FUN DAY!!!

First stop: The City Museum! While that might seem mundane at first glance, it is anything but that! The City Museum has a 10 story slide, a roof with a ferris wheel, caves with tunnels of varying size lit by strobe lights, swinging ropes, adult sized ball pit, rebar tunnels 30 feet in the air, creative art projects, etc. etc. It was an adult play ground that offered so many fun things for people of all ages and sizes. The even greater part is that it was created out of recycled materials in a 12 story building.

For lunch we walked half a mile to the Union Station, a mall that was once the rail station. From there, we returned to the city museum for another hour of fun. Then it was off to the St. Louis Arch. We toured the museum below the arch and then ascended to the top where we were able to see the entire city on one side and the Mississippi River on the other.

We grabbed a quick dinner and cleaned up our living space, nick named ‘the Meat Locker’ because of its constant 62 degree temperature.

Here are some videos of the day:  1)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jamQpMdpKU4
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUnuq7Xu6RI
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKJ8T7Zf75E

12 stories up in a school bus hanging off a building!!!

MPC Youth Walking on Water

12 stories up in a rebar tunnell...hmmm??

Will and Daniel 13+ stories in the air!!

City Museum: on the roof!

From the top of the Arch

At the Arch grounds

Pictures of the very high Mississippi River covering the road!

Last night in St. Louis: sleepy!!

Our last day of work!! We spent the entire morning at another garden project. We mulched, weeded, edged, watered, shoveled, cleaned, and worked hard! But in the end, what a difference it made. Our leaders for the service work were Don and Charlotte Cochran, obviously vets of this wonderful ministry…they were so encouraging and loving the entire time. Although the morning began with concerns regarding our safety in this particular part of town, it really turned into a wonderful experience.

For lunch, we ran back to First Presbyterian for a quick bite and then we headed off to spend the afternoon at the St. Louis Zoo which was FREE!!!

We decided to try a popular pizza place that night. Turns out that IMO’s is not the best place to get pizza….the consensus from our group was, “Yuck!” Now we know.

Brotherly love

The morning was spent at the two Crisis Nurseries that we were at the previous afternoon. How great to come back and spend some time with the same kids we met the day before!! The staff was great as well.

The afternoon we spent doing quite a bit of gardening in an impoverished, run down side of town. It’s nice to be able to make something beautiful in the midst of what literally appeared to be rotten buildings on the verge of collapse. The garden we worked in had been started back in 2001 by an elderly lady that lived across the street from this area. Over the years an organization that specializes in gardening in impoverished, urban areas all over the city began to send volunteers year after year to keep the gardens up. So we spent most of our day mulching, weeding, cleaning out this large garden. How awesome!! We worked hard in the heat and humidity and did a great job.

In the evening we did some resupplying of groceries and Will grilled some wonderful chicken for dinner. Then we headed to the community pool for some recreation and fun!  Beth thought the diving board was going to break as the kids seemed to test it to its limit!  Lots of cannon balls, flips and quasi-flips (faceplants)!  It was fun to have a diving board to play on…remember those?

Beth adds…I spent today at the nursery with Katie, Ellie, Jennifer and McKenzie.  They did such a great job with the children.  All of the work they have done has been a blessing to the agencies we’ve worked for and they have not hesitated to tell us so!  I’m proud of all our kids for working in places where they aren’t necessarily comfortable and doing their best.  The boys weren’t really excited about going to “play with the babies” all day, but they really stepped up to the plate and found that they were appreciated

Here is a clip of some of the skill of our youth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFwZrkx8E5w

See...guys are great with kids too!!

Hey...shouldn't you be watching the children!!??

Awesome workers!!

Our 2nd day of service work!! The day began with the “Homeless Walk.” We drove to downtown St. Louis and arrived at a church that has more or less over time become a non profit organization that is a day drop in center for the homeless. They also offer 3 meals a day Monday through Thursday and put on a number of different programs for groups doing mission work. The “Homeless Walk” was a guided walk around parts of St. Louis that showed what it would be like to be homeless. Where to go? What to do? What agencies are available to help me, etc. etc. It was a great activity that creates awareness about how life for the homeless actually is! Too bad it was nearly 100 degrees!!

In the afternoon the girls and boys split up and we each went to different Crisis Nurseries; places where children can be left on a short term basis in emergencies and crisis situations. We were able to play with kids, organize shelves, hold children, etc. It was fantastic!!!

In the evening we spent some time playing games, ping pong, eating dinner together, mattress surfing, improv movie making. We concluded with a trip to a very quaint (and popular!) ice cream place that was decorated like a train station!

(To see a video of the mattress surfing, click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voUfBr82wo8)

Will Masters and Mackenzie Heavener did a great job on the evening devotion. They chose Isaiah 61:1 to reflect on focusing primarily on bring good news to the oppressed. What an awesome passage!!

Homeless Walk with Patrick!

Awww....brotherly love hurt sometimes

We spent the day at the Kingdom House. This ministry is one that serves primariy children, but also has a food pantry, an occupation counselor, telephones for use, etc. The girls spent the duration of the day painting a small room that had a beautifully crafted  mural. It turned out beautiful! The boys spent the day doing odd jobs: organizing boxes of files, working in the garden, rotating compost, painting  cinder block walls. While we did behind the scenes work, it was very gratifying to know that what we did supported this particular ministry.

Daniel and Katie made a wonderful dinner consisting of spaggheti and meatballs with salad! YUM!!

In the evening we played Apples to Apples and Spoons!!! Dreyton cheated!

Quotes of the Day:
1) foot wedgie
2) God told me to smite you (not sure it was God?)
3) Beth to Dreyton, “You look like a mummy!”
     Dreyton to Beth, “Well you look like a mummy!”
     Adam to both, “Dreyton, she is your mummy !

Workin' hard on day 3

Kingdom House

Playing Apples to Apples

After an adventurous night with police, competetive Wii games, minister board members banging on the door at 11:45p.m. we woke up and headed on our way!! By 4:15p.m. we came into view of a giant Arch – “gateway to the west” as its called – marking the near end of our 16 hour, 2 day trip to St. Louis, MO.

With tired, lazy limbs we crawled out of the van after arriving at First Presbyterian Church of Ferguson, MO. The church facilities were very nice. While the church and the sanctuary are older buildings, they have found ways to renovate and use their space for ministry purposes. They have apartment like rooms for housing the homeless. They have a youth room equipped with pool table, ping pong table, poker table (interesting). There is one giant room underneath the sanctuary that has a total of 30 beds to house groups who participate in the Urban Ministry program.

Out of an amazing gesture of trust, we are given keys and access to the entire building! Chapel, sanctuary, fellowship hall, kitchens, youth room, etc. etc.

We had a fun night of home cooked food provided by our very own Ellie Taliaferro Jennifer Miles: Tacos!!

The evening was filled with fun and laughter!

Dreyton and Ellie did a GREAT job leading the evening devotion focusing on what everyone hoped to get out of the week.

Pictures coming!

Daniel...with a cheeseburger head

Choo ChooEllie and Dreyton after finishing a 20oz burger!!!

Mission Trip: Day 1 (June 19)

Today was the first day of the 2010 Senior High Mission Trip to St. Louis. Who could have known that our first travel day would be filled with unforgettable events!!

We departed MPC at 7 a.m. We drove all the way to Chattanooga, TN. The van ride involved: dollar store gifts; sleeping; mad libs; the ABC game; and LOTS of conversation.

As we arrived at our housing accomodations for the evening I had never saw so many jaws drop to the floor at once! The house we stayed in was the Presbyterian campus ministry house at the University of Tennessee @ Chattanooga. And IT…WAS….AWESOME!!! It was a three story house with leather couches, plush furniture, wi-fi, blu-ray player. The very large bottom floor had a huge projector screen for showing movies, playing Wii, and presentations. There was a pool table, a small venue for karaoke and concerts surrounded by coffee house furniture. The house had 4 bathrooms one of which had a jacuzzi tub! There were enough couches for everyone to have their own! So you can see why it was popular!!!

After checking in and meeting Bob Hill the Presbyterian campus minister, we headed to the Choo Choo hotel that take pictures in front of the train cars. From their we went downtown and ate at a local burger place called Chee Burger Chee Burger. It was awesome. 3 out of 4 youth were able to down a 20oz. burger!! Congrats to Dreyton, Daniel and ELLIE!! Quote of the meal made by Adam: “We just ate $117 worth of COW!!  MOOO.”

The real adventure was our evening at the Presbyterian campus house. Apparently the alarm went off at around 11:30p.m. So about 11:45p.m. the police come knocking on the door. After explaining who we were and what we were doing there, the policeman turns to me (Adam) and says he is going to have to ask me to put my hands behind my back!!! Turns out it was an aweful joke!! 15 minutes after they leave 2 more people bang on the door. They were apparently on the Board that is in charge of the property!! In the morning it turns out that Beth thought the alarm panel was the thermostat the night before, hence the police!

Other quotes of the day:

Katie Wyble:  (after Adam announced we were in Atlanta, and we were passing through the sky scrapers Katie said this:) “Where are we??”

Thank you all!

-Adam

http://mpcyouthdirector.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/communionsong.mp3

You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do,

so there could never be a more beautiful you.”

-Johnny Diaz

Nothing breaks my heart more than to see a teen lost; confused; and desperate on their search for self-identity. Throughout life – to some degree – we all seek to “belong” or to “fit in” with the rest of society, but it is in our childhood and our adolescence that this need is most prevalent. And while parents might hope that their teen(s) find(s) this sense of “belonging” at home, most teens look to their peers for acceptance. And in the adolescent world of teens searching, experimenting, testing boundaries, and judging others, they have a rough time trying to ‘belong.’

What are often established as the “cool” groups tend to be the teens that are socializers, athletes, those that are good-looking, or a combination of the three. Being cool also comes with certain behavior, expectations, clothing, etc. Those that do not fit the “cool” qualifications are instantly excluded from the group. Those that seek to pursue acceptance in the “cool” group try to separate themselves from those that do not meet the criteria. They try to be someone they are not. It is no wonder that so many teens feel marginalized, lost, and confused.

In extreme cases, some teens have turned to violence against others; others give up on life altogether and try to take their own; others grow up used to being excluded by others; lonely, confused, lost, homeless, etc. Some buy into the mask of belonging to the “cool” group and turn to sex, drugs, alcohol, expensive clothing, etc, just so they can belong.

            Teens need to belong…

            Without perspective, the prospect of “belonging” for teens can feel like nothing more than a clouded hope found only in the distant horizon of their wildest dreams. But the real and absolute truth is this; that every person is a unique, extraordinary, beautiful, talented child of God. We all belong to God. God does not turn God’s back on us; or forget us; or chastise us; or exclude us. We are never apart from God, nor are we apart from the overflowing, penetrating love God has for us! This is often times hard for teens to grasp in the midst of a cutthroat, “do or die” adolescent world where real pain felt everyday.

As the Body of Christ, we are called to love others as Jesus loves us. While sometimes our teens are told lies, and are shown elaborate disguises of what ‘belonging’ entails, it is important to let them know that “Yes they DO belong!!” “Yes, each one of them IS loved!!” And I think it can best be exemplified and modeled every time our youth come together and come home to their church family: particularly with their peers in the congregation.

This is one of the many topics the senior high have addressed this past month in Locomotion. In the coming months we will continue to have fun and learn about the AWESOME promises of God while our middle school youth continue their understanding of life as a journey.

Remember, when you’re feeling pressure to be somebody you’re not or pressured to do things you know are wrong just so you can ‘belong,’ that you already belong God. And according to God, there can never be a more beautiful you!