Junior High Mission Trip

On April 1st San Marino Community Church's junior high group headed to downtown Los Angeles for a mission trip. It was a tiny group--only 4 junior highers and 3 adult chaperons. We partnered with Center for Student Missions (LA). CSM gave us a tour guide who led us around LA to different ministry sites.

Looking back I would have to describe the trip as a learning experience for me. In one sense, there was much to take in as we saw extreme poverty and extreme wealth in the matter of seconds in LA. It was even more of a learning experience for me as I learned how messy ministry can be... Balancing kids, volunteers, and trip logistics is hard! There are lots of decisions to be made, group dynamics to watch, and responsibilities to hold. Praise God for His grace as I do ministry--because I am sure not perfect!

Here are a few pictures of some of the ministry sites we worked at. Wei Wei and Sarah are sorting food at the LA Regional Food Bank.
One morning we had to walk around the financial district of downtown LA and find a homeless person to take to breakfast. My group enjoyed chatting with Robert at McDonalds.
Another stop was serving dinner at the Midnight Mission in Skid Row. It was quite an efficient system as thousands of people were fed that night in a few hours.
Part of our trip was to experience some of the diversity of LA in taste. We went to Thai, Nicaraguan, and Armenian restaurants. This plate of food is Nicaraguan--complete with fried bananas--yum!
And finally, the kids picked up on the word "selah," a word in the Psalm we studied those few days. Selah is the Hebrew word for pause. One morning they wrote it on their palms so they would remember to "selah" and look around the world around them.
It's pretty crazy how much you actually learn when you do "selah"....