Blue Shirts in Boston

Just got back from a week-long mission trip in Boston, Massachusetts with a team of 21 from my hometown church.
We joined with our sister church in holding a community-wide camp for kids of ages 4-12 at the park down the street from the church during the days. Over 45 kids showed up EACH DAY to have fun, learn new things, and just play...it was amazing!

It's funny how loaded this trip was: with new lessons, new kinds of interaction, new revelations...

For example, in my 21-year lifetime, I have been on some amazing mission trips.
How woul.d you define a mission trip, though? The Great Commission involved "going" and "making disciples." That's one characteristic. Is there anything else? From general observation, I have gathered that many churches add more to this one characteristics such as how many people should be on a team and you need to hand out this number of tracts along with this many prayers. Some might even involve you bringing a certain number of people to Christ before you can really count such a thing a "mission trip."

May I just stop this observation right now and ask...are you kidding me?!!!

I have learned, more than anything on this Boston trip, that there are no boundaries when it comes to ministry and missions. If the Lord called us to go and make disciples, we are to go and make disciples. During the day, my camp was quite busy with camp. At night, we'd find ourselves having "free time" involving shopping and eating.

This is a mission trip. Why would I say that? It doens't say in the Bible to be completely scheduled out each day by planning when to serve and evangelize and when to "rest." It doesn't talk about holding kids' camps but it does broach upon our hearts' desires to encourage them to run to their Father's arms.

I know I'm rambling, but seriously! The Lord blessed us this week with kids who needed to come to camp (to get away from family, to simply get to know more kids, to mature a little) Their purposes varied and their personalities were quite different from one another but I truly believe that little disciples were made and affirmed this week.

Why can we not see that the Lord desires us to 1)serve 2)speak His name 3)reveal TRUTH to people about how much He loves us and 4)love like Jesus loveSSSSS

"The Blue Shirts were my favorite" said one girl, when asked about the camp, as a whole.

I agree:)

Boston

Leading a team in Boston for a week

Working a day camp at our sister church then doing some on-the-street servant evangelism aka passing granola bars and water out to pedestrians passing by

Been to Boston before but in a different capacity; one less demanding of my navigation and administration

Excited to see what the Lord will do through a rag-tag group from a big-name church. Oh, goodness, Lord. I pray that the mega-church tones of our origin will not overshadow but further more, dissolve. Instead, I pray for the Holy Spirit to empower us, restore our tired bodies mid-way through the trip, and to consistently pour love THROUGH us as we intend to love on people PERIOD, whether they're rude, kind, loving, thoughtless, etc.

The Lord loves them all and that's why we want to go.

As it says in Isaiah 61, "The Spirit is on me..."

I pray, Lord, that I would LEARN, HELP, GROW, and most of all, understand more of what the Holy Spirit is doing up in this "city of champions."