We drove 1900 miles round trip
with the traveling mercies of God,
27 on-fire-for the Lord youth members
3 children (Akilah, Alex, and Sam)
and
6 Newlywed game playing sponsors
to the great state of Texas
into the heart of Dallas and arrived
at World Impact on Ervay St.
We considered this place home for 7 days.
But on the way in an attempt for gas and a restroom, the faithful GPS led us here.
We were not so happy to see this.
But 14 hours later, we were oh so happy to see Dallas on the horizon.
So we happily set up camp.
For the first time.
We did this 7 more times.
Yes, 7 more times.
The mission was small and in these rooms we had bible school.
We were out of the rooms from 8a-9p,
this made showers with 36 people and 2 showers very challenging,
but we were all glad for hot water!
So each morning we packed up all our belongings and beds and stuffed them here
And on Sunday morning, we improvised as we helped each other get ready.
Some of our group attended church at a Spanish speaking service
afterwards they handed out flyers to a Hispanic complex about bible school.
And the rest of us went to this Southern Baptist Church
Where the preacher greeted us at the door and asked...
Did you have a good breakfast?
When we replied that we had,
He said, Good, we gonna be here a bit. (just like that)
And we were and we loved it.
The tag line for his message was Enough Is Enough
and his message was from Ezekial
We enjoyed so yummy B-B-Q for lunch
(umm, it was afternoon by the time we ate after church...)
And then we headed to a local apartment complex
to spread the word about the VBS.
We grilled burgers and sang praise and worship
as others headed door to door to invited the kids.
We set up for VBS Sunday night and were thrilled when the Lord sent us 23 kids on Monday.
We all thought we had prayed for more, but we were quickly faced at the reality of taking care of 23 completely undiciplined, unchurched children, who truely needed indivdual compassion.
At the end of the day we humbled ourselves before God and admitted that we needed Him to run this VBS, asked him to help us put on His armour and we set out the do it again Tuesday...
With a fresh nights sleep, we began with praise and worship followed by devotions
And the morning was so much better, the kids {more kids than Monday}
arrived and responeded to rules we had laid out Monday
and after a yummy lunch from the KITCHEN crew,
we shared God's word and His compassion with each Child.
And this is what we got in return.
A precious smile -these were few and far between on Monday.
God was working in Dallas.
People were praying for us from our home church and it was all coming together.
We enjoyed an evening of fun at Dave and Busters and then drove downtown
to the Grassy Knoll where JFK was assassinated.
This is the night the jokes began. You can imagine how this turned out.
And this was how Dan found his kitchen one night.
The same night that I needed toilet paper for the bathroom,
but found we were blocked in my 7 rows of stacked chairs...
it esclated into a very scary middle of the night awaking.
But all in good fun.
By Wednesday, we were in a rhythm.
The preschool/kindergarten class even came right into the craft room
and quickly took their seats in record time.
We began craft time by singing songs, and they all joined in.
And praise and worship time went great, the kids knew the songs and asked to sing them again.
We stayed at the mission and joined the JR High youth group in some spirited songs and bible study.
We heard a candid and moving testimony by Christian rapper D-Wag.
We all ate tacos-in-a-bag (aka ghetto taco as they called it),
it was fun to enjoy the same food by a different name.
What it do, people.
Our last day of bible school came too quickly and many of the kids were attached...
Preschool/Kindergarten
First Grade - there were up to 4 depending on the day
(we moved Sam here b/c preschool was so big and unruly at times)
2nd grade
3 and 4th grade
5th and 6th grade - 5 students here asked to give their life to GOD- Hooray!
The hardest part of the last day was enforcing the dicipline that we had promised through the week.
If behavior did not allow, they would not be invited to the water park.
This was followed by repeat warning throughout the week.
It would have been nice to take everyone, but the mission directors were very strict that we must enforce the rules we had given. These kids are used to promises not being held, if we made one, we must uphold it. We had to explain to 3 children that their behavior did not allow them to attend the waterpark.
Our prayer was these children would use this event as lesson to do better the next time.
We capped the night off with a trip to a local park for a softball game with the SR High youth group.
We served almost 100 sausages and 100 hamburgers
In addition to the youth groups there were a few neighborhood kids and homeless men that ate as well.
It was rewarding.
And the last day threated rain, but it came and went and in pairs we enjoyed the water park.
And the company of a friend.
We had a jam packed last night that included a talent show
and
a
very
long
ride
home
to
Indiana!
Mission Dallas.
We pray that the seed has been planted.
