I was not even supposed to go on this youth mission trip. I was not even asked to go on the trip.
It was funny, not really funny more of a sign from God...literally. Here is the story....

I had told Dan about 2 weeks before the mention of this trip that I needed a little vacation away with some girlfriends of just by myself for a week or so. He said that was fine...I just didn't have any clue where I was going to go or what I was going to do. 

It was the week of VBS and one of the youth Sunday school teachers (and advisors on the trip) had mentioned to Dan and I that they needed one more woman advisor.... there was one already, but she would be in charge of 13 (they thought at the time) girls by herself. Dan looked at me and said there is your chance, there is your vacation that you wanted. I was just in shock. It was going to be 7 days, 6 nights. I told him that I would think about it. The hubby and I went home that night to discuss the pros and cons. After talking with him, I still wasn't convinced on going. I called my best friend and told her about it and asked for her advice. Dan helped me understand some of the pros about going, but he's my husband so he has to tell me things that I want to hear, where my best friend will be honest with me and tell me things that I need to hear. She opened my eyes and heart a little more, so I decided to go, the next day at VBS I told them I would go. 

I was so nervous the days leading up to "leaving" day. I was scared of leaving my kids for that many days. I would be there all by myself (no husband or kids). I would be with teenagers that I barely knew. I would be with adults that I barely knew (other than Church). I was wondering if I would get along with them all because I am so shy. I didn't know if I would even have any fun being with teenagers, kids that are almost 20 years younger than me (wow! that sounds weird to say). I really didn't know what to expect (I am a planner, I have to have every thing planned). I was wondering if I would have any of my coughing attacks at night ( asthma attacks). I was afraid I would get my migraines. 

I knew Dan was taking good care of the kids and they were happy, so I knew they were in good hands, I just missed them terribly! Knowing that I wouldn't be tucking them into bed those nights, reading to them, brushing their teeth or just being around them just broke my heart. I missed the hubby too, but I knew he was going to be okay. I got along with the teenagers great! I actually felt young again when I was around some of them. A couple of the teenagers and I had inside jokes that we would laugh about. I wasn't as shy as I thought I would be. I was just being myself and I think that's what made it so fun for me. I really clicked with the other woman advisor (we know each other from Church, but never really talked outside of Church) and I can say she is now a really good friend ;). I found out that it is not so bad to "fly by the seat of your pants" so to speak. I didn't have any attacks and I didn't have any migraine problems. 

I really didn't know what to expect going to Joplin. I knew that we were going to help with clean up from the tornado. I just didn't know what we would be doing. Nobody really knew what to expect. The first 2 days we watered trees. The third day we cleaned up a property and the fourth day we did surveys. I think the surveys were the most fun for the youth because they got to hear some of the victim's stories and get to see and hear about some of the damages. Oh, ya I forgot to mention, we had a fun day and went to Silver Dollar City one day! 

We had a lot of fun! Even when we were doing the hardest work of all, probably cleaning up the property (for me, anyway) we all seemed to have smiles on our faces, laughing, joking, talking, working together. I was so proud of the youth! They didn't complain, when they did, they were usually hurt, which was understandable, and even then they didn't complain, they even wanted to work through the pain! Everyone worked together and helped each other no matter what the circumstances were. 

I say cleaning up the property was the hardest for me because you don't actually realize that a tornado hit there until you start finding some debris left from the home owners. I found a baby syringe (from a baby triaminic or tylenol), some other people found a baby girl's pink sock, some pants that were torn up, a sweater, even a toilet brush. I actually had tears in my eyes realizing that yes, someone actually did live there and you don't know if they survived or was one of the lucky ones that God saved. You just have to tell your self that you are there to help these people and hope what you and others do will make it easier on them to move on from this horrific accident. 

This was my first mission trip and after this mission trip, I plan on going on a lot more! It was so much fun. I know all of us advisors are fun ;), but it was really the kids who made it worth while! I will always remember our WAM nights (Walmart at Midnight) when we got yelled at 2 nights in a row by the grumpy old night guy. Another advisor and myself almost getting yelled at for throwing a ball back and fourth in Walmart. The "Leland Pose"....which I wasn't outside to see, but it was a funny story. Now the youth try to do it every picture opportunity. 

It's really hard to "make friends" with kids who are almost 15 years younger than you, but if feels good and you know you have made an impact on the kids when you get a text the night you get home from the mission trip that says, " I miss you already and so does Apoop." (that's her India name ;) ) from my lovely queens of India ;) The other woman advisor and I have been texting back and fourth too ever since ;) 

I miss all of you youth and advisors...even though one of the youth boys thought I was one of the youth when we picked him up ;) I got asked several times if I was on of the youth (from the diner lady, walmart lady, youth boy) and I'm sure it went through people's minds, so I guess it's okay to look young sometimes ;) 

I was not able to get any pictures on the work sites because I didn't bring my phone or my camera, but I  did get some pictures of the youth and Silver Dollar City, our fun day!

The Fun day at Silver Dollar City. The kids riding on a ride together

Played a trick on the kids. You see the 3 doors? The one in the middle that is open spits out fire. The door on the left of that opens up then squirts water. None of the kids knew that, so we told them that we wanted to get a picture of the group right in front of the door. ;)

Time to get the guys

Roller coaster that I did not go on, of course! The swing

The morning that we left to come home, we had some fun dancing before getting loaded up in the van. The guy in the blue shirt dancing is one of the other directors showing his moves. 

Another director (in the black shirt) showing us how to do the swing.

Some of the youth showing us how to dance.

A couple of the youth sleeping. 

Parents came to pick up some of the kids, so we had to take one last picture of the group. 

The boys posing. Showing us their muscles.

That is Hoth's pose (on the ground)

Doing the cowboy! 

The hospital that got torn up in the tornado. 

What my bedroom looked like. 

This is my first mission trip ever. I really did not know what to expect. So, here is my daily diary of what my experiences were. I wrote this on a daily basis every night right before bed. I hope you enjoy my experiences.  

Day one... Sunday June 17th

We got out itineraries to look through. Here is the daily schedule...

6:30- Rise and shine
7:00- Breakfast/morning devotions
9:00-2/3 p.m-  Work. (lunch at 12:00).
3:00-6:00-  Showers and down time
6:30- Dinner
7:30- 10:30 Worship and family groups
11:00-  Quiet hours

On our way to Joplin! Went to church then met everyone who was going on the mission trip 
afterwards then packed the bags into a haul. We didn't leave the church until about 12:35. 
Drove to a gas station and met the rest of the crew from the Panama church.

Got back on the road at 1:17p.m. And now we are cruising along. 
Planning to stop in Nebraska City, which is about 45 minutes away. 
We'll see if it works that way.

We wound up stopping at Nebraska city subway and at lunch. 
It will be hard on this trip, but I'm trying to eat healthy! 
It is 2:43 and we are back on the road.

7:05 p.m

Made it safely! We are staying in a town about 10-15 miles away from Joplin called Carthage. 
We are sleeping in this old, old house. It is huge. I
t has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths but in one of the bathrooms the toilet doesn't work but the sink works. 
In the other one the toilet works but the sink doesn't.

There are 10 youth girls, 12 counting myself and the other female director. 
Us girls have the upstairs rooms with 3 cots in each room and the guys (3 boys and 3 directors) 
have the whole down stairs. 
The guys have it made.They get the air conditioner down stairs and in their 
bathrooms they have 3 showers and we only have one. We actually had to buy fans for each room. 
We switched bathrooms with the guys since there are more girls.

We have 2 different buildings that we are using... 
One building is for meals, morning prayers, and showers (church) and the second one (house) 
is for sleeping and daily converses.

Day 2  Monday, June 18th
Day 1 of working

First official day of working. Not really what I expected. We had to water trees. 
We had to fill up 5 gallon buckets with water, carry them to every tree and water the trees. 
We had to use 4 buckets on each tree. We had to do 3 parks. 
We had to fill up the buckets with water with a faucet type thing and carry the buckets
 to the tree and start all over. Sometimes we only had to walk 10 steps to the tree other 
times we had to walk a mile (seriously!!)

I did not know what to expect when we got here. 
After a year after a tornado you never know what to expect. 
The first park we went to must have had its own little path because just by looking at the park 
( other trees and houses) you wouldn't think anything happened. 
But if you walked through the park you could actually see the old tree stumps. 
There was a church right across the street that they were rebuilding.

The second park we went to is more of what I was expecting to see. 
There was still debris everywhere and there were brand new houses. 
There were houses still under construction. There was a house with just the foundation and nothing else. 
While we were driving around I saw a house that looked like it was just hit yesterday.
 It was just amazing to see all the construction going on and all the rebuilding.

Even kind of ate a little healthy today. Had 1 pancake with no syrup for breakfast. 
A sandwich for lunch. And lasagna, salad and a roll for salad.

Day 3 Tuesday, June 19th
Day 2 of work.

Had a bowl of grapes for breakfast. We had cereal this morning, but I don't eat cereal.

We watered trees again today. This time we were at a cemetery. 
Like I said before you can't really tell until you walk through the place that there was a tornado. 
If you looked at the top of the trees there would be just the branches where the leaves used to be. 
When we were walking through the cemetery you could see debris everywhere still. 
Once in a while you could see the fake flower petals from the cemetery plots all over.

Today was a short day. We started at 9 and worked until 1:30.

 Our itinerary says that we have to have quiet time at 11:00. That is not working so well! 
Sunday night everyone was up until at least 2 a.m. 
No reason, just sugar highs and the adrenaline from the trip. 
It didn't help that we went to Walmart at midnight.

Monday night we had everything done and were running on
 schedule to be in our rooms by 11 when we had a little distraction. 
Okay it wasn't a little one. One of the youth girls has back spasms at home and she had one on 
Monday night at 10:30. they lasted until midnight. It was very scary to watch. 
It is almost like watching seizures. 
We had to run to Walmart again at midnight to get her an air mattress for her back.

So, needless to say we have started a tradition of making a point to go to Walmart at midnight every night. 
We'll see how long that lasts.

Day 4 Wednesday, June 20th
Day 3 of work

We got told on Tuesday that we wouldn't have to water trees again. 
We have been having a lot of injuries. 
We think that the back spasms were due to lifting over 40 pounds of water 
by yourself and walking a half mile to a mile ( that's actually how far we had to walk for each.) 
Another girl dislocated her shoulder and another girl's shoulder hurt her.

Well, I don't know if today is much better than the other 2. 
Today, we had to clean debris off of a private property. 
It wasn't as good as it sounded.
 I was expecting there to be a house and we would just have to remove the tree branches and what not. 
We get there and there is no house, just an empty lot. 
There are rocks and sticks everywhere. 
We had to rake up the rocks and these aren't just big rocks that we had to pick up by hand, 
these rocks were like the little tiny landscaping rocks that you put in your yard. 
These were everywhere! They gave us rakes to use, but the rocks went right through the rake. 
So, most of us used shovels.

This was not easy. You think of shoveling rock and you think of shoveling snow. 
It's not like that... There were not piles of rock.. 
These were rocks that were stuck on the ground that we had pull out.

We made our nightly run to Walmart. It was fun.

Day 5 Thursday, June 21st

Today was fun day for the kids so we went to Silver Dollar City. 
It was super fun. The kids had a great time. 
We left the house at 8:30 am and didn't get home until after 10 pm.

Stopped at Wendy's on the way home and ate supper at about 7 p.m. 
Came back to the house and still did our family groups. That lasted until 1 a.m.

Day 6 Friday, June 22nd

Day 4 of work.

Today we didn't do hard labor. 
We just walked around surveying people who were affected by the tornado. 
It was interesting to see their reaction and hear what they had to say. 
It was good for the kids to hear some of the stories and see how important our 
mission trip is and the reason for watering trees. 
Some of the youth thought it was silly just to water trees then 
we explained to them that these trees are symbolizing a time 
of rebuilding and we have to nourish the trees like their parents nourish and take care of them. 

Pretty tired today. We've been getting up everyday by 7:00 am. I am ready to be home. 

We get to go home tomorrow morning. 
We should be getting home by 3-4 p.m. 
But that depends on what time we leave. 

Day 7 Saturday, June 23rd.

Going home today! We got up at 7:30 a.m and got packed
 (most of us were already packed from Friday night). 
Cleaned up the house then headed over to the church for breakfast. 
Finally left at 9:30 to drive home. Stopped in St. Joe, Mo for lunch. 
then continued home. Got home about 4:30 p.m.
 I drove about 3 hours and the other director drove the rest of the drive. 

This is my daily diary of what happened on my first mission trip to Joplin, Missouri. 
I hope you enjoy! 

Now that school is out and Summer is here, the kids still need to get their "education." I have come up with a plan for the kids to keep them entertained and still learning.

• The kids still do the calendar every morning. This teaches them numbers, days of the week, weather, colors, and words.   
• The kids have to read for 20 minutes every day. Keira finds a quiet place (usually her room) and reads a couple of books by herself (I try and pick out a book that she has never read before because she has to tell me what happened in the book, so I know she actually read it. ) Aden and Taygen will sit on the couch between me while I read to them. We are planning on going to the library every week to get new books. 
• The kids have to do their work books for at least 30 minutes each day. Keira has a kindergarten and 1st grade book that she does, (she will usually get bored with the kindergarten one within 10 minutes and go right to the 1st grade book). Aden has a preschool and kindergarten book that he does. 
• Taygen and I color. While the other kids do their workbooks, Taygen and I will color. In doing this, she learns her colors, control, patience, what to color certain objects; example, grass is green, clouds are white, sky is blue, trees are green, etc., communication; please pass the green color. When she wants a color, I will lay 3 or 4 colors out and she has to pick it out; for example, if she needs green..I lay out green, white, blue and black and she has to pick out the green one. 
• In between these activities we will go outside and play on the swings and slides. Just so they don't get bored, lose focus or lose interest. 
• Just for something fun for the kids, we will have a scavenger hunt around the house. Example; Find 4 red objects, find 5 circles, etc. It's pretty fun and it's pretty interesting what the kids come up with, some things that you may not think of. Aden had to find 3 circles one time and he showed me the door handles. Pretty clever! I would have never thought of that. It's just something that you see every day, so you really don't think of them as circles, even though they are. You never know what you will learn from your kids each day! 

These activities are fun for the kids and myself. It definitely keeps them active, but also ready for school. These activities do not 'weigh' down the Summer time fun and still keeps school fresh in their minds. A lot of kids lose focus in the Summer time, but isn't that what Summer is for, to get school off your mind....mmm not really. Kids still need to learn whether it is in a school setting or a home setting. Always try to find ways to keep your kids educated, whether it is going to a park; pointing out trees, animals, the swing goes up and down, you go down a slide, pointing out that the grass is green, etc... You can make learning fun!