The Mission Trip

im not speaking for everyone in this post, so PLEASE dont all start complaining about everything im about to say, ok?? this is just ME speaking, no one else...of course, if anyone else feels the same way, i would encourage you to make your opinion known...we should all have the freedom to express our feelings on matters that directly involve ourselves...just thought i'd put that out in the open so you'd all know that this won't be an exceptionally pleasant post...i'll try to do one of those next, since i haven't really been posting anything pleasant for the past 6 months or so...

first of all, i want to point out that i have gotten very few straight answers about anything in the past few weeks, so if anything i may reference about any of the mission trips i've been on or will go on is false, it's because i was never given a real answer and had to do my own research to find even the smallest bit of information on the subjects...im saying that because i dont want people coming up to me later and telling me that they told me something different from what they actually said...i have a good memory for these types of things, so dont try to feed me lies because i can tell when people are lying quite easily...

now, i'd like to start my rant by reminding you all of the children in Canadatown...you cant honestly tell me you've never gotten attached to at least one of them!! we all know that some of those kids aren't as close as others to coming to know Jesus Christ, so our work is hardly done there...in my opinion, it never will be!! as long as the people up there keep having children, there will always be someone to teach the gospel to!! this is why i don't think it's right that we never even got a chance to say goodbye to all of them...most of them were still under the impression that we were going up there this year until very recently!! and as attached as we've gotten to them, they've gotten just as equally attached...it just doesn't seem right to me to just stop going up to Canadatown without any explanations!! sure, some people are carrying on the tradition and doing the VBS thing without the help our our youth group, but it still seems wrong for us to not at least say goodbye...i am fully planning on going to Canadatown at my own expense next year with or without the church to at least explain why we never showed up this year, but it would help if i had a bit of a following...phil and jimma and everyone are fun, but they can't really accurately relate to the younger kids on their level, you know?? how does a 20-something-year-old relate to a 3rd grader?? i think that it would be great to carry on the tradition as a youth group, but if that's impossible, i'll gladly go alone or with a few people and stay in a hotel, just to say goodbye...i hate open-ended relationships with people...i HATE losing touch because of something that is beyond my control!! ive done it too many times to willingly sit back and watch it happen again!! i will gladly do all the planning and find adults who are willing to supervise if it means we can say proper goodbyes...i know planning probably has a lot to do with the change in mission location this year anyway!! i mean, lets face it!! our youth leaders arent exactly the best at planning ahead!! we started this years fundraisers TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE TRIP for goodness sake!! there was a reason we've always started in February before, you know!! but yeah if anyone is interested on hearing more or helping plan for that trip (YOU MUST COMMIT TO PLANNING!! DO NOT JUST GIVE UP BECAUSE YOU LOST INTEREST!!) then you should definitely let me know...i know how long it takes to plan these kinds of things, and we wouldn't want to wait until the last minute and have everyone pay for gas out of their own pockets or anything...

now, about this year's trip...it sounds like fun, and it would be a great opportunity if there weren't so many distracting problems with it...first of all, and i know this really shouldn't be THAT big of a deal but somehow it is in my mind, the dorms are basically one big room with 3 bunk beds and one bathroom...i actually had to do research to figure that out since i was only given half of the information...as it turns out, there is ONE shower, ONE sink, and ONE toilet for FIVE girls...if it were guys, that might work, but we had about that many girls in the Canadatown dorms, and it got crowded with THREE toilets, showers, and sinks!! and its not like everyone can just take showers at night, because everyone would have to stay up and wait for their turn in the bathroom while the people who take showers in the morning are trying to sleep!! trust me, i NEED that sleep if people expect me to be enjoyable to be around, ok?? im about 3 seconds away from coming up with some kind of bathroom schedule just to try to calm down the rush of people who will be in the bathrooms in the mornings!! in my research i found that there was an option to get 2-3 person rooms, each with their own bathrooms for about $26 extra per person...i mean, really?? why wouldn't we be able to pay that if we'd started fundraisers earlier??!! it seems like a lot less stress on our parts if you ask me...

continuing with the subject of this year's trip, i want to comment on the whole "Sports" element of it...has anyone else realized that approximately 3.5 hours a day and 15 hours of the entire week will be spent playing sports, while only 6 hours of the week will be spent on lunch, crafts, and Bible Study??!! i assumed that a mission trip was supposed to be mainly about GOD and the BIBLE, not sports!! yeah, i get that kids need to exercise, but aren't their spiritual needs a bit more important than their physical needs?? we could have at least done something like Drama, where we could have acted out Bible scenes and such...at least they would be learning!! i just wish that more effort had been made to try and find out what our group would have preferred doing...i mean, i cant be the only one who's not at all fond of sports!! of course, if i bring it up to anyone higher up on the youth leadership ladder, they'll insist that they DID ask, but if they ever did, it was in passing or was put off until the end of wednesday night bible study, when everyone is itching to leave and it never had a chance of being discussed!! we should have had a meeting at some point so that the youth could have been part of the mission planning process, because im sure im not the only one with strong opinions in the group!! we could have sat down and listed the pros and cons of every possible area of missions work, and came up with one that we could all agree on, because if there had been a meeting, i DEFINITELY would not have supported the sports camp idea!! i just don't see how it ties in with the general conception of missions work!! i'm all for fun and games, but there has to be a time to be serious too, and i DONT think 1/3 of an hour and a half is enough time to truly focus on God with these kids!!

finally, id like to touch on another insignificant detail in this year's trip...in the packet given to us explaining the rules of the MissionLab, we were given lists of places to eat and things to do in New Orleans, but lets be honest!! WHEN are we ever going to be allowed to do any of it??!! sure, we have 3 hours of free time 3 times a week, but we also need a chaperon to go with us, so unless we can find an adult who won't mind going on a swamp tour at 7pm (i dont even know what time they stop the tours!!) or to the mall with a bunch of tweenage and teenage girls, i DONT think any of that is going to happen...so why give us a list of stuff we can't do?? i just thought it was a bit unnecessary...

so yeah i hope i've gotten my message across!! i just don't want the opinions of the youth to take a backseat to the preferences of the youth leaders...we are the youth, so we should have a voice in the decisions made about what the youth is expected to do!! im sure if we all really want to do something, we could work hard and make it a reality...if we made committees for planning and fundraising, we might be able to realize some of the ideas we've had in the past for fun things to do with the youth...and once the regular youth start getting involved, others are bound to follow!! no one wants to be a part of a group that never takes into account the thoughts of its members, so no one is actively participating in anything we're doing (which is, in my opinion, a whole lot of nothing!!)...i would be glad to have a larger part in the goings-ons of the youth group, but until we actually HAVE a youth group (and by that i mean a group of youth who want to participate and give their opinions), that can never happen!! its sad, but its true...unless we want a youth group consisting of 3-5 regulars who really arent so regular when you think about it, we need to start listening to ideas and ACTING on them!! i have plenty of low-to-no-cost ideas that i could give, but i want them to be taken seriously, and not just heard, then dismissed!!

like i said before, im gonna try to post some more pleasant things later on, so dont let this post depress you TOO much...until next time, im signing off