Mission Trip

So it's been a pretty awesome couple of weeks. One of the big highlights was to go on a mission trip with my high school kids down to Immokalee, Fl. It was pretty sweet. You might even say it was Mantastic. We did a lot of awesome things. We did a lot of work at a food bank sorting canned goods. We moved about 7 tons of cans. I got into it....literally. It was good to work so close to my kids and compete, sing songs, and stuff.

We also worked a few days with an organization called Ihope. We helped clean out FEMA trailers to help get them ready for this year's hurricane season. Besides that, we worked on Nina's house. She was living in a house with substantial damage from last year still. Her house was essentially gutted from the rain damage. Her roof leaked, her steps were rotted, and she had no kitchen sink or cupboards. During our time there, we replaced her roof and helped build a new deck and stairs. It was pretty sweet because it was great to help Nina and it was my first time roofing.

We also spent a day in working at the Guadalupe Soup kitchen. It was a truly humbling experience. We arrive around 8 am in the morning and there was already many people lined up in the front of the building waiting for lunch. For many people this is the only meal they get a day. In the back of the building there was also a ling. Many were waiting to take showers as they did not have any plumbing at home.

We live such lives of luxury while others can't feed themselves or provide for their families. The people at the Guadalupe center never complained about what they were eating. They were just happy for the food and the showers. Many of these people lived in two room houses with eight or more other people. That was crazy to think of. I get cramped in my little house all by myself.

I wish I would be content with much less. I wish I would be more giving and less self-serving. Yet I am sure that I'll slowly forget my experiences on the mission trip. I'll slowly feel less guilty about spending money on useless things and will want way more than I have. I'll forget how good it feels to give and want to hang on to what I have. I hope I'm wrong. I hope that this mission trip has changed the way I'll live, what I set my priorities on. I guess only time will tell.