Journal of the 2004 Youth Mission Trip to Monroe, Louisiana

Friday, June 18th

We all met at Salem around 5:00pm, got the rental van packed and headed into the chapel for a commissioning/sending service led by Pastor Bill Peters. After the hugs and goodbyes, the five of us (Annette Egesdal, Ashley Egesdal, Meghan Holtan, Metta Nelson and Deb Bachman) piled into the van and headed south. After a fun-filled five hour trip to Kansas City. We had arranged to stay at a church in Kansas City and Immanuel Lutheran was where we were headed. After a few trips around the block, we managed to park and called David to let us in. We were able to stay in the fellowship room and settled on the cold floor.

Saturday, June 19th

Thinking we could sleep in a bit since we were heading to Worlds of Fun, we were rudely awakened at 6:45am by the sound of the building alarm. Since all of us were laying down, we knew we didn’t trip it, so we decided to wait it out thinking someone would be coming. We were wrong. The alarm didn’t even sound outside and wasn’t connected to anything so after 15 minutes, we called our friend David and he came and turned it off for us. So by that time, we were up and ready to go. We went for breakfast and went to Worlds of Fun. After all of the roller coasters were conquered, we hit the road again to head to Little Rock, Arkansas. We arrived in Little Rock where we stayed the night. If you get the chance, ask some of the girls about our van rides and the plethora of stories and belly aches from laughter.

Sunday, June 20th

After getting some waffles with our blueberries at the local Waffle House, we hit the road for Monroe. We arrived at West Monroe High School around 12:30 that afternoon only to find a sign saying that they had moved locations. So after Deb mixed up her directions, we finally made it to West Ridge Middle School, what we would call home for the week. We were greeted enthusically by the Workcamp staff and were checked in and shown to our room, which was a classroom. We would be sharing with some girls from Texas. We checked out the showers. Yep, 10 showers for around 150 girls. We were looking forward to the lines. We unpacked a bit, blew up our beds, and set out to explore. The afternoon program started at 3:00pm, where we were introduced to the staff for the week and given a scavenger hunt to familiarize ourselves with the school. We also received our camp t-shirt. After dinner, we found out our crews and met with them in our evening program. Our crews broke down like so: Annette’s crew included Shawn from Idaho, Billy from Wisconsin, Julie from Louisiana, Abbie from Michigan and Davy from Wisconsisn; Ashley’s crew included Ed from Iowa, Jennifer from Wisconsin, Laura from Michigan, Sean from Wisconsin, and Patrick from Florida; Meghan’s crew included Hans from Georgia, Molly from Georgia, Travis from Michigan, Jeff from Massachusetts, and Kathy from Ohio; Metta’s crew included Chelsea from Wisconsin, Jason from Massachusetts, Chris from Michigan, Grant from Louisiana, and Kathy from Wisconsisn; Deb’s crew included Austin from Florida, Jared from Wisconsin, Oliver from Michigan, Cameo from Minnesota and Tara from Georgia.

We met with our groups and divided up the jobs for the week. The jobs were Quartermaster, which dealt with the tools and supplies we needed, Breakmaker, which got our meals and made sure we were hydrated on site, Work Director, which kept us on task and worked with our adult Troubleshooter to make sure we were doing our job correctly, Devotion Leader, which led us in daily devotions on site, Progress Reporter, which reported back the Workcamp staff to let them know how the job was going, and finally the Organizer, which kept track of the first aid kit, the paperwork and safety concerns. All of us ended up being organizers except Ashley who was a Devotion Leader. We did a bit of group building, planning of the tools we needed and found out our resident and jobs for the week. We ended the night with our nightly youth group devotions. Lights out were at 11:00pm and we were all a bit anxious about what the week would hold for us.

Monday, June 21st

The list of things to bring included an alarm clock and so Deb had it set for the morning, yet she didn’t know about the morning wake up calls that would come at 6:45am sharp. The loud speaker came on with Sparky the chicken clucking loudly and yelling, “Wakey, wakey!!” we were all surprised and slighty annoyed, but it did its job and we were up and ready to go. Breakfast started at 7:00am and because it was our first day, we had a morning program to go over a few worksite rules as well as a safety chat. Then it was time to load our vehicles and head out to our houses. We all finally met our residents that we would be working for the next week. Meghan’s resident was Billy; Annette’s resident was Doris; Metta’s was Eula; Deb’s was Rosie; and Ashley’s was Owen. We all knew our assignments and they were all different.

Meghan started her week on Billy’s house with scraping and power washing his house. Annette also scraped the outside of Doris’ house as well as doing some caulking. Metta’s house included a lot of inside work and the scrubed ceilings and painted and primed Eula’s bathroom. Deb’s house also had caulking to do as well as the scraping of the exterior. Ashley got to work on some construction and started her week with working on some new siding and started building Owen a porch and wheelchair ramp.

Our worksite devotion today focused on building on the rock of Jesus Christ. We read the story of the men who built their houses on sand and on rocks and how we need to devote our lives to building on the rock.

When we returned to the school, showers were taken and we were cleaned up. Dinner once again was followed by an evening program. Monday’s program was starting to get us thinking about what it means to build to last. There are many things that we tend to put first in our lives and put our trust in to build us something that will last. The program gave us a chance to think about those things in our lives and pray for God to help us to not put our trust in those things because they will not last. Some of the stations included entertainment, money, fame, sports, etc. What will last is Christ and we should be building toward our eternity we will spend with him. Our youth group devotions that night continued our talk.

Tuesday, June 22nd

The morning wake-up calls continued this morning and we greeted the day with VeggieTales and Sparky. There was no morning program and we were off to our sites by 8:00am. We each continued what we had started. Annette finished scraping and caulking and started painting. Metta painted Eula’s kitchen and door frames. Deb finished caulking and scraping, primed the house and also put a roof coating on Rosie’s aluminum roof. Meghan finished scraping and washing Billy’s house, started painting and had a water fight. I didn’t realize water fights were part of the work process, but I guess they are! Ashley tore down the existing porch, continued with the new one and finished the siding project.

A cool story from Deb’s worksite that day was in regards to Rosie’s roof. We needed to get the roof coated as it was leaking and rain was in the forecast almost everyday. So we got the coating on Tuesday morning and when our troubleshooter was there, he said that we should be praying for rain so we can find out if the roof is leaking an dif we need to do anymore repairs. We really wanted some hard rain to really test the roof. By 11:45am, we were ready for lunch and devotions and headed inside with Rosie. Not five minutes after we prayed and started eating, it started to downpour heavily and continued to rain all through our lunch and devotions. It stopped right as we were getting done and we checked the roof and it did not leak! God answered our prayers for a hard rain and Rosie now has a non-leaking roof!

That night, after showers and dinner, we had our evening program. At tonight’s program, we talked about that we were building something to last at our worksites, but we wanted to build something that our residents could remember us by and who we were. So we split into our crews and we were each given a box and supplies to decorate it with. We all took part in decorating the box with personality traits and things that interested each of us. The boxes decorated our worship space until Friday.

Speaking of our worship space, the gym was our worship space and we worshipped there every night. We sang worship songs with our worship leader and some youth and adults helped with drums, piano and singing as well. We also had a time for God sightings, where crews could share how they had seen God at work at their worksites throughout the day and week. It was cool to see how God has his hand in each of the 48 worksites.

We also learned about care cards at our Tuesday evening program. Care cards are available for us to write to those who we work with and our youth groups to tell them how much we appreciate them and to encourage them in their walks. We were able to write these all week and they were given to us when we left. We ended Tuesday with our youth group devotions.


Wednesday, June 23rd

The chipmunks were our wake-up call this morning, on our half day of work. We woke up to rain and it didn’t go over very well for those of us who had outdoor work ahead of us. Thankfully, some of us could work due to overhangs on their houses or did indoor work. Annette was able to continue painting and she took out a set of cement steps that would be replaced later in the week. Metta continued working on the kitchen and worked on the bedroom ceiling. Meghan caulked around Billy’s house and did some painting as the rain allowed. Ashley worked on the porch under a tarp and the ramp for the back of the house. Deb’s house didn’t have any overhangs and the wood on their house was soaked so they couldn’t do any painting. We finished up the weatherization in the inside of the house, dug a trench to get water away from Rosie’s house and hung out with Rosie for a lot of the day.

The highlight of the day for Annette was her catch of her new pets. In Doris’ yard, she found four crawfish that she decided to claim for herself. She brought them back to the school in a used Gatorade bottle. There were three adults and one baby one. It was a lovely addition to our sleeping quarters.

Wednesday afternoon was our free afternoon to go explore Monroe or hang out or basically do whatever we wanted to do. There were some local Christian bands that played at the school, but many people wanted to go explore. The girls wanted to get some souvenirs and decided that the mall was the best place to go. We walked around and ran into another group there, but were unsuccessful in finding souvenirs. It was a let down as we drove around looking, but nothing came up. We decided to head out to our dinner at Copeland’s, which is an authentic New Orleans cuisine. We were also celebrating Annette’s 16th birthday which is on Friday. It was delicious food and we all got to try gumbo. We all thought it was ironic that Annette had a crawfish po-boy right after she brought back her new pets. Annette was treated to free ice cream from the restaurant for her birthday. We made a stop at Wal-Mart for snacks and other things before heading back for the evening program.

The evening program on Wednesday started off with a variety show. Campers could audition Tuesday night for the show. There was only time for a few acts and not everyone made it. There were some fun musical acts, a tap dance, and an interesting skit involving brushing your teeth. Ask one of us if you really want to know! The program continued with the workcamp reality tv show, which showed a garbage knocked over and people simply walking by and not picking it up. We focused tonight on the fact that building to last isn’t something that we do inside ourselves, but our actions are important as well. We need to act out our faith to show others God’s love, even if it is through the simple things like picking up trash. Our youth group devotion focused on that topic tonight and it was off to bed once again.

Thursday, June 24th

The day was started off once again with a wake-up call, this time to the tune of some sort of worm song. We couldn’t remember exactly what it was, but it was annoying as usual. It was off to our worksites for our fourth day of work. Annette’s crew did some roofing projects as well as continued painting. Metta’s crew finished the kitchen of Eula’s house and also finished the walls and ceilings of the kitchen. They started on the bedroom after that. Deb’s crew painted the whole day, and somehow the people got painted as well. Meghan’s crew painted the house and each other and Billy provided her crew with a wonderful BBQ lunch to show his appreciation for all of their work. Ashley’s crew continued work on their porch, caulking around the windows and did some painting as well. It was a long dya of work with spurts of periodic rain. Thankfully, it wasn’t that heavy and it was overcast much of the day so we were able to get a great day of work in. Some of the projects were running behind because of the rain, so we were all hoping that we would be able to get them done in time. We were reassured though that local churches had caught the vision of what we were doing and whatever we didn’t get done, the members of the congregations would make sure that all of the projects were completed in a timely manner. That helped put our minds at ease.

We headed back to the school and the shower line wait or free time reading or playing cards. I think all of us learned at least one new card game during the week and read a whole book or parts of a book. After dinner and some more free time, the evening program came. Tonight’s program was all about experiencing the love that Christ showed on the cross for us. After viewing some clips, it was time for us to experience it for ourselves. The staff had different stations set up around the gym for us to experience different aspects of what Jesus went through. There was a station to feel a crown of thorns, a station to feel the weight of the cross Jesus carried, a station to pound nails in as we were responsible for the nails that were pounded into Jesus, a station to roll the dice to feel what it would be like to cast lots for the clothes of Jesus, a station to taste the vinegar that was offered to Jesus, a station to rip fabric to symbolize the ripping of the cloth in the temple, a station to write our name in paint on a wall to symbolize when the thief asked Jesus to remember him in his kingdom, and a station to light a candle from the Christ candle to remind us to share the light of Christ with the world. It was a time of personal reflection for the youth and to help them experience a bit of what Christ went through for them. It was a good experience and touched each person in a different way and opened some doors for conversation. It was obvious that God was working in a different way in each person that was in that gym. The conversation was continued in our youth group devotions as well as individual conversations. It was a wonderful night.

Friday, June 25th

Today is Annette’s 16th birthday!! The wake-up call was the Cheeseburger song from VeggieTales, which was not that annoying. It was a hard morning to get up as we knew it was our last day on our worksites. We were all anxious though to try and get everything done for our residents. Annette’s group finished all of their projects and got the new steps installed and then helped some of the other groups. She happened to be able to go and help Metta’s group. They painted the entire living room and porch as well as the walls and ceiling of the hallway. With the help of other groups, they were able to complete their projects as well. Deb’s group finished painting the house, painted all of the trim and the shutters, hung all of the shutters and replaced a light fixture. Meghan’s group finished painting all of Billy’s house as well. Ashley’s group finished building their porch and spent some time with Owen and helped him with some of the gifts they gave him. We were all excited that all of our projects were able to be completed. It gave us a good feeling to know we accomplished what our resident’s needed to have done. We invited our resident’s back to the school that evening for our program.

After our showers, Ashley and Deb went to Wal-Mart to pick up the birthday cake that they had ordered a few days earlier. We surprised Annette during supper and gave her the cake complete with candles and had the entire cafeteria sing Happy Birthday to her! It was great and she was surprised and somewhat embarrassed. It was wonderful! After that, some of us needed to go pick up our residents and others met theirs. The evening program was dedicated to them and thanking them for letting us be a part of their lives this week. We shared some more God sightings and worshipped with our residents. We also got to take some time to talk with our residents and workcrews and thank them for all they did this week. We also encouraged each other and said our goodbyes as we would all be leaving at different times on Saturday. We then adjourned to the cafeteria for cinnamon rolls and beverages to say goodbye to our residents. After they left or we took them home, we came back for our youth group devotions We also had to pack and for some of us, that was a more difficult task as we had spread out everywhere. We did manage to get everything packed up. We also finished our care cards and put our last prayer requests on the Build to Last prayer wall. We said our final good-byes and headed to bed.

Saturday, June 26th

We woke up on our own and got the van all packed up. We made sure our room was cleaned out and then we were checked out of our room and headed off. Before we left Monroe, Deb had forgotten to pick up the photo cd we ordered, so we went back for that and before we hit the interstate, we remembered we needed to hook the luggage carrier. After we remembered everything, we hit the road. The week was catching up with the girls and they were all asleep fairly fast in the van. Around northern Arkansas, my cell phone was discovered and we made some calls back home and they got to experience some of our silliness and sleep deprivation. We made it to Kansas City on Saturday night with aching bellies from laughing. We found our hotel and the girls went swimming before we had supper. We chilled out and decided to sleep in before heading back on Sunday.

Sunday, June 27th

The girls woke Deb up at 8:30am. I guess after the week of getting up at 6:45, that was sleeping in. We took our time getting ready and went out for a nice brunch before getting on the road. We left in rain and couldn’t do the sightseeing we wanted to in the rain. So we just headed straight back. We arrived back in Lake Mills, well Winnebago Church, at around 5:30pm.

It was a great trip with many memories and friends made. Thank you for all of your prayers and your support. It was wonderful knowing that there were people that cared about us and were bathing us in prayer while we were away. Thank you!!!