As some of you may know, last week I participated in my fourth year doing CSSM. Children’s Surf and Sand Mission is a local mission trip that I do with my church to reach kids. We sleep at church all week and pick up inner city kids to take them to the beach for a vacation bible school.
This week is always one of my favorite weeks of the year. It’s crazy to see the need right in our own community. These kids crave love, so that’s what we give them. We give them love, so they see the love that Jesus has for ALL of us.
The kids of these neighborhoods are so crazy loud and fun to be around. We belt out songs on the bus ride at the top of our lungs (and I wonder why I have a soar throat). As I sat on the bus with 4 kids packed into one bus seat with me, I was so exhausted. I want to stop singing and just shut my eyes. It’s just one week where I need to go all out loving these crazy kids. I just had to put aside how tired I was and make a kid smile for the next 10 minutes. Next year I’m sure I will have moments like this frequently. That’s when I have to lean closer into why I am doing The Race, because God called me.
To see one kid sing “Yes I love my Jesus” or even smile makes it all worth it. A girl that I met last year has a big place in my heart. Every time I saw her she had to be picked up. You may think all kids do this, but this girl is craving love that she isn’t finding at home . She lost her shirt one day on the bus and I told her to tell her mom we would look for it. The next day she told me that her mom was mad. I asked what would happen if we didn’t find it.
Her answer killed me. She said “I would get a whooping.” I asked further questions as to what exactly that means. Her mom was going to hit her for losing her shirt. All I can do is pray that her mom would not abuse her. These families are so broken. I could never fathom being hit for anything I did, no matter how bad it was.
My passion for missions work started the day I showed up for CSSM my freshman year. This week was just a little taste of my life next year. It will be emotionally and physically draining, but so worth it. It is worth it to show people the love of Christ.
There is so much brokenness all around us. God decided he wanted me to go across the world to even help the slightest bit.
Update on Fundraising. I have around $8,500, which is so incredible. Everyone is so supportive and I could never thank you all enough. I still need to meet my goal of $12,500, but I have faith that it will happen! Please continue to keep me in your prayers as I experience new things and head off to training camp in 11 days! Eep!!!!!
