Training Week!

What a week! Since I flew to NOLA on Sunday I have met my amazing fellow Summer Missionaries and learned the ins and outs of MissionLab. We have done everything from having a food fight for our promo video to completing an escape room challenge to build teamwork.

It's amazing how quickly you can become friends with people from all over the United States in such a small amount of time. The other SMs hail from Kentucky, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, and Jamaica. Even though we are from different places, we all have the most important thing in common: our faith in Christ and our love for missions!

Some of my favorite memories from this week were exploring the city (we love hitting up local restaurants) and doing homeless ministry. The group that I have been assigned to next week will be doing homeless ministry almost every day. They will bring packages of food, water, and hygiene items to hand out so that they can meet a physical need. But they will also start a conversation with the people in hopes to meet a spiritual need as well.

We had dinner with a couple that works with a ministry called Bethel Colony South, a substance abuse treatment program. After men and women go through the program, they are given jobs at a local snowball (or snow cone if you're not from here) stand, coffee shop, or thrift store. The wife, Linda, also employs graduates of the program to clean the temporary housing on campus. Linda told us something that has really stuck with me: "Don't judge these people or think you're better than them. How do you know that you're not a drug addict or an alcoholic? You don't. Try it and find out." Obviously she wasn't encouraging us to abuse drugs or alcohol. She was simply showing us that we don't have any right to think ourselves more holy than the people we are ministering to. Just because our sins haven't made us homeless doesn't mean that they aren't sins. I'm praying that the groups that do homeless ministry will approach the people with humility, not assuming that they have all the answers, only that they know the one who does.

Our first group of campers come in tomorrow (Sunday) at 2:00. Please pray for them to have safe travels and to prepare their hearts to serve the people of New Orleans.
I would also ask you to pray for my team of SMs to have energy and enthusiasm throughout the summer. Right now we are so pumped and excited to start camp, but by the ninth and tenth week we will be tired, hot, and ready to go home. Pray that we will remember that while it may be our ninth week, it is the campers first week.