Altoona Trip

Well, it's about time I posted about the Altoona mission/work trip. Meeting with the teens this weekend brought back many memories and laughs. Then it occurred to me that I never posted about the trip, or even posted at all over the last month. *Good grief* Obviously I can’t put everything that happened down here on the blog. But I’ll give you a brief overview, as well as share some pictures from the trip.

On July 28th, the Warren Center Baptist Church prayed over and commissioned the youth group before they were to head out to south-western Pennsylvania. 10 teens and 3 adults packed all their bags onto a small yellow bus for a week long service project that would involve serving people, sharing the love of Christ, fun, fellowship, and learning what God was trying to teach us.

Praying over the team

The leadership for the youth group had decided to do this mission trip with a group called Team Effort. The ministry sets up camp locations around North America that give teens and leaders an opportunity to reach out to hurting communities situated around each area. With this being our first trip, we kept it simple and went to Team Efforts’ Blue Knob, PA location.

Our group of 13 was part of a larger group of 128 that would be divided out into different work sites. Out of all of the groups, ours had one of the shortest travel times, as some groups traveled from Vermont, New York, and even Florida. With a group this size, we were housed at the Blue Knob Resort. (Side note, when I think resort, I think Alyeska in Alaska) To all of our surprise the small back hill PA resort showed it’s age, and why we were going to be working in the areas surrounding the resort.

The  Black Bear Inn (used as dining hall)

Housing for the groups

Each day was laid out fairly the same. The morning had us eating breakfast and packing lunches, then heading off to our work sites. Usually we would do start with stretches and a devotional, then dive into our projects. After a short lunch break, we would try to finish the days work that we had started before stopping for the day. Dinner was either at a host church, back at the resort, or on our own. If we were back at the resort, there was usually some time for the teens to relax and/or swim. The night was capped off with a high energy chapel service, as well as some time to hangout before lights out.

Devotions before a work day

Pre-dinner breather after a busy day

Chapel time

During the week, the WCBC Youth Group and the Florida group were sent to “Shamrock Estates.” This was a trailer park that needed not just work done, but also a lot of love showered upon the residents that lived there. Our projects for the week consisted of building porches, roofing, building a playground, constructing picnic tables, finishing a playhouse, as well as various other projects. With this being the last week that Team Effort had for the summer, we were tasked to finish all the summer’s projects.

Shamrock Estates work group

Most of our group worked on two different style projects. Pastor Larry led a group that finished porches, as well as did roofing and various projects. I was put in charge of finishing a playhouse that had been started by another group. Other leaders supervised other building projects that were going on.

Porch building and roofing

Playhouse work crew

Painting

Playground

Fixing and painting lawn furniture

The teens were hard workers, and were not afraid to learn how to use the different tools that were needed on each site.

Teaching Derrick to use a circular saw

Andrea learning to use a drill

The group that was under my supervision was a mixture of teens from both groups. It was amazing to see how the teens would step up and take care of different needs that they saw, as well as came up with ideas to improve the project further than it was planned to go. While the guys kept busy constructing the playhouse, the girls did an amazing job decorating the inside and outside. But it wasn’t just construction work that was being done throughout the week.

Team getting the inside of the playhouse painted

While working on the playhouse, we were told the story of the little girl that would be receiving the playhouse. Her grandmother and mother shared how her father left the family, leaving the girl feeling like it was her fault. The playhouse was build after it was learned that the father had promised for years to build a playhouse for the girl and her sister. The teens got a first hand experience on how the love of Christ can be shared in tasks such as building a playhouse. Sadly, we didn't get to see her reaction to the playhouse, as she was away at camp for the week.

The playhouse finished

Playing with the local kids

All the projects were wrapped up by Thursday, and all of the tools were inventoried and put into storage.

Inventory!

Thursday afternoon and Friday were used as free times. While all the other groups went off to water parks and recreational places, our group kept it simple and entertained ourselves. We spent a lot of time swimming and playing cards. The highlight for many of the teens came when a few of the girls came into the room where we were playing cards screaming that there was a bear outside on the dumpster.

The bear went over the mountain to get a loud of garbage

The week wrapped up with us packing up and traveling home (Pastor Larry driving while the rest of us dozed on and off).

Typical scene on the bus... napping.

God blessed us leaders with an amazing group of teens. They acted like brothers and sisters, and bonded well throughout the trip. So many laughs were had. But in all seriousness, God worked in everyone’s hearts. On Thursday night, we had a wrap up chapel that challenged everyone on were they stand in their walk with Christ. The theme throughout the week had been “Foundation.” Taken from Luke 6:46-49, the parable of the wise and foolish man was broken down and presented each night to the teens (and adults). But Thursday night had us all outside holding a fistful of sand. Each of us were told that the sand represents the things in our lives that we build our foundations on, instead of Christ. All of us were to talk with God and see if there was something that were had put ahead of Him, and if we were ready, to give it up. Whenever anyone was ready, they could put the sand into a giant bucket sitting in front of a cross, and pull out a rock that was at the bottom (symbolizing putting our foundation on Christ). One by one the teens went forward to give up their fistful of sand. It was during the Sunday service that the teens shared what they had learned on the trip and what God had shown them. Pastor Larry, Annette, and I got to hear what God taught each teen and how each of them had applied the lessons from the week.

Thank you all for your prayers during the trip. God was gracious in protecting us and blessing us during the trip. Continue to pray for the teens as another year of school and youth group has started up. Many of the teens have been challenged over the last year. And it is also a joy to see them all asking when the next mission trip is going to happen.

Grace & Peace,

Daryl J. Howard

I'm not trimming my beard... just trimming the window.