We just spent an incredible week with an awesome bunch of young people from Batesville First Baptist youth group! Under the direction of Lacey and the leadership of Chase, they spent a semester learning the music of Hillsong - doing all of their own instrumentation and vocal work! Some were skeptical of their possible success but pushed through and with a lot of hard work, they were exceedingly successful! By May 31, The Worship Project was ready to debut! They exploded into the summer at First Baptist Church, surprising and pleasing the gathered parents and friends with their professionalism and excellence. The most critical element however, was the worship - they truly brought all who listened and observed to the Throne in an act of worship. They were, indeed, ready to take their worship event on the road and New Orleans was waiting for them. Lacey and Chase had planned a trip which would include Mission Lab of New Orleans Theological Seminary, a program which is intended to give home missions experience and opportunity for young students and their sponsors. Because of their desire to present the Worship Project as a part of their trip, Mission Lab set up opportunities around New Orleans as a part of their plan.
Following the early morning service at First Baptist, 30 people (22 young people and 8 sponsor/leaders) set out for a long drive from Batesville to New Orleans, with high expectations. Little did we know the challenges of entering another culture, climate, and life style that we would encounter and overcome by God's grace that week.
First of all, we knew the mileage when we left and knew that New Orleans was a long way from home. The trip was still new when we stopped outside of Memphis to pick up the Barnes and eat a little lunch. We were very tired, and definitely ready to arrive by the time we found the seminary and finished our registering process that evening. We got in on the end of the first Worship session and to our surprise were asked to follow a staffer from Mission Lab to the student center! IT WAS SO FAR...and we were walking! Mickey and I decided at the last moment to ditch our Hotel room and opted to stay with the rest of the "trippers" when we discovered that it would be possible. We all gathered in our designated room for "church time" - the last time I actually saw that room that week...but we did indeed experience "church time" again through working together and sharing our hearts.
What a great, pleasant surprise that our mattresses were new and very comfortable! Our rooms were clean and adequate. The showers were a little cramped and I am convinced that a do-do must design those things...come on, couldn't you design them for a little more privacy and convenience? Anyway, other than the very loud flushing toilets and the room doors with slats (which allowed even whispers to escape down the hall), our home for the week was nice. I thought the food was actually excellent...well, it began that way, any way. By the end of the week, my daily breakfast was grits with Splenda (VERY GOOD...I don't care what you say!) and a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios along with a diet coke. I tried the bacon and sausage and they just tasted like someone had sliced them straight off the pig and served them...the eggs were powdered, I'm sure. Lunch every day was a good old ham sandwich on white or wheat, depending on what was left (was there also turkey?) a package of mayo or mustard, a bag of chips and a cookie. Every day. Until we got smart enough to do something about it, the drinks were hot - and really not enough variety to please everyone - but we survived. We had our lunch on the sidewalk in front of the dorms under the shade trees. It was really too hot for us to care much about what we were eating. No one complained. Supper was really pretty tasty. Chicken strips, spaghetti, red beans and rice, chicken alfredo and noodles...not bad. One night everyone went to the Dairy Queen for ice cream...that was fun to watch. On Friday night, we ate at the French Quarter - I think everyone had beniets - even me!
Before telling about the exciting days of ministry, I just have to devote some time to how God protected our group. The trip to New Orleans was fairly routine - no big bobbles or loop de loops. Mickey and Greg drove the whole way, pulling trailers and Alison spotted me in the Yukon. It was an incredibly long day and we were very tired by the time we saw the red full moon over Lake Pontchartrain. That we made it safely, with no major incidents was an amazing act of God in itself. We wandered around in New Orleans some during the week, not knowing where we were going exactly. The caravan, however, was able to stay together and made it through the many stop lights and turnabouts without too much hastle. Everyone was sun burned and a few people got blisters and minor cuts, but no trips to the hospital. Good health, for those of us with some issues, was well maintained. We were made keenly aware of a phobia that Alison has while on the trip. Alison was driving to the correctional facility as we entered the Huey P. Long bridge. She had said earlier that she didn't like bridges and so we all became a little anxious for her. This bridge was the highest, longest and most dangerous looking bridge in New Orleans! To top it off, there was construction going on and we entered the very narrow bridge beside a bus. Alison was petrified! She sat up and held on to the steering wheel with all of her might! It turned out that the construction work was a blessing - traffic had to streamline and travel in one lane which put the bus in front of us instead of beside us. We made it across the bridge safely and I drove on the return! We were never in real danger, but the perceived danger was unnerving and God's protection was very real. The time for us to leave came with few problems and other than every day aggravations, our week had been uneventful and we had been watched over and cared for by the Father. We all loaded in the vans and Yukon and headed back to Arkansas. As we rounded the second corner, the second van "kerplunked". Greg stepped out to access the situation and got quite a surprise. As he had driven over the speed bump, the trailer had come loose from the van! Even in this moment, we recognized God's hand over us. Had he not hit a speed bump, we might have discovered the loose trailer on the interstate and it could have been a tragedy. This says something for speed bumps in our way, doesn't it? It could have only been God's protection. The long trip home finally began. We were nearing lunch time and planned to stop soon. The trip had been uneventful and everyone was tired enough to sleep - well, except for Mickey's van, who were bored enough to play "hide-n-seek" in the van (don't ask, I don't know). Suddenly everything went wrong. I could see a white car ahead, stopped dead still on the interstate and Greg was sliding toward it. The car which had gotten in between us was throwing on its brakes and I was pumping mine, thinking about how I could get out of Mickey's way to give him more room while watching him swerving, smoking and breaking in my side mirror. There was no possible way that we would all come out of this unscathed. But we did! Praise the Lord! No damage, no injuries came from any vehicle involved in the potential pile up. The students on Mickey's van said he was literally standing up on his brake! Isn't our God good? We knew and felt that it was His total protection. We exited and took a much needed lunch break, looked over Mickey's tires and thanked the Lord for His watch care.
One week prior to our trip we were alerted that we would need to provide for our own Back Yard Bible Clubs. At this late hour, Bro. Gary helped to secure some materials for us. While the students spent hours practicing the Worship Project, I spent an unscheduled day cleaning out the resource room at the church in an effort to see what we could use for crafts that would be cost effective. This was important because we really had no money allocated for this part of the trip. To my delight, I found a lot of left-overs from Vacation Bible School the following year and used my years of pre-school experience to develop some ideas using the available materials. On Wednesday before we left the curriculum that Bro. Gary had ordered came in. I went to work, editing and planning out days of what I hoped would be flexible material to meet our need in any situation. I thought it was really good material and would work well for what we needed. Our students complied with my request that each of them get a costume and play a part in the on going dramas that we would present to the children. They each brought a small blanket or towel to use for sitting on the ground. I think that everyone kept up with their own packet which included a script and information to help with the daily Bible Verse and craft that we would use. These young people are amazing. For five years, many of them have been involved with Terrific Tuesdays at our church. It is a free morning event, offered to the community's families for children 4 years through 5th grade, every Tuesday. The students work the program leading the children in games, crafts, music and Bible stories. Terrific Tuesdays served them well on this trip. We really didn't have a lot of information about the places that we would be leading in a Back Yard Bible Club, so we knew that to be flexible would be important. (Put your index finger out and move it down and out and back in...our sign for flexibility for the week). One of the groups would be at an indoor location working with a community based program with the children already gathered and ready to begin. The other group would have to gather their children by going door to door and would have a vacant lot to meet in. Both places presented their own challenges, but the empty lot group definitely had to stretch themselves and be more creative and flexible.
The community based camp, "Excite", was held in an air conditioned building with two available rooms for us to use. They also had a canopy set up in a small grassy field across their parking lot which was great for early gatherings, snacks, and games. Mrs. Penny and Mr. Jerrold were the directors of the program and were very cooperative and helpful. The children were already divided into three groups by age when we arrived. The big surprise for us, was older children - tweenagers. The students each took a group to lead and developed relationships with them quickly. Victoria was the lead teacher for the older students and adapted so well that you would have never known that she didn't expect it. We "flew by the seat of the pants" changing the schedule and adapting to the unexpected arrangement of the rooms. Quickly we knew that we would need to use "Matt's Place" a coffee house atmosphere and the room the middle age group of children used for crafts and Bible verse learning, as our large group gathering where we would do our dramas and our music. My biggest surprise was that we discovered a stand up comedian among us. I had asked Spencer Barnes to play the on-going part of Paul and Zach Smith to play the part of his Roman guard. The first day we were all left in stitches and amazement at Spencer's delivery - totally relating to the children but effectively getting the message across. Zach was appropriately mean and scary and the children immediately sided with a captive Paul who was under house arrest. On the second day, Mrs. Penny told me that Wednesday was not going to work out for them, as a water slide was coming for the day. She also told me that Friday was field trip day, so we would not be needed then, either. I must admit that I was a little disappointed that we would not be able to do everything we planned with the children, but put up my finger and flexed. This meant that we would be available for some other mission for two mornings, but what that would be, we didn't know. On Thursday, our last day with the children, we decided to do all of the dramas for Day 3, 4 and 5 and all of the Paul and Brutus skits as well. We also brought along a couple of guitars and the djembe drum to sing a couple of Worship Project songs for the children. All through the week, the students stepped up. They taught songs they didn't even know themselves, loved on the children, maintained order - even through the fire ant attack - and pulled out games and songs from their past T-squared experience. The children and the directors were happy and grateful.
Although I wasn't at the other BYBC site, I realize they were the real heroes of the week. They had to "find" their children. It wasn't easy and keeping the ones they found was hard, too. Many of the children they had attend were very young - preschool age. They found their vacant lot and found a disappointing surprise. It was a small grassy lot (too grassy - needed to be mowed) with sticks, glass, and trash on it, sandwiched in between two houses. They were blessed by the gracious people who lived in one of the houses who offered their tiny front porch as a shade from the blistering heat. Each day they would go expecting more children. Each day they would go and there would be different children, most of whom would come and go through out the morning. It was hot and it was hard, but the students and leaders were consistent and loving and flexible. They lost balls under the house and gave away the rec equipment as the children left. These children of the 7th Ward lived in poverty and came from homes that are surrounded by crime and the threat of disease and devastation. It was an honor to send them home with a craft and with a new ball or hoola hoop or jump rope and with a glimmer of hope that someone cares.
I must stop here and publish and post...I will continue this blog at another time...so much more to tell.
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