Spring Break 2012 Mission Trip - St. Louis Dream Center

Our small but mighty mission trip to the St. Louis Dream Center was amazing! I was impressed with the courageousness of our four young women and our other adult leader as we exited our comfort zones and entered the inner-city mission field of the 21st Ward in North St. Louis. It would seem that Joyce Meyer Ministries purposefully went after one of the most poverty stricken and crime ridden areas of the United States with much drug and gang activity. Some of the Ministries we participated in were...

Food Pantry - We stocked shelves and learned how to help people select their items much like you would in a store. We also put together 700 goodie bags for an Easter outreach for kids.


Feeding Program - Part of the morning of our first day there was spent filling food bags with juice, a snack, and a Scripture for the Dream Center after school Feeding Program. On the following Monday, they would add the hot pizza to complete the meal which would be delivered to bus drivers to hand out to kids who would often not go home to a hot meal otherwise.


Homeless Ministry - On Friday morning, we were able to help homeless guests select an outfit from the Boutique after they had a warm shower. We spent time just talking to the people and watched the selflessness of one of the Ministry Academy students who gave away some of his own razors because the supply was low in the lounge area.


KidzJam Visitation - Unfortunately we missed the actual KidzJam events, which are described as a carnival on wheels much like Metro Ministries in New York City does a Sidewalk Sunday School. We were able to take candy and fliers to the neighborhoods to share about upcoming Easter events and just share the love of Christ with kids and families.


Street Ministry - This was a fun night for me to try some "Way of the Master" and "Stand to Reason" techniques for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ head-on and giving people on the streets something to think about respectively. But I was most impressed with our girls who jumped whole-heartedly into praying with strangers at night in inner-city St. Louis with interesting characters like the man asking us to pray that his crack-wh*** wife would die. We of course refused to pray that prayer request and instead prayed that he and his wife would experience the love of Christ.

The night before, we had inadvertently visited another area they often go to do street ministry, the famous Delmar Loop where we went just to look around. I was touched to see one of our girls give an umbrella to a homeless man, and I got chills when I heard that her Dad sent the umbrella with her, telling her to give it to someone because there would be someone that needed it.


Adopt-A-Block - Taking a wagon of donated bread, Starbucks pastries, water, fliers, and trash bags to the streets, we looked for trash to clean up and people to interact with as we knocked on doors to invite people to worship, Youth Group, young adult groups, etc. at the Dream Center. The next day at the 9am worship service, I was blown away to see someone we met and talked to extensively on our route come forward and make a decision for Christ! It's not often you get to see immediate fruits of your labor like that; we're often just planting seeds.

Reflections...
I don't intend to come across too critically but these may sting a bit. I was struck by how we as the church seem to have a "Hole in the Gospel" to borrow from a book by Richard Stearns of the same title. Are we doing nearly enough as those "to whom much has been given" to care for "the least of these" in Jesus name? I certainly came back with a "missions bug," and I want to seek to empower young people to transform the world for Christ even as their lives are transformed. To do that, my own life must continue to be transformed in Him.

We took a minute to think about how strange our world can be and how odd the mission trip experience can be. Taking some time to see the sights in St. Louis, the girls spent some time in Forever 21 at the Galleria Mall only to sort clothes and help homeless people "shop" for outfits the next day who may have never owned any new clothes.

We also sought out a "fine dining" experience at Cunettos House of Pasta, which was juxtaposed with having prepared the Food Pantry that very day for those who have a limited means to buy food. We watched movies in the rental van DVD player on the way to and from St. Louis while ministering to people who may not have the luxury of TVs or Blu Rays or mini-vans.

Finally I note again--as with other impact events like Veritas and the Youth Council Retreat--how interesting mountaintop experiences can be. I was certainly excited to be home and see my family, especially after an hour and a half traffic jam, but I found myself missing the "family experience" of the trip to the Dream Center. Never again will that same exact group be assembled like that, with those four girls, the other adult leader that went with us, the students of the Ministry Academy, the Pastors & staff of the Dream Center, and the people we met and ministered to on the streets of St. Louis. Sometimes we gladly bid the past farewell, other times we approach it with much sentiment, even longing for life to be more like it. I'll admit it: I'm quite a sap!

But here's why I think these experiences are often so difficult to say goodbye to: a bit of heaven touches earth. Or in this particular case, a bit of heaven touches and destroys a chunk of hell. When you actually get to experience people being snatched from the pits of hell or their lives beginning to transform through and for Jesus Christ, it's sometimes hard to say goodbye to that and embrace the junk of everyday life.

But perhaps that is the point. That we don't see life as mundane or ordinary; that we DO see that the even the clouds in life have silver linings. That everyday is an opportunity to influence life change. Everyday is an opportunity to share the love of Christ. Our mission field is part Ozark Mission Project. Our mission field is also in St. Louis. It is in New York, San Antonio, Louisiana, Belize, Africa, and so on. But our mission field is also as close as our own backyard.

Well, They Are Teenagers...

While it may be appropriate to tell the story but change names to protect the innocent (or guilty?), the story is not really important. If you've worked or volunteered in youth ministry long enough, you've heard it before: such-and-such about teenagers "being disrespectful."

In youth ministry we have also made excuses for teenagers, as I did in this situation, with the unacceptable: "Well, they are teenagers." While it is true that teenagers are still developing physically, emotionally, cognitively, socially, spiritually, and so on my reaction--our reaction--is more of a disservice to our young people than anything else.

It's really well past time to stop making excuses for teens and raising the bar of expectation. At the same time followers of Christ are to be a people of grace and we are in the business of encouraging and helping young disciples to grow with God. Hence the reason we want to hold them accountable to higher expectations also with love and kindness.

Young people after all have a way of living up to the expectations placed on them--for good or for bad! So my challenge to young readers of this blog is the challenge of Paul to young pastors like Timothy. "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity (1 Timothy 4:12)."

Talk about big expectations! We and society have so lowered the bar that much of the church can hardly imagine what it would look like if the younger generation were an example to the older generation. In one church I served I was encouraged by a Jr. High guy who enjoyed a particular worship experience but was discouraged by his added comment: "But it was kind of awkward with all the old people."

We've come a long way from youth leading the older generations to this. The answer might be, to coin a phrase, to continue to strive for the "dis-compartmentalization" of youth ministry or the end of the inadvertent one-eared Mickey Mouse paradigm where the youth ministry is off doing their own thing only somewhat connected to the larger church body.

I've noted this before but I'll continue to note... that as much as the people would like to see youth more involved in the life of the church, the church must also strive to be more involved in the life of youth.