Urban Ministries

So I realize that I am a terrible blogger but I am doing my best because I have never blogged before!

Last week was Spring Break and I decided to chaperone Asbury's youth mission trip to Birmingham.  Every year, they take about 60 youth and about 12 adults to inner city Birmingham to work with Urban Ministries.  Now Urban Ministries is a part of the United Methodist Church that helps low income families in inner city B-ham.  One thing that they do is paint houses and that is what we did all week.  Every morning we would wake up at 7, eat breakfast, and be ready to leave for our work site by 8.  We would work, eat lunch, and return to our compound around 4.  Then, it was time for free time (mainly Ultimate Frisbee), dinner, devo, and then more free time with games.  Everyone knows that middle and high schoolers are crazy, but give them a paintbrush and stick them in a dorm with all of their friends for a week, that’s when they get even crazier!  Even with all the craziness aside, these youth taught me so much about a willingness to serve, no matter how hot, how cold, how mean the homeowner, or how ugly the paint color.  I always had fun on Urban when I went as a youth and I was honored to be a leader on this trip. 

Now you can see some more of what we did.

My group for the week!

The group in front of a sign we saw on the way to our house

Our team name was The Scrapists

Me and Andrea were leaders for the week and Rachel was an
intern for Urban last summer so she helped us out too!

This is where they get crazy!

The guys wanted to joust so Mark told them to make armor

Our house on Monday

Our house on Friday

You can really see the difference in the color from this picture

There was a broken down van parked on the back of the house and
we couldn't get the ladders back there, so the boys put it in neutral
and pushed it out of the way.  Here they are pushing it back.

Our group with the homeowners and the finished house