Loading up the bus with all the luggage and equipment they will need.
Every year our church sends a couple of mission teams to Seneca Street UMC to help out up there and to show the kids that there are people they can count on that will not desert them and that love them.
Duluth UMC Mission Team 2010
Loaded up and ready to roll!!
Going.
Going.
Gone.
So many of the kids that Seneca Street ministers to are from broken homes where the father is in jail and the mothers are, for the most part, strung out on dope or alcohol. The church, as part of their mission, feeds these kids breakfast lunch and in some cases dinner. The church is a safe place to come where the kids can get help with their school work or just life in general. When our youth go up there, they put on a Vacation Bible School. This year was very exciting. We had 120 pre-registered kids for VBS.
The first year I don't know that we had any kids pre-registered for VBS. Most of the kids or families had a wait and see attitude. That first year there were about 30 kids that attended VBS. The next year there were pre-registered kids and about 50 showed up. As the years went on the numbers increased. Kathryn tells me that the first year was very hard. The kids were street tough and very closed to outsiders coming in wanting to be friends with them only for the outsiders to leave and never be seen again. That was the paradigm these kids were used to. That first year it took nearly the whole week but our kids finally got through to those kids by the end of the week and the Buffalo kids actually warmed up and opened up to out kids. The big test came when they were leaving. The Buffalo kids asked, "Are you coming back?" When our kids answered, "Yes!" The Buffalo kids wanted to know if they meant it. So when we showed up the next year, as promised, that was huge to those kids. So many of those kids, so hungry for acceptance, affection and affirmation were running up top our kids asking if they remembered them. I am happy to say our kids did remember those precious faces.
Every year it gets better up there. The church is really making a difference in the community and our kids can see lives being changed in the kids up there. This year Kathryn told me there were now youth interns at the Seneca Street church, which is amazing! They are moving in the right direction but they are still figuring out the whole servant heart thing. I think one of the most thought provoking moments the whole week was when at one point our kids were doing some work around the church.; painting, repairing, etc. Some of the youth interns from Seneca Street walked by our guys and were making fun of them saying stuff like, "Haha! You have to work on your vacation!" "You have chores to do! Do your chores!" That sort of stuff. But our kids just looking at them amazed and said, "We want to do this. This is why we came here" Then the SSUMC kids asked, "How much are you paid to come here?" When our kids replied, "Nothing. We pay for the privilege to come up and serve." Kathryn said their jaws dropped in utter disbelief. The SSUMC kids asked how much we pay to come up there and our guys told them, "$250" That just blew those SSUMC kids away. Kathryn said they just kind of went on off after that but you could see the little wheels turning in their heads.
I sincerely hope that the presence of our kids up there and the other churches that go up to help touch those lives in a way we may never know or understand but that it will help them change their family tree and to seek a better way than what they have always known. We can only follow Christ's example and go and serve. What fruits we yield may take a while to ripen but hopefully we will help yield good and abundant fruit.
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