Thursday, August 12, 2010

Youth SLAM Trip - Back in LA

This past Sunday we arrived safely back in Los Angeles after spending 5 days serving and learning in Washington on the Yakama nation. It was a really great time. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers over the last two weeks - the adult staff, the youth and I are all really grateful. For a photo and music filled summary of our time on missions, check out the video below.



After our week of service and during our 3 day road trip back down to Los Angeles, we took a little bit of time to reflect on the SLAM trip experience. The youth wrote "30 second Highlights" testifying to how God blessed them in our time together. Here are a few of those testimonies:

- From Joseph, "It was awesome because I learned that I didn't complain when I worked around my friends and they were my encouragement. They made me want to try my hardest and I did and it wasn't easy but it felt like something I should do..." This was really cool because at the trip's outset I challenged Joseph to have a good attitude in our service project. Throughout the week he hardly complained at all!

- From Anthony, "We worked hard at Johanna's house. It was fun because I got to use the weed whacker and every one worked really hard. I learned that it's better to serve even though you don't get nothing in return." Anthony is a generally quiet and easy-going 9th grader. On our trip he demonstrated an amazing dedication and focus in our times of service. He was downright ferocious. During lunch breaks he'd finish up his sandwich in 5 or 10 minutes and declare his readiness to continue weeding or chopping wood. For my own sake, I encouraged him to rest just a little bit longer.

- From Karla, "It was great because I met these wonderful people that are really into their culture and they always love giving and teaching about what it means to them to love God. It was fun and we all worked together in a lot of things. I would love to do it again." At first Karla seemed a bit unsure how to receive the Native style of worship and asked our adult staff for prayer. By the end of the week she grew more comfortable with new ways to worship our God and even went to learn some Native style worship songs on the drum.

- From Phillip, "What I learned in Wapato is that Native Americans were treated very badly and had most of their land taken away. The treaty of 1855 wasn't really fair." I was really glad for all the time I had to spend with Phillip this trip. He's been a relatively consistent youth group member the last couple years, but has never fully committed to the youth group. It was great to bond with him more deeply and to see him bond with the others as well. I'm praying that he'll develop into one of our student leaders in the coming year.

- Finally their was Chryshanda. Prior to the trip Chryshanda was very new to our group and shy by nature. In fact, the night before our departure she made up her mind to not come - but at the urging of her mother, decided to come after all. Boy am I glad that she did. During our time away she really wrestled with the injustices done to American Indians by the US government and Christian groups. She remarked, "It's good to have a week to stop thinking about ourselves and help out people whose lives are also pretty hard." She even spoke up in the 75 person worship circle and praised God for the opportunity to be in Wapato.

Even with no paintballing or zip lines or swimming pools (well, I guess we did get to swim in a river in Oregon!) our youth are excited to serve on missions again in the near future. In fact the primary complaint was that the trip wasn't long enough. I'm not sure if my aging body could have handled much more, but maybe a longer trip will be in the works for the future.

Peace to you,
Elliot

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Youth SLAM Trip - Mid-Trip Update

Just a quick little update. We've now been on the Yakama reservation here in Yakama for 3 days now. We've had two great days of service weeding 8 foot tall weeds, chopping rock hard wood and battling dozens of wasp nests at the home of an elderly woman named Joanna. She's a Jewish holocaust survivor who has been a member of the Yakama nation for years now - and she's also diagnosed with cancer. Two of our youth, Joseph and Phillip had a chance to speak with her and discovered that she only has 3 months to live. It was sobering and inspired some searching prayers from the two young men.

Praise the Lord, we've been safe and relatively healthy even though we've been wielding axes and loppers and other potentially dangerous gardening equipment. The youth and the adults have also been giving themselves to the service faithfully. The before and after pictures of Joanna's yard are pretty striking. We have another two days of service and the work is hard - please continue to pray for us to have strength in our physical bodies and willing hearts/minds to serve.

I've been asking and praying God to show me what he's doing in us on this trip. I've been hoping and praying that our youth would come away transformed and I believe God's doing this. But the transformation isn't immediate. Some nights in the the teaching or debriefing times it's hard to tell what the youth are taking away from the experience other than a fun time or tiring time working away from home. I know God does great work in the small and unseen things in our lives and I'm praying that this would be true for us. Please be praying for our hearts to be of the good soil that Jesus describes in Mark 4, soil that bears good fruit in great quantity in the days and months to come.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Youth SLAM Trip - Day 2

We arrived safely in Oregon last night and had a far less eventful drive. Thank you for your prayers! A combination of audio books on tape, FM radio surfing, sleeping (youth not drivers) and silly car games helped us through our 12 hour journey. I also rapped in Chinese a couple of times to the howling delight of the passengers in our car. I don't think I'm up for a recording contract anytime soon.

The drive from Stanford to West Linn, Oregon was beautiful. We crossed over several bridges, entered through mountain passes, saw a snow capped Mt. Shasta that according to one youth "looked plastic" and passed by beautiful blueish green lakes as well. After a stop for lunch at Cost Co, a gas stop at Fred Meyer (Oregonian Super Market) and a stop for dinner at Subway, we had arrived at the home of Don and Faith Carter - our gracious hosts for the evening and parents of Casey Taylor, one our youth staff workers.

The girls slept inside and the guys outside in a tent. Phillip, one our youth, became a little concerned about sleeping in the tent as we approached the house because of the woodsy setting.

Another youth, Anthony, replied, "Why, people aren't going to do anything to you out here."
Phillip responded, "I mean, in terms of animals and what not."

It brought me back to another time when we were on retreat and the youth thought for sure that Sasquatch was going to come out of the woods to eat us. I'm not sure if I've captured the hilarity of the moment, but trust me, it was funny.

Today we have a short 3 1/2 hour drive to the Yakama Reservation in Wapato, WA and will make the transition from relaxed road trip to focused service project. Please pray that Jesus would give us willing hearts to serve and love as he did. I'm hoping and praying that we would learn much about Jesus and that we would grow in our faith as we serve this coming week.

There are also a couple of specific prayer requests to ask you to pray for:
- please pray for Justin as he's coming down with a little cold
- please pray for Karla and Sara who have had upset stomachs
- please pray for Chryshanda - she's newer to our group and I hope for her to feel at home with us
- Several of our youth have been made intensely aware of their relative poverty in the last week or two as we've interacted with friends, Christians and supporters from more affluent backgrounds. Please pray for God to give us wisdom to make some sense of this.

Blessings,
Elliot