How I Know

In my day to day life, it is easy to overlook all the ways God is working in my life. While I know that God's love and presence is constant, I often fail to notice the ways God is moving and using me. I get caught up in the daily rituals and frantic pace of life. However, there are times when God's presence and purpose are crystal clear. For me, youth mission trip week is a time of blessing and seeing God at work in so many ways. While I see God at work each year on mission trip, this year was exceptional. This year was different.

CTCYM stands for Central Texas Conference Youth in Mission. It is our conference youth mission effort. Each year in June and July youth from all over our conference gather together to go out and be the hands and feet of Christ in this world. There are three types of youth mission trips; Senior High, Junior High and Combination. Acton participated in the combination trip this year meaning that youth that have completed 6th grade through graduation were elgible to go. Senior High and Combination trips travel outside the state of Texas for work. For every 5 youth that attend CTCYM requires 2 adults accompany them on the trip. Churches from around the conference are joined together to make a work group and are located together in a living center. The other churches we were grouped together with were Journey of Faith in Round Rock, FUMC Corsicana and University in Fort Worth. A living center is a church in the area that is to be served that functions as the home away from home during the week. The youth and adults eat and sleep there. Showers are usually taken at an a local high school or other facility that can accomodate. The youth and adults are divided into work teams that will spend the week together working, eating and worshiping. The work to be completed is light construction including building wheelchair ramps, sheetrock, flooring, painting and yard work. It is amazing what a group of youth can do.

Originally Acton was assigned to a living center in Willard MO. At the beginning, it was predicted that our living center would consist of 70 people. At the time registration ended we had grown to 106! What a wonderful blessing that was but it did present a new set of challenges. The church in Willard could host a group no larger than 75 people. In addition, the community was a suburb of Springfield MO and not much work was being found. The last thing the leadership team wanted was to take the youth on trip with nothing to do. When it became obvious that we were not able to find a place to house our large group or work to be done Ben and I started looking for a new location.

CTCYM groups were located in Arkansas and Missouri this year. We started our search with a call to Camden AR where Ben's dad lives. The Methodist church there was not able to accommodate us but did recommend we look at Pine Bluff. We were told the mission field there is great and two churches were large enough to house a group our size. The first church we called was FUMC Pine Bluff. We presented our case and was transferred to Ann Cain, the church administrator. We again told our story and Ann said "Let me call you back". This was at 11:00 on Thursday May 24. By 3:00 Ann had cleared all obstacles, including working around preparations for VBS starting the day after we leave, and we were good to go! Arrangements were made for a pre trip visit on Tuesday after Memorial Day.

That Tuesday I make the 6 hour drive to Pine Bluff and was greeted by Ann like I was her long lost best friend! She showed me around town, introduced me to key persons and made me and the upcoming team feel welcome. I took work applications to the Area Agency on Aging and to Central Park, a neighborhood similiar to Rancho Brazos. I left feeling refreshed and excited about what would happen when our group arrived. We had moved from Willard to Pine Bluff. Officially we were still listed as Willard on the CTCYM website but we had successfully moved.

Our trip was scheduled for June 10-16. Ben and I, along with the other leadership team arrived on Friday the 8th. We had 19 worksite applications including 9 ramps waiting for us!  Enough work to keep our 9 teams busy during the week. Each detail had fallen into place perfectly. God had brought us to a place that needed our help.

The first night of mission trip is always hectic. Always. This year was no exception. So who would show up at our living center? Kyland Dobbins, the conference CTCYM coordinator (among other things such as Volunteers in Mission and Disaster Response). . He makes the rounds during mission trip to each living center to see how everyone is doing. He came to us first on his way to north Little Rock. Kyland is an amazing man with a pure heart for service. We were blessed that he came to see us. He did not stay long but we enjoyed the time we had with him.

The next day I got a call from a man who is the construction coordinator for north Little Rock. We made polite conversation for a few minutes then he got to the point of his phone call. Little Rock had recieved 75 worksite applications and were overwhelmed with work. He wanted to know if we had plenty of work. I told him we had 19 job applications and were pretty busy. I didn't think we could make it to Little Rock to help. He said he had an application from a 98 year old man who needed a floor that lives in Pine Bluff. Kyland had been to his center last night and thought perhaps my living center could help since we were in Pine Bluff. Hmm.. interesting. I gave the man our construction coordinator's phone number and told him to call. Didn't think much else about it that day. It's not called Manic Monday for nothing.

Tuesday night at dinner, leadership sat tother and reviewed the day. Steve Lubbers starts talking about this 98 year old man, Horace Owens, he met just a few minutes earlier. This is the job referral that came from Little Rock. Steve said Mr. Owens needed a new floor in his house. Really this job is too big to start mid way through the week. Yet, there was something about Mr. Owens that compelled Steve and the rest of the construction crew to help him. The plan was that Steve along with Spencer (also on construction) would work all the next day tearing out the floor. The big fear was that they would find termites. It was actually less of a fear and more of a prediction but the work needed to be done. We didn't have a choice. God brought this man to us for a reason.

On Thursday and Friday, our teams were finishing the original jobs that were given to them then joining together at Mr. Owen's house to work on the floor. Mr. Owens told stories about his life and sang wonderful gospel songs to the teams. Despite his age, his voice was clear and strong. Mr. Owens was sharing his life of faith with the youth and they were hanging on every word.

On Friday night the clients are invited to join us for dinner and fellowship. I am not sure how many people invited Mr. Owens but I would guess every person who had worked on his house asked him to come fellowship with us. Mr. Owens did come as well as other family members! I think he and his family filled three tables! The youth were so excited that he had come.

Each team that had a guest was given a chance to introduce the homeowner and tell about the work that was done. When we had finished eating, Mr. Owens wanted to speak. He was moved to the front of the great hall and given a microphone. He thanked God and thanked us for the work that was done. He said he could not imagine that the floor would be so beautiful and that his prayers would be answered. He then sang for us. Amazing Grace-strong and pure. In praise and thanksgiving. Simply from his heart.

This is how I know God was working through us. I shudder to think about what would have happened with Mr. Owens if we had not been there. What if FUMC Pine Bluff had told us we couldn't come. That the church was too busy with Annual Conference and VBS the next week. What if they were not willing to take a risk and allow us to stay? Of if Kyland had come to see at the end of the week instead of the first of the week. Would he have remembered that we were in Pine Bluff? Or if we had decided that the job was too big and too late in the week to start?

But none of those things happened. God intervened each step of the way to bring us to Pine Bluff AR. We came so that this man could witness to the youth with his words, his songs and his life. Each person on the trip is required to fill out an evaluation. On almost every evaluation, spending time with Mr. Owens was listed as a highlight of the trip. The youth also expressed blessings in blessing others. Despite our large size, we did not have a single ugly word spoken or amy disagreements. Each person treated others with love and respect. No one complained about long days, lack of sleep or cold showers. In fact, each day the teams were up and ready to leave early. No one wanted to waste time that could be used for working. The Holy Spirit was moving among us. We know God was at work.

If you are on facebook you can find Mr. Owen's testimony and song on my wall Margret Amos Fields. It is also on youtube listed under Amazing Grace. Watch it and know.

Next year, don't miss your opportunity to know God's love and presence in a very real and tangible way. Watch as the Spirit moves in our youth as lives are transformed. I promise you will never be the same.