World Changers

A few weeks ago, Bailey and I had the opportunity to go with the youth from our church to World Changers in East Chicago, IN. When we were youth, this was a weeklong trip we looked forward to each summer. World Changers is an organization/program through the North American Mission Board that is geared toward students. It is a missions experience that allows students to help meet other's physical needs by completing various construction-type projects and to meet their spiritual needs as they share the love of Christ through their service. Here's a recap of our week.....  (Warning: this is a long post, without pictures, but we had an amazing week where the Lord proved, once again, that He is with us each and every step of the way).

We (25 youth and 11 adults) drove ALL day Saturday (about 12 hours) to Gurnee, IL which is about 45 minutes north of Chicago and the home of Six Flags Great America. We spent most of Sunday (about 9 hours) at Six Flags. This Six Flags is fantastic! We rode nine different rollercoasters. A few of them several times. I must say that I loved Superman (which you ride like you are actually flying--face down/head first) and Viper (a good-ole wooden rollercoaster). We ended the day with Giordano's pizza (in my opinion, this was better than Gino's).

We got up Monday morning, and as most of us are getting ready, a big thunderstorm comes through and knocks out the power at our hotel. Luckily, the weather passed on through and we were able to pack up so we could go to Navy Pier before we had to check in at World Changers.

A typical week at World Changers: Monday: check-in, opening celebration, dinner, meet your crew, worship, youth group devotion, free time. Tuesday through Friday: breakfast, go to work site, lunch at work site, back to school to shower/clean-up, dinner, worship, youth group devo, free time. Saturday: head home.

Bailey and his crew (which included Mrs. Susan from our group) worked on a local church. They scraped and painted it. Bailey had the experience of working on the steeple of the church. This church and another local church will soon be merging.

    My crew (which included our youth minister, Alex) worked at a trailer park. Originally there were to be approximately 30 trailers that needed to be painted (to be completed by several crews). However, at the last minute, one of the financial supporters backed out. This left us with little paint. We started on our trailer the first day (after waiting about an hour for supplies) and completed a portion of it, knowing we probably wouldn't be back the next day.
    On Wednesday our crew went to a smaller town and worked with one of the town employees spreading mulch and then we picked weeds at a playground. The previous evening at worship, we had a special prayer time that the supplies (paint) would be provided. And that it was. Our crew chief received a call about the middle of the day, Wednesday, asking how much paint we needed, as there was a lady that heard about World Changers and offered to buy a certain amount of paint.
    Thursday--my crew goes back to our trailer and we finish painting it. At this point we're not sure what Friday is going to hold, if anything, but we just wait until the next morning to find out.
    Friday--our crew returns to the trailer park to help another crew finish painting their trailer (which had not been worked on since the first day as they were out of paint). We worked with that crew for the morning and then after lunch completed a few smaller projects helping different residents in the trailer park. I had a really great crew that was willing to do whatever they were asked. The students worked very hard and helped one another to complete whatever job they were working on.

This was my 6th World Changers trip. I must say it was frustrating to me at what appeared to be a lack of organization/lack of work for us to do. Typically you have a project that you know is going to take you all week to complete and not a project that could be completed in a day (granted you have the supplies). However, the Lord provided us something to do each day, even though it may not have been our choice of work. He placed us where He needed us to be so that we could encounter different people and share His love with them. 

The lack of work, or rather, the extra time, really allowed for a lot of evangelism for most of the crews. It was so amazing to come back together as a youth group at the end of the day and hear several of our students tell a story about how they were able to personally share the love of Christ that day with someone else. I loved going on these trips as a student, but it is a completely different experience going as an "adult." It is such a beautiful, and encouraging, thing to see the love of Christ burning within our students.

Please keep the people of East Chicago in your prayers--for those we encountered throughout the week and do not know Christ and also for those that do and need a church home with fellow believers.