I just got back today from an amazing mission trip to Houston/Galveston, TX through TEAMeffort. Our leader for the week was a wonderful girl named Jen. We worked on a house that a family of four lived in. They had the cutest little girl and it was a true blessing to be working for them. We worked on their house with a youth group from Missouri, Nelson Memorial and they were so amazing! We stayed at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Houston near NASA during this week and it was an amazing facility. I really loved the whole week and I am glad that I was able to go. It was a true blessing and the Lord has really opened my eyes to different things and has really changed me. I am not the same person as I was before.
I jotted down some notes of what happened for each day of the week that we were there and I thought I would share each day's little entry.
Day 1:
-Left my dad at church and had to go back and get him.
-I almost got ran over by our van.
-This one gas station called, "Buc-ee's was extremely crowded and we figured that we would need a cute little animal like a beaver to get people to come to church
-There was a huge disguisting bug on our windshield wiper and my youth pastor said that it was our youth group's new mascot! hehe
-We drove for about 4 hours until we got there
-On the way we stopped in Flatonia (at the same gas station/McDonalds as I do almost every time we travel for winterguard which I found pretty cool)
-The first night we ate at Fudrucker's
-One of the rules of the thing was that Girls are Pink and Boys are Blue, and when you mix them you get Purple. So NO PURPLING! (we made a bunch of jokes about this throughout the week haha)
-Stephanie broke her bottom 'E' guitar string on the first day
-I fell on Melinda's luggage as we were walking up the stairs to our room
-The song of the week was "Mighty to Save" and our youth group sang that in church a few weeks before, so God knew that we would need to know that song.
-We stayed in the "Neptune" room (every room was named after a planet since we were near NASA)
-They had bunk beds in the girls room that we were in and we could write on them and stuff (we all brought our air mattresses for nothing!)
-There was another girl who was from somewhere in Texas in my room named Shelby as well and we would fight over our name
Day 2:
-We made lunch for every group that morning for the day, so we got to eat breakfast first (McDonalds was for breakfast
)
-We started roofing on the house we were working on
-There were 3 holes in the roof and some guy from the other group we worked with fell in and cut his knee really bad
-Our youth group played hackey sack at lunch (Ricky totally schooled me!)
-After the day was over, I scrubbed all the dirt off me in the showers for about 30 minutes. (this was the only day that I got extremely dirty)
Day 3:
-IHOP for breakfast! :3
-I wore blue leggings and hot pink shorts and a Mayday Parade shirt and everyone loved it! It made everyone's day much brighter
-We built a sand box for the little girl, Riley at the worksite and she loved it! She was soo excited and the look on her face when she saw it was just the greatest thing ever. It just made my whole week so much better
-We put up tar paper on the roof
-The mother of the house that we worked on found her faith in God again, which really made me feel so much more satisfied for doing all the work I had done in the middle of the Texas summer heat
-We went to Wal-Mart after the work day was over and I rode in the basket as Melinda pushed me around and we bought sand toys and a kitty bouncy ball for Riley
-When everyone was out of Wal-Mart, Stephanie had to go back inside just to buy a Jonas Brothers tote bag *rolls eyes* haha
-We went to Sonic and got Route 44 drinks like we did the day before
-They served us Papa Johns pizza for dinner!!! It was soooooooo good!!!!!
Day 4:
-It was my sister, Rylee's 13th birthday, so we decorated her top bunk with balloons
-Ate McDonalds again for breakfast, but we left early and ate it at the worksite
-I started "that time of the month" and had horrible cramps so I didn't feel like doing anything
-They started to put the shingles up on the roof
-We started to put the wooden poles in the for the fence we were building as well
-Riley really liked the sand toys and ball that we bought for her
-I played in the sand with her and made the other church's leader's face in the sand and it looked exactly like him! He loved it haha
-We also finished cleaning behind the garage
-We all pitched in and bought them a lawn mower and the dad of the house was so excited. He was jumping up and down and screaming!
-Stacy gave us cookies again like the first day of work and they were amazing!
-We left early from the worksite since we went early
-While we were in the shower trailer taking showers, Anna, Melinda, Stephanie, and I all were singing loudly in the showers and all the other people thought that we were weird lol
-I showed this one girl from the group we worked with name Marnie (who also happened to be on colorguard!) the "Waffle Song" as well as Marissa
-Hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner
-Our leader, Jen got Rylee a cookie cake for her birthday since she didn't get to make a cake herself because the eggs they had were frozen for some strange reason
-Here's a little note I wrote before I went to bed: "So far into this mission trip, the Lord has really changed my heart and prepared me for new things. I feel very different and a lot closer to God. May walk with Christ feels much stronger and I am totally on fire for Him. Hopefully, I will keep feeding that fire, so it will burn forever. Thank you Lord!
"
Day 5:
-Ate kolachies from Shipley's Donuts for breakfast (I got the jalapeno ones and they were amazing!)
-We got 1/2 of the fence finished by the end of our last work day, which happened to only be half of the day
-The family was extremely happy for all the we had done for them and they were amazing to work for
-We ate lunch at Cici's pizza with Jen
-Some of the girls that were staying in the same room as us went back home
-We just hung around at the church after lunch and we were the only youth group there and the leaders were all there, so it was pretty tame
-I heard our pastor, Bother Jerry play the guitar for the first time and he is like a guitar hero!
Day 6:
-We went to Galveston beach and saw all the damage that had been done there
-We rode the ferry twice because we are lamos and the second time, another youth group got on that we didn't know and their youth pastor got pooped on be a seagull and I was trying not to laugh
-We ate lunch at Wendy's and it was sooo crowded
-Nelson Memorial, the group that we worked with, layed hands and prayed over my family. The struggle that we have gone through with my mother leaving and my dad being diagnosed with colon cancer really inspired them because of they joy that we all have everyday and how we remain strong in the Lord. They gave us a prayer blanket as well
-Went to Chili's for dinner and I kept getting chips and stuff everywhere
-Went to Kemah boardwalk and watched the fireworks show, which was absolutely amazing. While we were there, I bought an awesome pirate hat as well as Stephanie
Day 7:
-We ate breakfast and said goodbye to everyone
-I got all my new friends phone numbers and hugged them and said goodbye
-Our leader Jen, looked so sad when we were leaving. She was curled up in her little jacket and was teary-eyed
-I wrote in my journal in big letters, "HOME, AWAY!!!"
-Then I wrote another little note while on the road: "Since this was my first mission trip, I decided to wrote how I feel. Before I got here, I wanted to go back home and leave this trip a completely different person. That is exactly how I feel. I feel completely changed and I feel like a totally different person from who I was before. I now want to go back and I want people to notice the difference in me. I feel like God has really prepared my heart for a better life worth living for Him. I want to share the love and passion that I have in Him more than I did before. I made God so many promises of things that I would do for Him, that I never would have done before. My life now is going to be lived for Him to a much higher extent and my walk with His son, is so much more stronger than ever. I thank Him so much for everything that He has done this week and I absolutely cannot wait until next year's mission trip. Thank you Lord, you are amazing!
"
That concludes my trip and I feel like a whole new Shelby.
I am actually going a youth leadership conference in Dallas, TX on Friday and Saturday this weekend, so I will feel ever more on fire for God. I'm excited! I really had a feeling that this year would be a wonderful one!!!
God bless!
love is the movement.
Shelby Criswell
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