Summer is almost over and the school year is already upon us. I am looking forward to starting a new year of teaching and discipling the youth here at Faith United Methodist Church. But before that begins I want to take a moment to reflect on our summer mission trip to Minneapolis. The trip we went on was organized by the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches and was focused on examining poverty, hunger, and homelessness.  During the week we volunteered at various organizations throughout the Twin Cities metro area that were helping to alleviate these problems. Then in the evening we would eat dinner at House of Charity in Minneapolis and had an opportunity to eat a meal with the residents and see the faces of poverty firsthand. After our meal we would return to the Russ Ewald Center where we were staying and discuss these issues and given tangible ideas and suggestions on how to enact change in our own communities when we returned home. During the week we served at food shelves, non-profit thrift stores like St. Vincent de Paul's, did daycare for single mom's who were trying to get a college degree, and even loaded furniture at a place called Bridging which collected used furniture and gave it away to people who were in need. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to the Mall of America and a Twins game, both of which served as a great opportunity to spend time together during a very busy week! 

As I told our kids during the week, this was not merely an end in itself but a beginning for us. I want to take what we did and saw and learned in Minneapolis and use it to impact our own communities. I have already been investigating multiple service opportunities with similar organizations here in the Fox Valley and when details are finalized we will begin our regular service projects as part of the youth ministry here at Faith. I think the mission trip was extremely beneficial to those we encountered in Minneapolis and to ourselves as well. Now I hope it will be beneficial for people who are in need right here in our own community. I want to say a special thank you to Judi Voissem and Jeanne Cornell for helping to chaperon this trip - without them the trip literally would not have been possible! And to all the kids who went with us as well, they were extremely well behaved throughout the week (which is more than I can say for some of the other groups) and their timeliness and ability to be ready when I asked them to made my job so much easier. I thank God for such a wonderful week and I thank everyone who has supported this trip in any way. Lives were truly changed as a result of this trip and the seeds that were sewn will continue to produce fruit for years to come!