Our 4th annual Missions 101 is in the books. This year, we took a team to North Little Rock to serve around Rose City at First Corinthians Baptist Church. Our project this year was to paint the church's worship center.
The church is located in a struggling part of town. In fact, the church was broke into the night before we came and lost part of its sound system and offerings. Missions 101 provided an opportunity for our students to expand their views of reality and to share God's love with others. Here is a break down of each day...
SUNDAY:
We arrived to the church and unpacked our supplies. There was a bit of prep work involved, which included taking stuff off the walls, wiping down the walls, moving the pews, laying plastic, and lots of taping. Each student also brought nonperishable food items for the church to share with their members and the community. A couple of boys took the food and sorted it out to start a food bank for the church. After all this was done, we wrapped up the work day by spackling and priming the walls. After work, we went downtown to grab some dinner. We then checked into the hotel and swam in the pool. Our evening concluded with our Missions Debriefing, which focused on "Missions is Hard Work."
MONDAY:
We got up grabbed breakfast and headed back to the church. We laid down some new plastic and started priming again. The walls are old paneling, so we wanted to make sure they were coated thick with primer. We stopped midday for lunch. It was not unusual for our students to notice homeless men and women as we drove through the neighborhoods. We saw several on this particular day. After lunch, we came back and put on the first official coat of paint. We got the walls covered, cleaned-up, and return to the hotel. After we got cleaned up and we grabbed dinner at Playtime Pizza to unwind a bit. We finished the night with Missions Debriefing by talking about how the "Church is Called to Minister to All People."
TUESDAY:
We got up one more time, ate breakfast, packed, cleaned our rooms, and went to the church. We laid more plastic and put on the 2nd coat of paint. Once it was covered, we went to lunch to cool off and take a break. After lunch, it was time to touch up and to clean up. We painted missed spots, pulled up the tape, took out the trash, and cleaned our mess. We moved the pews back in place and set everything up as we found it. We finished right on our deadline.
May God bless the work of our Middle Schoolers' hands from the 2009 Missions 101!
