[DFY] Mission Trip Blog!

Welcome to the Desert Foothills Youth [DFY] Mission Trip Blog!  We are leaving for the Bay Area on Saturday July 5th.  Keep watching for daily updates while we are in CA.  Your comments will be shared with the team while we are on the trip.  

• I give thanks to everyone involved in CSM (Center for Student Missions).  For all the people and experiences that we all have been through!  Oh and of course to GOD!  :)
• I thank our CSM host Erica for being great!  She was really cool and put up with the ROCKENEST group ever!
• I thank Erica for hosting us this week.  She really shared her wisdom about the city.  She was totally AMAZING and I hope she is thankful for us!  I am also thankful for God's love!
• I give thanks that I got a chance to meet all the kids from VBS.  It really was a blessing being able to teach all the little kids about Jesus.
• I thank God for leading us to the people he did, him showing through them.  For the messages and prayers we heard from them.
• For our leaders and for our church at home for prayers and support.
• I give thanks for just everything I have.  Because of the things that we saw and did this week I knew that I was blessed.  But now seeing everything first hand, experiencing being like "homeless" for a couple of hours with only $8 for 4 of us to share lunch.  When people would look at me from their cars giving a woman tortillas,.  I now have realized how much I really have, and the poverty in Phoenix and D.C. is hidden.  We know it's there, but we don't notice it.  But now this trip has opened my eyes.  So much.
• This trip has been a MAJOR eye opener for me.  It has made me see all the ways I am blessed.  I have more things than I can possibly use and more friends than I can appreciate.  I am thankful for all the fabulous opportunities to learn that I was given on this trip, and I'm thankful that I was forced to hear and see things I wouldn't have normally.

• For the VBS kids and for the safety of the homeless.
• I have been led to pray for a man I saw trying to earn money by selling a few possessions
• I've been led to pray for all the homeless people and all of the kids at VBS and at St. Vincent's Day Home.  :)
• To everyone I have met on this trip -- the homeless, the leaders, and for being safe!
• I have been called to pray about all the homeless, kids of San Francisco & people with HIV or AIDS.  Also for the staff at CSM.
• I have been led to pray for Franklin, and his girlfriend.  Also Darrel Neal.
• I have been led to pray for the homeless people and God's love.
• As selfish as this may sound, I have been led to pray for myself.  I have realized more of the ways that I need to improve as a Christian and all the ways I could be helping, not only the physically poor, but the people and other youth in my group.  I have felt called to pray that God can unclog my ears and open my eyes to the needs of people around me and how I can make a difference in their lives. 
• Praying. . . I think is a difficult thing because most of us don't know how to approach it, so we let others lead.  But we never pray for things we think should be prayed for, such as: making sure that everyone has a place to stay the night, or that people realize the homeless are there and they need help.  And also for myself.  Maybe it sounds bad, but it's true.  I would pray for myself by asking God to use my experiences to open my eyes more and also to use my experience throughout my life to realize how really blessed I am.
• Well-to-do people to help others.

• I have in fact heard God calling me this week.  This week has made me feel like I'm in God's blueprint for life.
• Yes, I have. :)  Yes, many times, in the kids or the homeless.
• The kids.  I was almost always tired, but every time I was with a group of kids, I was called to push through and make it.
• I hear God call me to the kids at the Salvation Army.  I felt like they really connected to me and God also called me to push through my tiredness and do VBS for the kids.
• Yes, I heard God calling me through the kids in the Salvation Army.  Also through Jonathan talking to us.
• This week I have heard God call me in so many different ways, and I believe that it's not just because there were so many opportunities, but because it's the first time I've ever really taken the time to listen.
• This week my "spiritualness" grew so much that I've touched God in countless ways that God has been calling me a lot.  It will affect my lifestyle forever. 
• I felt most close to God at the food bank and at the San Francisco Rescue Mission.
• I felt touched by those people.
• God calls me to look at him in the "simple".

• Not always knowing that God will always be there for me.
• For not doing everything I'm not supposed to.
• For not being 100% like Jesus said.
• For saying God's name in vain & not always trusting in God.
• Lack of patience at times.
• Not putting others first, and pushing ahead for myself.
• God has been a Sunday morning activity for me most weeks and even though I am pretty active in the church, God has not been on my heart in the decisions I've made.
• Not being thankful and grateful all the time for He is faithful.

• I heard groans for help.  Also for food and attention.
• The magnitude of the problem and the frustration of the agencies.  Many feel it is hopeless.  They are just doing the best they can.
• I was passing the street when a man sitting on the curb suddenly thrust his hands and head up to the sky and shouted incoherently.  The he lowered his head and looked at the people around him.  Not one of them looked his way.
• Exhaustion groans, but they were usually drowned out by being touched by the experience we just had.
• The groans I've heard this week were of joy and actual groans.  Like the kids did in VBS.
• Pain of those who've been ignored or hurt because of their homelessness, sexual orientation.
• The groans I've heard this week were: for peace, to end poverty, to end the discrimination of gays, poor, rich, old, young, ethnic, religion, sexual orientation.  The groans I've heard were far worse than the ones I'm used to.  I'm used to the groans of my stomach hurting or not wanting to get out of bed and work or unpack boxes.  But with this experience I now know that there are other problems, in fact bigger problems than mine.
• Showers and space.

• I really studies our scripture and made a promise to put others before myself.
• It has re-energized my passion.  I want to see more people involved.
• I have never quite been a dedicated church goer, and from now on, if there's a chance for me to go to church, I will go.
• Care for myself so that I'm ready to give and lookout for the needs of others.
• In this one week my relationship with God has changed drastically.  I used to expect God to come barging into my life with this grand entrance and completely change my life, but this trip has force me to pay attention and listen to God and all the things around me.  I've realized that God isn't going to make a grand entrance in my life because he has always been there, he's always been with me.  I just never took the time to listen and embrace the love he has for me.  My hope is that I won't forget this and that I will bring what I have learned and keep my "listening ears" on (VBS reference -- ha ha) to hear what God's  goal is for me back home.  I pray that the mission trip will not end on Saturday for me and all the other youth on this trip.  help us to being all we've learned with us back home.

“That even though they may be poor and us rich, that God made both of us equally.”  - Bryan Brinkley, Jr. High Team Member

”I think our group will find challenging our living situations and food.  We are all used to showering when we want, eating whatever and whenever we want.  We are used to our beauty products, making our clothes and hair just so.  Our things will be wrinkled and we will have to wear clothes that we wore the previous day. Our hair will not be as fresh as it usually is with a morning shower.  Some members of the group may not be as open minded about trying food options whether it is ethnic or a brown bag lunch on the go.  It will be a good lesson that if they don't eat at that meal, there isn't anything until the next one.

Hopefully this will generate thankfulness for the food we have each and every day.”

-Jill Kyroudis, Jr. High Team Chaperone

“I think the hardest thing for the youth group to spend more time with the people in San Francisco then just the youth group. We are a very close youth group and we don’t like to go outside out comfort zones. 

I dream/hope that I will go to San Francisco and have a great time and have a lot of fun, but also meet new people. I also hope that I will just open up my comfort zone and be there for the people in San Francisco and not worry too much about myself.”

-Angela Brucato, Sr. High Team Member

“The thing that I think will be challenging for the group is we will think you’re better than the people who live there.  That’s because we’re not used to the environment, and people of San Francisco.  I hope that we can all make a difference in other people’s lives while we’re in San Francisco.” 

-Andrew Kyroudis, Jr. High Team Member

“You Can’t Help the city if…You don’t rely on God’s power to help the city.”  That bullet point may challenge me the most.  In a conversation recently, a youth questioned why a Christian organization would have in it’s ‘creed/prayer’ type thing that they would not rely on themselves and their own talents/strengths.  I quickly explained, that it’s because we’re called to rely on God and not on ourselves.  From the baffled face, I could see that this explanation didn’t make a bit of sense.  And as I read this bullet and struggle with it’s meaning, I know why.  The US seems to be built upon self-reliance and growing children into adults who achieve complete independence.  The notion that we would intentionally try NOT to rely on ourselves is almost incomprehensible.  Yet that is exactly what this statement is reminding us to do.  Instead of relying on our abilities, personalities, and resources to make a difference in the Bay Area…we must place our trust in God and trust that God’s power is enough to help the city.  That God can work through us to make a difference in the city."

-Jme Willey, Sr. High Team Chaperone

"The next one I feel will be a struggle for the group is about where we will be living as well as the food we will be eating. We are so used to our air conditioned homes, our nice mattresses, the foods we're used to that we won't want to try something new, or learn new foods and experience new things….

    … We had a really small group [on last year’s mission trip], it was fun and we got along fine. I just hope everyone and everything will go just as good as it did last year, but with a few more kids along. That we can still accomplish what we came to do, but as we,ll have fun with it."

-Alexis Kyroudis, Sr. High Team Member

I think that the thing that will be most challenging for our group will be that we don’t spend most of our entire time really getting to know the people we are helping.  I think it will be hard for some people in our group to break out of their shells and spend time with the people they are on the mission trip for….

This makes me hope that we can all go to San Francisco with an open mind and help the people who are in different situations than us.  I hope we will get to know each other, the people of San Francisco, and their culture a little more.  Most importantly, I hope we keep God in our hearts and minds and try to spread his love, the way he would. 

-Ellen Hill, Sr. High Team Member

One of our team members, took a different approach….I found it thought provoking.  Here’s her complete piece:

Humph, why do they keep staring at me? They wanna be me? They like the stuff I have? They think I have an easy life? Then maybe they should have made the right choices. Look at them. It’s their own fault they’re here. Pick up the pieces. They disgust me. The grime on their skin is an inch thick and hair’s growing from places it shouldn’t grow. I’d never let that happen to me. I wouldn’t drink or do drugs or flunk out of school. Why would anyone want to live like them?  I’m just here to hang out with my friends, not to look at the hopeless homeless. I guess that’s part of the deal but you know, as long as I’ve got my pals I can make it through. Maybe I’ll even pray for the hopeless. There, you happy? I’m doing as much as I can. Or am I? I can’t help the city. Maybe I don’t want to. But what if I try? Nah, it still won’t make a difference.

            And the rooms we were assigned? Don’t get me started. I don’t have any space. I have a single bed that’s like a rock. I want to get back home to my double bed that’s like sleeping on air. I want my iPod. I want food that doesn’t make me grimace when I smell it. Is that to much to ask?

Can I help the city like this…?

Can anyone…?

-Kylie Hrabe, Jr. High Team Member