTH ROCKS D.C. MISSION TRIP 2011 WOOHOO

Hey Y'all! It's the last night and I am finally blogging. I always wait to blog last so that I have plenty of things to say. Smart right? Yeah, I know. Well today, we went site seeing and "the bros" (Matthew, Jack and I) all wore pink tank tops into our country's Capitol, the National Air and Space Smithsonian and the White House, which by the way I must mention that we witnessed the Obama family plus other political officers have a nice dinner on the back porch of the White House. That was really cool because not everyone gets to see the President somewhere else other than a T.V. screen. But enough about today, Yesterday was the best! First, we helped our homeless friend David earn 120$ selling newspapers on nearly every corner of Pennsylvania Ave. That was super exciting yet also super frustrating. Lets just say D.C. is not the South. After that, we played with kids, which if you didn't already know, kids are my thing. The men played football with the boys in the parking lot, while the ladies let the girls braid their hair. Aww, how cute. Just the joy it brought me seeing the smiles on those kids faces is greater than anything I can ever ask for. Then we had to say bye to Carolyn, our tour guide & the Bros's "dream girl" according to Jay. That was heart breaking....  But seriously, heart breaking. Well, its getting late so I am going to start packing, I have a big day ahead of me. I love buses. The key to long bus rides is to bring your tooth brush and brush them every two hours, it make you feel like a new you every time! Crazy right? Well now I'm really rambling, I'm going to bed. Goodnight. I will see all of y'all tomorrow night! LUCAS

Ashley Day: Awesome Mission Trip Experiences!!

Hey youth parents or friends!!! I just want to let you all know how awesome this week has been. Of course, that's not surprising-everything we do is so much fun. But I feel like this week the youth has gotten so much closer, both to each other and God, and serving the world. The first three day we were weeding, which did get a little frustrating at times. We sometimes complained that the weeds would just grow back, or after a while the trash we picked up would only reappear. But in the end we all came to realize that the people and the community needed this job done, and we were helping out the individual people so much. Yesterday was definitely my favorite though. We started out selling newspapers with the homeless people on the streets of Washington. That also got aggravating because of the amount of people that would just walk by and pretend to answer the phone or simply ignore us, or even give us mean looks. We didn't get very many people to buy our papers, but the ones that did made a huge difference in the people we were selling them for's lives.Later that day we went to an after school program called Little Friends for Peace, and we got to play with children that are being brought up in a rough and violent neighborhood. It was a wonderful thing to see the lovely smiles on all of their faces, and how attached they got to us in such a short amount of time. This whole week has been such a great experience and we all have such awesome memories now. Tonight at devotion we all realized how close our senior girls are to leaving, and there was definitely a lot of tears. We all love them so much and we're going to miss them on these awesome mission trips!! ASHLEY

Jim Garrett: First Mission Trip for Me

Hi,  I am Jim,
  Today we ate breakfast at Jimmy T's. Then we got on the subway to the museum of Air and Space. After that we when to the Capitol. Then we had a long walk to get to the old postal service office were we ate lunch. Then we took pictures at the front of the White House. JIM