Some highlights from bedtime on Sunday and our day on Monday! Next up for us is worship. ♡-|-♡
Tommy and Jeni are on my crew, so I am getting plenty of work site pictures with them. Trying hard to catch everyone as much as I can. If you are on instagram, find us at @rryouth. I have posted a couple of silly videos featuring Tommy, Paul, Jeni, Katie, & Laura. Everyone here is doing great. No sickness and no injuries, thank you God! We are hoping for another beautiful day tomorrow so we can keep making progress on our houses. I have a feeling that we will all sleep well tonight. :-) Our theme for the week is "Speak Truth Fearlessly" based on Jeremiah 1:19. One quote from our speaker, Josh, that I loved was "Before you do the work of God, realize you ARE the work of God." So true. I will try to get more pics tonight to post. Jeni is sending me some of us in our granny shorts. Yeah, we looked good today. ;-) Thank you for supporting our mission !!! Blessings! -Rachel We are here and having an amazing time!! Everyone is adapting amazingly well. Work crews were assigned and there are at least 2-3 rrumc people in our groups. Yay!!
lights out at 10:30ish/11 & we are waking up at 6. Love you! Hello, Middle School Mission Trip Families! We are 2 days away from our upcoming adventure in the Kenmore area of Akron, Ohio! I hope that you and your participant are as excited as Paul, Jeni, and I are! It’s going to be an amazing week. A couple of last minute notes: -If you are able, please attend the 10am worship service (or at least the beginning of it if you prefer to attend a different service). Rev. Dan will be calling our Mission team forward for a special blessing. I know this is last minute, so if it doesn’t work out for you, that’s ok! -Please arrive on Sunday at 2:45pm. Place all luggage on the sidewalk right outside of the doors to Beacon Hall and then come into the Youth Room to check in. Parents, do not leave until your child is checked in. -We will have a group picture and prayer circle before we depart. Families are invited to take pictures and join our prayer circle. See you soon! Live worthy!! -Rachel -Pick up will be on Friday evening around 10:00pm. We will send a text to all parents when we are 15 minutes from the church. Please add your cell number to our list at check in to be included. We leave in 4 days for MSM15!
Please pack in a duffle bag, if possible. We will be squishing our luggage into vehicle nooks and crannies to make everything fit. Are you bringing meds on the trip? You will need a medical form. If you need one, let Rachel or Jeni know, or you can fill one out on Sunday. We will have extras. Remember, you will get paint on your clothes. The thrift stores have great clothes to wear on mission trips. When the trip is over, you can wash them and store them for next summer! Jeni and Rachel have gotten some amazing thrift finds this week including graphic tees that scream adorbs and granny shorts that will make you feel awkward and amazing - at the same time. Have fun packing! The middle school mission team departs for the Kenmore area of Akron, Ohio in exactly 5 days!
We have decided that this is the place for updates and photos leading up to and during the trip. This blog is easy for our leaders to upload to and easy for our families at home to access. Please check back often! Remember, if your forms and final payment are not yet turned in, we need those a.s.a.p. Any questions, contact Rachel or Jeni! Please arrive at RRUMC at 2:45pm on Sunday. We will return to RRUMC the following Friday evening around 10pm. Youth will call or text you when we are about 15 minutes away, from the leader's phones. (Does your child know your #?) The youth are serving through our church's Twice Blessed Free Store! We are collecting items to donate each month and will be going over to the Free Store on April 26 from 6-8 for a potluck followed by doing some service hours sorting and organizing. The Apr. 26 event is for youth and families (children with parents). Please bring a dish to share and any donations that you haven't already brought to the church. You may also bring friends to this event. The address of the Free Store is 6515 Bridge Ave., Cleveland.
For the rest of April, you can still bring our items of the month to the church and leave them in the orange bucket in the youth room or the bin outside Rachel's Office (room 210). Our April Items of the Month are BABY WIPES AND DIAPERS. The church and community are invited to our Palm Sunday Brunch this Sunday, March 29th, at RRUMC. The youth are providing various breakfast casseroles, fruit salad, pastries, and more. Please bring your friends and family. Donations will be accepted and will benefit our summer mission trips to Akron, OH (Middle School) and Memphis, Tennessee (High School). The brunch will be open from 9am-12pm, so you may attend worship before or after brunch, if you choose.
A Reflection from Hope Balser Life Changing Experience Mission trips with the Rocky River United Methodist Church youth group have meant the world to me. Not only have I experienced the world from different viewpoints, but I also have had amazing opportunities to work one on one with people who haven’t been blessed with the same luck in life as I have. I wouldn’t hesitate to be a part of one of these life-changing adventures. Mission trips give the youth knowledge of places and people that have vastly different cultures and ways of life than what they are typically accustomed to. I have been fortunate enough to attend two mission trips with this church (one to Cincinnati, Ohio and one to New Orleans, Louisiana) and I cannot stress enough how valuable these trips have been to me. In New Orleans, the youth reconstructed a woman’s home from top to bottom and made an enormous impact on one person’s life in as little as a week. There are so many bonds formed and so many memories created as we work to become closer to God and realize our full potential in the world. Not only has mission work with the Church given me emotional, mental, and spiritual stability, but it has also helped tremendously with my applications to college. My favorite essay to write for each application was of my time in New Orleans. Mission work and volunteerism is something that many colleges and institutions look for in potential candidates and there is no better place to start helping the world than right in your own church. Join us this summer on an adventure which will surely be a life changing experience for you and those you help. June 21-26 Akron, Ohio (Kenmore Area) Middle School (current grades 6-8) Exterior House Painting, Lawn Work July 5-11 Memphis, Tennessee (Orange Mound Area) High School (current grades 8-12) Roofing, Home Repair |
AuthorRachel Burns, Archives
April 2015
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