Firestarters Youth Mission Trip - June 10-16, 2017

We went to Birmingham, Alabama from June 10th-16th through an organization called YouthWorks. You can learn more about them at youthworks.com. We joined with another church from Texas during the week and our 2 churches were divided into 5 different crews. The crews each had their own service sites for the week. We spent the majority of the day from Monday-Thursday serving the community at these different sites. Restoration Academy is a school for underprivileged kids. The group that worked there helped them learn skills such as math, reading, writing and more. That group spent the second half of their day at a nursing home called the Baron House where they spent time loving some of the nursing home residents. Another group spent the week at Sparkle, a place where kids could get away from their home life to learn. Our third group spent half the week sorting & preparing food to be distributed at the Community Foodbank of Alabama and the other half of the week working in some local schools, helping them beautify the schools for the kids next school year. Our final group spent their week at the Changed Lives Christian Center. They work with men who are recovering from drug and alcohol addictions. Our group worked alongside the director Jeff to assist him in any way he needed help. While we weren't at the service sites, we spent time doing devotionals, experiencing evening activities such as the civil rights museum, worshiping together at Large Group Gathering, and talking about our day/lives at church group time.