Gil Wildridge

Eskimos have over a hundred words for snow. We only have one English word for service. Some people think this is due to a lack of the service I instinct in our culture. After being on more than several mission trips myself, the one thing that sticks with me more than anything is how wrong that statement is.

Mission is about one thing, and I think what sums it up best is the famous verse from the book of Matthew. To paraphrase, when you do for the least of these, my brethren, you do for me. To me, this is the biblical definition o~ mission, and I see it all around me when I'm doing the Lord's work. God is about love, to put it bluntly, and mission is about spreading that love as far and as fast as possible, while still managing to paint a house and shovel mulch and try to relate to a bunch of seventh graders. It's not easy, but since when is Christianity ever easy?

One of the physical jobs we had on this last trip was spreading mulch. We had to load several trailers full of mulch and drive them to homes where the residents couldn't afford to improve their properties. We would then unload the trailers and spread the mulch in flower beds, under trees, and everywhere else we could think of until the job was done. Rewind, start allover again. New house, new pile of mulch.

About halfway through the mulchfest I had one of those epiphany momentsl I've been on plenty of mission trips before and have had my eyes opened and re-opened, but never as clearly as this. There it was, right in front of me the whole time. The answer to why we serve was right in front of me. And on my clothes. And in my shoes. And all over my hat.

Spreading the Christian message is like spreading mulch. It's tiring. It's hard. It's not always what you want to do as soon as you get up in the morning. But it's something you have to do if you want to preserve the life around you.

Many say we have to wait for heaven to see our reward) but after spreading mulch on a hot summer day in Savannah Georgia I can stand here today and say with complete confidence that we can and will experience the reward fori mission work while we're still alive. In fact, we have to. That's the only way it can work.

Just like mulch, the word you spread tends to stick to you-on your clothes, in your eyes, on your face, on your socks, everywhere. And just like mulch,

when you go somewhere else, you leave the word behind to be found by someone who needs it even more than you. Missionaries are evangelists in the classic sense-carriers of the word from one soul to another, people who spread the Christian faith to every comer of the world, even around trees and under bushes.

By taking what we need and spreading the rest to those who need it more,_, we are following Christ to the letter-serving the least of us, and in doing so, serving Him.

I have been on many trips and seen many things for such a young life, but now I am confident that many years from now, when I look down at the world from above, I'll still be spreading mulch.

Laura Timbs:

What are you doing?

Steven, one of the Youth Works mission leaders, taught us to say, "We are serving the Lord", whenever we were asked that question, so that we remember, in whatever we are doing, we are serving the

Lord.

Some of the ways we served the Lord were through

working in community Thrift Stores, like the Salvation Army and visiting a retirement and rehab center, keeping the residents company by playing Bingo and checkers with them. Of course, if you talk during Bingo, you got fussed at because Bingo is a very serious

game.

What are you doing?

We also painted houses for citizens of Savannah who were unable to do it themselves.

I especially enjoyed this year's mission trip because we were able to work with youth from other churches.

Also, the mission leaders made a point to introduce us to the people we were working for, so we got the chance to talk-with them and learn things about them. The Youth Works leaders said our church wasl the hardest workers there. We didn't take a lot breaks and we wele more determined to get the work done.

My group, the Chicken Dancers, included 3 of our youth and 5 youth from a church in Houston, Texas.

Our group worked for a lady called Miss Rose.

She was known as The Diva. She might have been getting on

in years, but she still had the Diva air.