from Tricia

Greetings all! I am so greatful I had the chance to go on another exciting and rewarding Grace Presbytery Youth in Mission - Mission Trip! As I was preparing myself and my heart to go on this trip this year I had come to a couple of realizations; first, this would be my first trip with out Rick Carus; we all missed you Rick and we thank you for helping prepare Wes and Jesse to lead a wonderful experience. Secondly, this year was my son's first year to be eligible for Mission trip and I wondered how it was going to be and it all turned out A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!


My son, Wes, II, enjoyed the trip and talked his grandparents' ears off as they drove from Pueblo, Colorado to Nederland Colorado! He was telling them about everything we did and how much fun it was. I am so proud of him and I am glad he loves helping others!

On these trips I comfortably fit into the role of being one of the moms on the trip and I love it when all the youth call me mom! It is a nice feeling knowing you are there to help them through anything and everything and also to be there to have fun with them! These trips have made me aware that I feel called to work with the youth and be in missions. I love helping others and I love being around all the youth because they help me feel young again and some times they remind me of how old I am too.

This year we did some thing new every day and it was all hard work and rewarding knowing that God sent us to Pueblo to serve others. We helped the church by helping the VBS kids do some songs during church; we cleaned up flower beds at the church; we helped several elderly people from the church to clean up their yards and keep Drywall Dust from getting all over the house; we cleaned a Nature Trail up in the mountains so other people can enjoy God's beauty; we helped at a Raptor Center that needed some serious TLC; we helped at a Worm Farm that only has volunteers one day a week and she needed help "herding worms" to complete customer orders; and we helped at a Soup Kitchen where all of their clients were very appreciative and greatful for a wonderful meal. All in all we went out and served others as we were commissioned to do!

Even though there were some long hard hikes, bears eating our lunches, and cactus needles poking us we did as God said and served others and planted a seed everywhere we went.

I thank God everyday for the oppurtunity to serve others and being able to go on these A-M-A-Z-I-N-G trips! God bless you all and thank you for your support.

Tricia

from Jake

Wow, has this past week been an amazing ride! I am so thankful that I’ve gotten this opportunity to work side by side with these phenomenal people. I truly view every single one of my fellow mission trippers as my brothers and sisters through Christ. The Lord has used us as tools to do work on the land and people of Colorado, and I will never forget this experience. Whether it was when my lunch got eaten by the bear, or when I got bit by a squirrel, or leading worship in our host church, or simply working my tail off in the Lord’s name, I will never forget a single experience. I’m so blessed by God, and the Grace Presbytery Youth in Mission program has allowed me to give a little back to the world. It is a little sad to part with these people as this trip comes to an end, but these memories will last forever. My heart is overflowing with joy to know that I have been a part of God’s work. This may have been my last time to embark as a youth on this mission, but I feel prepared to step into this next chapter of my life. I feel like I have been shaped and molded into what God wants me to be, and I want to continue to help others in the world and to be a beacon of light into the darkness. The Lord has called us all to serve others, and I’m so thankful for Youth in Mission providing me with the chance to do so.

Jake

from Calvin

This mission trip has been very different from the eyes of a college advisor, but the cooperative and personal feats that were made yesterday were beyond astounding. Out of all the things I have done on mission trip, working on a nature trail in Colorado has been one of the most challenging. It’s not the actual work that’s challenging, but the process we all have to go through in order to make that happen. That process was better known as hiking. Hiking more than a couple of miles up and down the mountain felt almost unbearable, but with the greatness of God we were able to make it all the way through the mountain. Colorado has been a complete joy and full of mountain top experiences, both literally and figuratively. I’ve climbed two very large mountains this trip, and I’m blessed to have been able to do it under the name of Grace Presbytery Youth In Mission. This group is probably the youngest I’ve seen, but truly one of the strongest and most connected. This is mission trip at its best.


Calvin

Soup Kitchen

Today 5 of us - Marianne, Paige, Jenna, Calvin, and Wes - were blessed by the opportunity to work at the Pueblo Community Soup Kitchen (PCSK). The soup kitchen was founded by Rev. Bob Haberman in 1976. Miss Zola (pictured next to Wes), now 94 and still the director of PCSK after many many years, had a vision of serving the hungry in the Pueblo area and started cooking meals and volunteering at the soup kitchen very early in its existence. With a few volunteers delivering soup and sandwiches to St. Anthony's Church, the first meal was served just before Thanksgiving of 1976. After quite a fight with residents and businesses in the area, the soup kitchen moved to its current site - a facility designed and built specifically for the soup kitchen - at the corner of 6th and Greenwood in 1991. Miss Zola was quoted as saying "We don't approach a project as IF we can do this, but as we are GOING to do this". Miss Zola was accompanied by her daughter Myrtle for many years, until her passing, at the soup kitchen. Next to Miss Zola in the picture is Miss Rosie, who has been working at the soup kitchen for over 30 years herself and at the young age of 91 still currently works there every day. She told me this morning living alone would be "boring" if she stayed at home all the time, so she chooses to serve others daily. If I heard her correctly, she has 14 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren. Wow!

Today we served between 80-100 lunches, received a number of shipments - one VERY large shipment from the convention center, re-packaged, organized, and stored all the food, washed more dishes that I ever want to see again in my life!, and had some wonderful moments we were able to listen and share the stories of Miss Zola, Miss Rosie, Miss Violet, Miss Carolyn, and many of the "clients" they serve.

Hats off to Miss Zola and the whole gang at Pueblo Community Soup Kitchen for the wonderful job they do at serving those in need in the Pueblo area.

Wes

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!!!

Well, actually JUST bears! Before heading up the trail yesterday at Pueblo Mountain Park, Ranger Dave and Ranger John warned us there could be some wildlife in the woods...namely bears. Many of the youth thought the rangers were only kidding around. We carried our lunch and drink coolers part way up the trail and then decided to leave them in a shady spot where we all would meet for lunch in a couple of hours (the groups split in two and headed in different directions at this point). The rangers didn't feel we'd have any issues with the bears since we'd be close by and probably making enough noise to keep the bears away. They were wrong! As you can see from the picture of our lunch cooler, the bear simply clawed the cooler open and helped himself to parts of three different lunches. We were lucky we came back when we did, because he was just getting started on his all-you-can-eat mission tripper lunch buffet when we came back down the trails and spooked him.

Jake decided to mark his lunch differently today to let the bears know to stay away. Now parents, don't you worry - we never actually were in danger nor did we see the bear.

Along with pictures, t-shirts, notes from prayer buddies, and devotional books, I believe the cooler above will provide ample memories and stories to be told on future mission trips for years to come!

Wes

Butt Surgery on Tricia!

Day 5 of the mission trip i think was the hardest work so far! We went to the mountains, to a nature trail park, to help the park maintenance clear out the hiking trails which was very fun, just very intense. When my group got to the top of our trail, and we started clearing, Jenna had grabbed a cactus to throw off the path, and she turned too me and asked me too get all of the hair like needles out of her fingers. We turned around too start walking again and we could hear Trish making rucus about the fine hair like needles in her butt, so we had too ask our leader for tweezers, and he asked what for and we told him Trish had SAT! on a cactus, so his response was "OH!!!!, you need 'BUTT' Tweezers?" that has so far been the funniest part, and highlight of my AMAZING trip!

Paige Brummett

What I saw today

Hey, What's up readers?  Today I worked with a hedge trimmer (look to the left) at Miss Lucille's house. This is where I saw a little red fox that sadly I could not get a picture of it but it looked directly at me (Awesome!). Later, at Miss Mary's house, I saw a cute dog named Lady. She was a Pomeranian mixed with Cocker Spaniel. She was black and white. Anyway, the work was hard cleaning the guters (Gross!) and yardwork pulling dead plants, weeds (we were lucky that I found a weed wacker beacause the back yard had lots of weeds).  Man I got sun-burned pretty bad, but what was funny was that my dad slipped and fell 2 times. One we did not see and 1 when we were in the park. The good thing is that he was okay. Everyone we helped were nice people and 2 of them gave us drinks.  Well that is all I have to say.

-Wes Stiefer, II (or Young Wes)