Family Mission Trip: Success!

The Family Mission Trip has come and gone, but the memories are sure to be long lasting.

 

We had a wonderful end to our week! Thursday, we worked with Keep Golden Isles Beautiful, helping with their Cigarette Litter Prevention Program. We learned that cigarettes are the nation’s number one most littered item. They are made of cellulose acetate, a type of plastic that does not easily biodegrade. Unfortunately, the cigarette butts in the streets and parks near the pier get swept into storm drains and become marine debris in the ocean. Even though it was our last full day, our team really stepped up to the plate and worked hard! I was so proud of everyone’s teamwork and dedication to caring for God’s creation!

 

We had lunch in Neptune Park and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Pier Village. Of course, we stopped at Sunset Slush one last time! For dinner, we got Southern Soul BBQ to take back to Epworth. It was phenomenal! The weather was gorgeous, so the kids ate and played outside.

 

For our closing worship service, we went to the dock overlooking the Frederica River at sunset. It was a special time where we reflected on how the Holy Spirit works in us and changes us to be more like Jesus from the inside out. Each family wrote notes to other families sharing how they had seen the fruits of the Spirit at work in them during the week. It was such a meaningful time!

Although we were sad to go, we left Friday morning with full hearts, grateful for the opportunity to serve God together!

Family Mission Trip 2018: Update!

Family Mission 2018 Trip Update

The past two and a half days have been a whirlwind of service, worship, and fun in the sun!

We arrived at Epworth by the Sea on St. Simon’s Island Monday afternoon. That evening, we had dinner together as a team, had our first worship time together, and played crazy games that included things like hitting plates off one another’s hand with pool noodles - don’t worry, the plates were plastic! The most intense round was when the adults played and the kids cheered like it was the World Series!

Our theme verses for the week are Galatians 5:22-23 and we're memorizing them with the American Sign Language with the help of one of our youth participants, Emily Merritt. I'm confident that by the end of the week, we’ll have mastered the verse and the sign language! During our worship time, we looked at the story of creation and paid particular attention to the fact that God knows our needs before we know them.We talked about how God created water before living things because He knew we would not be able to live for long without it. We also talked about what an amazing gift water is and all of the things it does for us on Earth.

Speaking of water, we used a lot of it on our first work day! We partnered with an assisted living home in the area to provide a car wash and a time of worship with their residents. When we arrived, we already had a group of cars waiting to be washed! I have to tell you, I was SO incredibly impressed with the kids in our group. Not only did they work hard and give a great effort, there were moments when they really stepped up to the plate and went above and beyond instead of just leaving the hard tasks to the adults! After we were done, we had lunch in Neptune Park and then headed to the beach! It’s becoming quite the Family Mission Trip tradition to head to the pier area in the evenings BEFORE dinner for Italian ice, so the FMT veterans introduced our newbies to the goodness that is Sunset Slush!

After our treat, we headed back to Epworth for dinner and our big group time and family devo time. We played more fun games, and it’s safe to say we have a competitive group with us! Group charades was a hit! Then Jaymi led us in our devotional for the night. We talked about pollution and how we can be part of the solution in caring for God’s creation. We also talked about “attitude pollution,” and what kinds of things we put into our personal environments. After family time, everyone gathered back into our meeting area to hang out and play games! It was a full day and we went to bed with full hearts!

This morning, we woke with a fear of rain but headed out to our second work site in Brunswick - a park the city is trying to revitalize. We helped out by cleaning the trash in and around the park. It was a large park with lots of ground to cover, but with some awesome teamwork, we finished it faster than anticipated. What's more, the rain held off!  After our devotion about pollution last night, I think the children really came away with a good understanding of why our project today was so important. Afterwards, we had a quick lunch at Epworth and then headed back out to the beach for our free time. The day started out with an 80% chance of rain and we barely got a sprinkle all day! We all enjoyed a great day on the beach playing on the huge sand bar where we found several hermit crabs. Then, in fear of a kid revolt, the adults agreed to Sunset Slush again!

We’re back at Epworth now looking forward to another great night of fellowship and worship!