The Legend of Brad

Every night before lights out a member of the Youthworks staff would read us a "bedtime story" with a considerable amount of cheek. On the night I sustained my injury Reuben created this poem that he read to us. It is a rather accurate description of what happened with some epic embellishment thrown in.

The Legend of Brad

I've come, I've come, to tell you a tale

that will make your young pleasant faces go pale

the story is sappy, gut wrenching, and sad

the story is about a youth leader named Brad

He went on a trip led by him, Kim, and James

some other guys went-I know not their names

they went to the Restore, the Habitat place

smashed t.v.'s with toilets, oh yeah, in your face!

the crew ripped up furniture, couches and chairs

the young folks worked hard, they all did their shares

when suddenly, no! A big spike! A nail!

and into Brad's arm the nail was impaled!

but he was so strong, so rugged, so tough

that he didn't notice, though the job, it got rough

Brad suddenly noticed that his arm was all red

he reeled; with blood loss...he'd soon be dead

but then Dr. James, with a hearty guffaw

said, "That's a two-stitcher!" and that, that was all

so off to the the hospital Kim drove our hero

she pulled into ER, from 60 to zero

Brad put his name into wait, what a guy!

and then about six hundred hours went by

Reuben and Erin, they stopped by to see him

but they were sure glad they didn't have to be him

so soon a few stitches were put in Brad's arm

and he returned to the site, kept the kiddies from harm

Saved the guys, kissed the ladies, punished the bad

that's the tale of our hero, our hero named Brad

Annie and Kea share some time on the trip.

Thursday Morning

Well our last day of work has arrived. The kids are understandably tired and our seniors are realizing that this is it...so they are a tad emotional. The group I shepherd will head to parts unknown this morning for a "special project" and then on to kids club at 1:00PM. Our kids were very moved by what they encountered yesterday, whether it was the kids or the elderly. Last night we talked about the depth and strength of God's love as we read the parable of the loving father (which you know as the prodigal son).

Tonight we will go to a cabin on Lake Superior and have a chance to swim in very cold water! Other activities will be available as well, including kayaking. A camp far with the obligatory s'mores will finish our day. Tomorrow we pack it up and head south after breakfast. Tabby and I will be up very early so she can catch her flight home (which leaves at 6:35 AM). It is about a 30 minute drive to the airport.

I will try to post again tonight. Keep praying - and we will be glad to see all of you before noon on Saturday.

Wednesday Night from Ellie

This trip has been my annual wake up call. It puts me back into reality. It has been amazing! I’ve gotten to paint a whole hallway in a historic theater, spend a day with three elderly women with memory loss, and work with incredible children. The variety of work has been wonderful, and I just thank God for giving me the experience. I hope I can come home and do the same work that I have been doing.

Wednesday Night - from Kaitlyn

Hey everyone! So far this trip has changed my life. I think today was the hardest day yet. I worked at the children’s club today and all I have to say is wow! My little buddy really showed me a different way to life and not a good one at that. She showed me that when I was little I had it good. The little kids there needed so much attention that it wasn’t even funny. At one point when I was playing with my buddy she told me something and I about broke down in tears. But then she said to me promise me you won’t tell. I told here it would never leave my lips. At the end of the day she gave me the biggest hug anyone has ever given me. And she said “will you be back tomorrow?” . Well it is almost time for lights out! So I just want to say “I love you mom, dad, and all my friends! I can’t wait till I get back! And I might be a different person, but just in a good way! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!”
Love to all my family and friends,
Kaitlyn <3

Tonight we took ambulatory patients from the War Memorial Hospital to a concert at the Soo Lock Park. The entertainment featured two Irish folk singers.

We pack our own lunches everyday. The whole community has abstained from peanut butter. Justin has done very well - with some help from his friends (new and old).

Lunch Time!

It did not take long for these kids to bond with our kids - they welcomed the attention and a safe environment. The boys most notably wanted to spend time with older boys and men - it suggests what they are missing in their lives.

This is the work crew that spent two days at "Miss Betty's" house doing clean up in the yard and repair around the house and garage.

Teeter Totter fun

Playing on the play ground. You will notice that I try not to show the faces of the either the children or the elderly in these blog photos. That is intentional because there are "release rights" for Internet posting, which we have not secured with the guardians of these individuals.

Colleen O Malley Mac Donald O'Brien (Mallory) was from Ireland in the skit and she went around the world to discover that Jesus loves everyone from everywhere! Shelby was from France (high fashion) and Kaitlyn was from Mexico.

Kids Club on Wednesday

Singing silly Songs at Kids Club. We had fun today!

Wednesday

Today was Kids Club in Kinross, located adjacent to a closed Air Force base that used to house B-52 bombers (it now in an emergency landing site for the space shuttle). The base closing has had a significant impact on the economy. The children we are serving live in difficult conditions and appear to welcome the attention they receive from our youth and adults. We sang with the kids, performed a skit, did crafts, and had recreation around the theme “Jesus Loves Everyone”. We will return to this site again tomorrow.

One interesting statistic is that 70% of families on the UP are impacted by alcohol abuse. This problem is not just limited to the Native American population and it suggests why some of the children are in the condition they are in.

Tonight we will be heading to the War Memorial hospital and taking the residents out to a local park for a concert.

Our group has been talking about the parables of Jesus. We have spent some time with the parable of the Talents, the rich man and Lazarus, and sower and the seed.

From Tuesday night - Kelly Allen

Hello from Sault Ste Marie! To start…Alex says hello but is too lazy to write her own blog. Today my group “The Bears” finished cleaning Miss Betty’s garage (a local elderly lady) and painted her windows and cleaned her gutters. Patrick- feeling better and with me today- mowed all of her lawn for her. As this was our second and last day at her house, we said our goodbyes this afternoon after sharing many thank yous and “we’ll miss yous.” Tabby and I came to a realization this afternoon- this is our last mission trip as students and members of the youth group. I would just like to take this time to say a huge THANK YOU for all of your love and support during and after our seven mission trips. These journeys have forever touched me and I love being able to share my joy of helping others with the younger members of our group. Although it is a little upsetting realizing that this is our last trip- I know I will be given countless more opportunities to grow in my faith with others my age. God bless!! We will see you all soon!!

Ok…time for lights out! Good Night!
~Kelly

From Tuesday night - Kelly Allen

Hello from Sault Ste Marie! To start…Alex says hello but is too lazy to write her own blog. Today my group “The Bears” finished cleaning Miss Betty’s garage (a local elderly lady) and painted her windows and cleaned her gutters. Patrick- feeling better and with me today- mowed all of her lawn for her. As this was our second and last day at her house, we said our goodbyes this afternoon after sharing many thank yous and “we’ll miss yous.” Tabby and I came to a realization this afternoon- this is our last mission trip as students and members of the youth group. I would just like to take this time to say a huge THANK YOU for all of your love and support during and after our seven mission trips. These journeys have forever touched me and I love being able to share my joy of helping others with the younger members of our group. Although it is a little upsetting realizing that this is our last trip- I know I will be given countless more opportunities to grow in my faith with others my age. God bless!! We will see you all soon!!

Ok…time for lights out! Good Night!
~Kelly

Tuesday Night

We visited the Sault Tribe tonight and met Cecil - who works as a spokesperson for this part of the Ojibwa Nation. One part of his job includes "repatriation" of native people, which involves, among other things, accepting the bones of ancestors from ancient burial sites that have been disturbed by construction and excavation projects. The tribe is preparing to host a Pow Wow and one of our crews worked to help prepare the camp grounds located in the tribal territory. We had a cookout there this evening. Cecil explained many of the customs of his people and "drummed" and sang for us.

Tuesday

Patrick is still under the weather, but went to his mission site today. He made it through the day and seems better tonight. Tomorrow all of our groups change their ministry locations. The group I shepherd will head to Kids Club - so we go from working with the very old to the very young. Today our boys washed walls and handrails at the Tendercare facility, a group of our girls picked up around the grounds and some of us played games with the residents.

Monday Night in the Soo

From the Tower of History (over 200 feet tall) we were able to observe the surrounding area and see Canada! We had been to the locks before this ship arrived. We walked around Sault Ste Marie and visited a few shops including an ice cream store (I had the Mackinac Fudge Swirl - yummy!).

Monday Night

Monday night included a trip to the "Soo" locks which allows shipping between Superior and Huron. Locks have been in operation here since the mid 1800's and allowed for this area to become an economic engine. This is looking "down stream" toward Huron.

Justin and Zach washed wheel chairs this morning - and there was more water on the chairs than on the boys! The fact that is was 60 degrees this morning when we started my have cut down on the temptation have a water fight.

Abby, Mallory, and Kaitlyn started the day painting, and though they got some paint on their faces, they did manage to get one coat done before lunch.

With luck, we will post a few pictures later this evening from the day's ministry sites. We have a leaders meeting in 10 minutes and it takes almost that long to post a single picture! The group I am blessed to shepherd includes Youth Minister Johnothan Kraker, Rosewood Reformed and three of their youth, Addie, Mattie, and Abby along with Mallory, Shelby, Kaitlyn, Noah, Justin, and Zach.

We are working (today and tomorrow) at a senior care facility "TenderCare". We had a variety of tasks, including recreation with the residents, painting, cleaning wheel chairs and bedside tables, and helping put out drinking water for the residents. Wednesday and Thursday we will switch with another group and head for the Kids Club program, about 25 miles away.

The kids are great and working hard. The adults are getting along well. Patrick was sick today and had to "stay back" to recover. We came home to find him well rested and ready to work tomorrow. We hope it was something that disagreed with him and not a "bug" that will be shared!

Hopefully there will be stories to add tonight of the other sites and some pictures. Our best to all. I have a meeting to attend (imagine that?).

Sunday Night

We have arrived safely in Sault Ste Marie. There are not recent pictures to share with you tonight and time will be limited for posting to the Blog – they run a tight ship at YouthWorks!

Our caravan from Jeffersonville arrived around 2:00PM and we ate lunch at a 1950’s style “burger joint” (the prices, however, did not look like the 1950’s!). St Joseph’s church was not far and we pulled into the parking lot around 3:30 – plenty early. We unloaded the vans, received a tour of the building and then headed for a nearby playground. The church is very nice, and must have been renovated recently. The school building, however, has seen some time pass since its last renovation! We are all in class rooms on the second floor. Over 30 boys in one small class room…not much room to walk in between air mattresses.

The girls have it a little better, spread between two class rooms and with more working “facilities” then the men. We will shower at a recreation center about five minutes from here. Crews have been assigned to work areas and responsibilities including meal prep and clean up. Lights out will be in twenty minutes (11:00 PM) and reveille is at 0700!

Two young people posted comments for the Blog and they will appear below. The consensus is that we love everyone, miss everyone, wish you were here, and we are grateful for your support and excited to get started tomorrow.

There is free time in the afternoon (after showers) and I hope to try to post some pictures at that time. Tonight when we met with “just our kids” we talked about a story Jesus told that is recorded in the Gospel of Luke in the 15th chapter about a rich man and a poor man (named Lazarus). We talked about how easy it is to not notice the poor around us. We also talked about how Jesus seemed to feel when we did so – according to the story – it separates us from God. We’re going to spend some time letting that soak in this week.

Have a good night.

Hugs and Kisses from the Soo!

From Mallory

Howdy folks we are in the van at 9:15 and about everyone is asleep. We made up a song yesterday and it was the awsomest. Bruce picked a captain of the van and I was the captain for the day. But it’s not what you think it is. We had to empty out the trash at every stop!!! You should have seen the mess we made at the end of the day!!! I’ve seen at least 20 types of road kill and they were pretty nasty. We have been driving for only about an hour and it’s already boring. We played dance dance revolution 2 last night and it was awesome. There was also poker and basketball. In the middle of the night I got up to use the restroom and when I came back I stepped on Layne. I want to say hi to my mom, dad, bro and Toby (puppy).

Hey every1! It’s around 9:30 and we have been on the road for an hour or so. The car ride this morning has been boring so far - every1 has either slept or read a book called Him She Loves?(that would be Shelby). The little navigator (GPS) said we should arrive at our destination around 1:00. On the car ride here we noticed a lot of farms and it looks exactly like Indiana except for that it is mostly flat. It’s so pretty out here and we whoosh all of you were here to enjoy this trip with us. At the church last night it was nice and relaxing after we had been in the car with 10 chicks and a rooster (10 girls, and Bruce) all day. We had prayers at 11, and by 12 lights were out. We woke up at 7 and were out by 8:30 which was good because their Sunday school started at 9 o’clock. I would like to say hello to my parents, my bubby Brad, and my puppy Tay. I love you and am hoping to see you on Saturday.

With love 4ever,
Jena Reinhardt!! :)

It is eight thirty and time to leave for the Soo! We will post later today.

Tabby and Stephanie "confer" about the quality of her hand.

Kelly Allen says "good times!"

Our senior leadership has been great. They are setting a fine example for our younger travelers and they are looking after the "lost". Kelly, Stephanie, Tabby, and Alex did the wake up routine this morning, and we are ahead of schedule!

We were treated to a game of Texas Holdem

June 21

Here we are - fresh and ready to leave Jeffersonville. We pulled out about 11:20 AM. First stop, circle K to get large drinks. Next stop, rest area to ... well you get the idea!

We Made It!

We have safely arrived in Michigan and we are settled into our resting place as we mark the half-way point of our journey to the north. We pulled into the church parking lot here in Lansing about about 6:45 PM. The travel was uneventful, safe, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Our van odometer claims that we have come 381 miles. The gas tanks appeared to have a different way of measuring the distance - $284 to fill the three vehicles in preparation for the 300 miles to the Soo yet to be driven (68.4 gallons at $4.15 per gallon)! We may have some budget adjusting to do - or we may not get past Fort Wayne on the way home!

The kids are great and of course, very excited. We were warmly welcomed here with hot meal and gracious hospitality. There was some miscommunication between the host pastor and his musicians however, so we ended up not being able to hear their band. But some folks and few youth were on hand to play games with us. They have the game Dance Dance Dance Revolution which a number of our youth attempted. Basketball, poker (I have been assured no money changed hands!), a movie as well as quiet corners to talk in provided our entertainment for the evening.

Our schedule tonight included worship at 11:00 PM (we talked about Luke 10 and the sending of the seventy-two by Jesus to go ahead of him and prepare the way for his coming) and then lights out at midnight. I am in another room catching up on today's paper work and filing this report for you, then off to bed for me as well. Traveling with 10 middle school age girls is more tiring than I thought! They sing and talk and giggle and make faces at passing cars (evening trying to write notes and put them on the windows for "cute boys" to read!).

We will be up a little earlier than originally planned. It turns out we need to allow an extra hour this time of year for all of the traffic heading to the U.P. The wait at the toll bridge can get a bit long - so we will leave at 9:00 am (we will start waking the kids at 7). We still expect to be in Sault Ste Marie by 4:30 PM.

Each day at least one of the youth will post to the blog. It will be good for you to see the trip through someone elses eyes besides the pastor's! It is getting late, and a good night sleep this early in the week is essential. We will post more tomorrow (or should I say later today?).

Good night from Lansing...

Comments from Haylie O'Brien

Hello people at home!!!!!!!!

Today was a WONDERFUL day! The car rides were long but we g0t through them and had some funny moments along the way. Let me just tell you never I repeat NEVER get a van with all girls and one man. It was pretty crazy! Before we even pulled out of the parking lot we were already singing. At the beginning we were loud and obnoxious and all we wanted to do was sing our favorite songs to the world. Only a couple minutes in the trip we stopped at our favorite Circle K. Then in the van we ended up trashing it so bad that you couldn't see the floor, we made up songs, had water and food fights, and talked in very weird voices (Gabby). We then all fell asleep until about 10 minutes before we got to our sleeping place. When we got there the people were VERY friendly and welcomed us like we were their own. We then had dinner, unpacked, and played games. It was all fun and we are here now about to go to sleep. It's been a FABULOUS day and I can't wait until tomorrow!!! (and yes, the van has been cleaned for tomorrow!) I love you mom, dad, michael john, and toby and i miss you all sooooo much!!!! :]]]]] *LOVE* -haylie marie- <333

For the first time in recent memory, the vehicles carrying our youth mission trip will be heading north on the expressway - and that will mean a considerable change in the weather. Last year it was Birmingham, AL - with daily temperatures in the 90's and night time lows in the 70's! This year, the highest forecast temperature is 74 degrees - with lows in the 40's each night! That will impact how we pack, needing to dress in layers. Days are likely to begin and end in long sleeves and sweatshirts, switching to tee shirts and shorts during the working hours. This will make for a unique challenge for our packing, as we are limited to one piece of luggage, plus our sleeping bags and air mattresses.

Brenda and Layne Dixon along with Bruce will drive north to Indy today to pick up our 15 passenger rental van. By taking the church van and renting this large van, we only need three vehicles instead of four and thus we make the trip a little "greener" by reducing our carbon foot print! Gas at $4.15 a gallon is over our budget - but our congregation has been very generous and we anticipate enough funds to make it to the Soo and back! Thank you First Christian Church members and friends!

I need to pack - more later!

Welcome

Welcome to the SooCityMission2008 blog spot! This space will be used to tell the story of our 2008 Youth Mission Trip to Sault Ste. Marie, MI. On Saturday, June 21, twenty eight middle school and high school youth along with five adults will head north to the Upper Peninsula to work with folks who have been hard hit by a changing economy. The closure of an Air Force base and the slowing of shipping through the Great Lakes and the steel/iron ore industry have helped to create an unemployment rate over 8%. Seventeen and a half percent of the population in Chippewa County live in poverty.

Our work in this city, which has been an active area since the French fur traders settled here in the 1600's, will be in multiple arenas. We will work with children who are participating in a day care program called "Kids Club", working with senior citizens in a long term care facility, helping the Salvation Army with food and clothing distribution, and participating in the renovation of a local community theater. There may also be an opportunity for our high school age participates to help the local Habitat for Humanity organization.

We will begin entries to this blog site on Saturday morning, June 21 as we begin our journey. The first night features a stop at a Disciples of Christ church in Lansing, MI. They have promised a place to sleep, along with dinner, entertainment by their praise band, and games and conversations with their youth group. It will be great for our kids to meet each other, and see that their "church family"is larger than what they can see in Jeffersonville, IN. With technical success, pictures and stories from the youth will begin to appear on this page.

YouthWorks is our partner on this mission trip. To learn more about them, click here:
http://www.youthworks.com/ We utilized this organization last year for our Birmingham, AL trip, and our young people had one of the best experiences we have ever had on a mission trip. Well organized, fun, spiritual, and challenging. Check daily for posts and please keep us in your prayers.