One God, One Mission

So this weekend the kids went on a mission trip of sorts into our community and did some painting and grunt work for homes and organizations that could benefit from many hands making light work. As usual, the kids think it's about helping other people. The big secret is that it's really about them--the skills they learned, the camaraderie they formed, the big realization that maybe there are different faiths and different traditions, but at the end of the day we are all sisters and brothers.

It teaches them, in a very sweaty, tangible way, that Christ's mission for them is to be His hands and feet. If they don't do it, no one else will. They discovered this in the before and after pictures of their projects. Had they not worked on Saturday, numerous families would still be living in the physical conditions they had last Friday. For many of our youth, that was a sobering realization.

The aches and pains of muscles rarely used to lift a rake or a paintbrush will wear off in a couple of days, but maybe the excercising of Christian goodwill will be with them always.

Here's a link to the project homepage--look for the 2006 pictures, and for lazy Rob, here's the link to Monday's Musings on the same topic.