Mission Trip to Denver

It's been a very busy time in our household, we spent 10 days in Denver and came home to be greeted by the Bischoff family visiting. Jadon has been running purely on adrenaline the past 2 1/2 weeks. We may have a major melt down by about Friday when all settles down and he has to become reacquainted with his home, which by the way is not as fun and exciting say as Denver or anywhere that includes his cousins.

On Wednesday, July 16 at 10:00pm Donna, the kids and I left for Denver, Colorado for a mission trip with Global Encounter Ministry. I was so excited to get back on the mission field. Our last mission trip was when I was pregnant with Jadon, 4 years ago. It took us 15 hours to get to Denver, and the kids were A-W-E-S-O-M-E! I really didn't know what to expect because the longest we've traveled with all of them is a couple of hours. When Jadon was around a year old we traveled to Texas, but since then it's been short little trips.

Todd flew up to meet us on Sunday morning, he had things he had to finish around here before he could leave. I have to say I know my husband is very helpful with the kids, very involved in every aspect of taking care of them, but being without him for 3 days I realized how much he does help and how much I rely on his help. Just one example...bedtimes, he usually helps by getting one child's diaper changed and dressed in pj's. I am so blessed with a wonderful husband who is involved with our children and taking care of them.

On Friday we we had Christin join us, a friend from Springhill. She was already in the area on a mission trip with the Springhill youth, then her family was going to vacation in the area the week after our trip. So, she volunteered herself to stay with us and help out with the kids. She is such an incredible 15 year old. She is so mature, loving and just plain fun to be around. And of course, my kids adore her. She spent 3 consecutive weeks in Colorado.

Todd was able to speak to the students during worship a couple of times throughout the week and I helped Donna as much as I could on the administrative end.

On Tuesday we had a free day and we took the kids to the Denver Zoo. It was the best zoo I have ever been too! Our favorite part was the monkeys and the Larakeet exhibit. Larakeets are basically Australian parrots and very colorful beautiful birds. In the exhibit you could walk in amongst the birds and feed them nectar.

Before we could enter there was a lady giving instructions on what we could and couldn't do and one of those instructions included do not pet the birds. Which, seemed reasonable until you walked in there and had birds landing on your hands and arms and walking around on you. It was very tempting to reach out and touch the birds. Jadon and Haven loved it! That exhibit may the coolest exhibit of anything I've ever seen.

We were able to do some other fun things throughout the week and on our way home we went down to Colorado Springs. We stopped at the cliff dwellings which was really neat and the kids enjoyed running through the ruins. An ulterior motive for stopping there was to find some really cool things for Gavin's birthday. Which, did happen and he came away with many things from there between Donna and us.

As always on a mission trip there were those things that went wrong and left you wondering "what can God do with this". But, He always shows us and by the end of the week we're left wondering why we doubted Him. If only we could learn to have that faith and trust on the first day of the trip when everything seems to be in mass chaos. I enjoyed so much being around the students and youth leaders and servants.

With children this time, the mission field was definitely different. Instead of being at the sites with the students I spent much more time at the lodging church. My ministry was emptying trash after the students left for their ministry. Which, except for the occasional gross stuff I came across, was kind of nice. I was able to spend time in prayer for the students and the kids and families they would be ministering to while emptying the trash from their rooms and bathrooms.

I can't wait to go back next year and see what God has for us. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Some pictures of us just hanging out at the church.

Jadon reading us the map. He kept telling us that it showed a train and we kept trying to bypass the train. We eventually gave in, well actually, we had to get drinks and the train happened to be right beside the place we got drinks.Haven waving at the mountain goats, more specifically the baby mountain goat.Feeding the Larakeets. They are such pretty birds. Also, in the Larakeet exhibit I met a man working there that was raised in Springfield, pretty wild.

The Cliff Dwellings from the outside and then from the inside looking out.