“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
- Galatians 5:13
Waking up at six o’clock in the morning and not going to sleep until one o’clock that night can be extremely difficult, especially for 7 days in a row, any other week than mission trip week.
This past week Student Ministry went on a mission trip to serve and love food-insecure families surrounding Oklahoma City. This was different than any other mission trip we’ve done before. Usually, we serve families on with construction related needs. However this year, we were able to work with children and families directly and watch our students’ love and smiles affect the children they were hugging on throughout the week.
Again, all of us running on five hours of sleep a night would usually result in grumpy teenagers and swollen-eyed adults. However, the Holy Spirit was so active in all of our students that none of them hesitated when the alarms went off every morning. None of them complained. None of them asked to have time to rest. None of them were distracted by technology. Instead, it was always “when will we get to the kids camp?”, or “I’m so excited to see the kid I prayed with yesterday!” Hearing them swap stories of how they were telling these kids about Jesus was one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever heard. I probably cried twenty times this past week. All because of these students.
This week, I re-learned that it is possible, exciting, and important to serve our brothers and sisters in our community. The opportunity to serve does not stop after mission trip week. I was able to re-learn this through the excitement and passion and the work of the Holy Spirit in every student and every life they touched this past week.
Written By: Gracie Jones
(Student Ministry Intern)