Mission recap

Last week the High School ministry spent the week at our Downtown campus. The week was incredible.

I'll hit the highlights and lessons learned from the week.

1. Many of my preconceived notions were dismantled. Most people were friendly and cordial when we spoke to them and were receptive at least a little.

2. The people in Brickell are a tough crowd. In spite of free Starbucks coffee (donated by Starbucks) and Dunkin Donuts, they were leery of eye contact. I've made a short list of creative ways people avoid conversation all together, but that's another post. My favorite is the "unbelievably timely cell phone call that has no ring". Interesting.

3. The ministry to college students at Miami Dade, the sports camp in Overtown and evening park outreaches went phenomenal. There were many great conversations. One afternoon we went to a park and it was filled with teenagers. I talked to a few older teenagers who thanked us for coming and said, "our park needs more of this." That's cool as heck.

4. Raja Bell (Phoenix Suns) hangs out at one of the local parks on Miami Beach. We gave him a bottle of water and invited him to CF. Word is still out if he will show up or not.

5. Many other aspects of the trip went well also. One team hung door hanger invites for three days in the Redland. All of our teams took turns doing landscaping at our Downtown campus...it looks good!

6. Every night but Friday night we worshipped on Miami Beach together at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas park. It was great. Each night people from the community would show up and join us. Most sat just a little bit away from the group but within listening distance. Local Christians, people in awe at that teenagers were worshipping God, tourists and even a drunk guy joined us. We were amazed that even when we stopped ministering intentionally to others at 8pm, God would bring people to join us in singing and listening to teaching.

I've gotten some really good feedback from students about our trip already and the impact it's made on their lives. A mission trip in our own city is definitely something we'll be doing again. Our prayer is that our students' heart for this city will grow and the effects will be far reaching. We don't want missions to be something "that we do", we want to produce students who understand missions as a lifestyle.

I still have no regrets about the transition from camps to mission trips a few years ago. Each mission trip is a poignant reminder of why we made the change. Our students are impacted in a huge way, but so are thousands of other people at the same time.

Our ministry is already looking forward to the next time we can be Downtown.