Missions Week!

Hello all! This week Jhi is attempting something that we've never done before. In the past, Jhi has taken students on missions trips to such places as New York and Guatemala. After I graduated eighth grade, I was privileged to be able to go on the trip to Guatemala, and my mom was a chaperone. It was one of the best experiences in my life, and I constantly wish that I could go back. This year they decided to do a missions trip but stay in good old GA. This allowed the trip to be less expensive AND for the kids to see the poverty that is so close to them. We don't have to go to another country to be able to serve people in need.

The kids arrived Monday morning excited as well as the staff. I was put in charge of check-in (as you can see below) and got to meet everyone first! It's always funny to see the different ways the kids react to their parents saying goodbye: hugging, eye-rolling, ignoring, etc. Anyway, after a short training and devotions, we loaded the vans and headed to The Corners. The Corners is a trailer park kind of area, but we are partnering with a ministry called Corners Outreach. During the school year, they have tutoring after school everyday and a camp on Saturdays. During the summer though, they have a camp for Kindergarten-5th graders. Then 6th-8th graders who live in The Corners are allowed to be counselors. They have the camp for about 9 weeks during the summer and many other churches partner with them to help put the camp on. Obviously Jhi is helping this week. One of their main purposes in having this camp is so that the kids will not learn all of the progress that they've made over the school year in math and reading. It is proven that if students can't read by the 3rd grade that they are SEVEN times more likely to be incarcerated or be involved in prostitution. That's why we have the Reading station that I mention later, just in case you were wondering.

We arrived at The Corners and as soon as we got out of the vans, we were greeted with loud camp songs. All of the kids, led by Mr. Terry, were singing and dancing to songs at the top of their lungs, and we were able to join them! The kids were then split into three groups: Kindergarten and 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and 4th and 5th. Each group went to one of our four stations: Reading, Crafts, Games, and Gospel Sharing. Okay fine, they went to three and one of the stations was open (which gave an awesome break to each of us at a different time). I am in charge of the Crafts station because of other projects I've been doing for Jhi so far, but it's been fun! The first day we had birdhouses that were almost like a 3D puzzle that they could color and then put together. We all ate lunch and then played some random games until it was time to go. Then we packed up and headed back to the church. We had a quick debrief with our students, planned for the next day, had a staff meeting, and then went home! Yay! I was exhausted so I definitely had no problems falling asleep.

Day two was very similar to the first except that we started with doughnuts for the other girl intern's birthday! Side note: her name is Rachel also. It makes for some very confusing conversations. Anyway, back to the kids. The kids signed in, met, blah blah blah. With the kids that day we decided to use foam crosses, crumple up small squares of tissue paper, and glue them on in a pattern. Some kids took a painstakingly long amount of time while others *cough: the boys: cough, cough* sped through the craft. Thankfully, I had thought ahead and printed out some coloring sheets just in case that happened. The rest of the day went on without a hitch. I feel like the kids had a better handle on how things went and were able to really engage with the other kids. Repeat the first day's activities when we left The Corners. 

Day three was great as well. It was supposed to rain and all it did was sprinkle a little bit! Praise the Lord! Crafts today consisted of using scrapbook paper to make cards for the kids' parents. They enjoyed it for a while, but it quickly turned into origami (which I was totally okay with). I made so many airplanes and cranes! The picture below shows how much fun we've been having. We were playing freeze tag but in order to unfreeze someone, you were supposed to jump over them. I was tagged, so I bent down for someone to jump over me. This is what happened instead. These kids are precious. Each of us on staff as well as our Jhi students have created some incredible relationships with these kids and I hope that Jhi can do this again next year!

Prayer Requests: 

It's supposed to rain for the next two days so PLEASE pray that it doesn't! And if it does, that we'll make the most of it anyway :)

Prayers are always needed for servants' hearts and joyful spirits!

Friday we're taking our Jhi students to White Water so you can pray for safety through that as well as anything else that you can possibly think of.