Holding A Moment: Sarah & North Carolina...

Sarah arrived back home on Saturday, July 27th from a week's long mission trip to North Carolina with our Children's Pastors and 8 other 4th, 5th and 6th graders.

On Saturday, July 20th our team drove from New Jersey to Clemmons, North Carolina to team with Agape Faith Church in a week long missions event. Each of the kids stayed in host homes during the week with families who attend Agape Faith Church. Sarah and her friend Noelle were teamed up together at the home of one of the kids team leaders.

It was a growing experience for all our kids as they stayed with other families.

Sunday morning was Soak'n Sunday at church. This was a kids church service outside where they had worship, a message and tons of water games. Everyone got soaked, or at least everyone who wanted to.

The team singing "Big God O"

Starting on Monday morning through Friday morning the teams helped with a kids camp called Wonder Kids for 1-2 hours. There were only 9 kids in attendance, but they are kids who are needing some special attention as they have all already received a record and been in the court system. These are 4th and 5th grade boys and girls. At first it was tough for the teams to get to know the kids, but the "Wonder Kids" began to open up to not only the camp workers but our kids. By the end of the week everyone was great friends.

Throughout the week they had games, mini messages, skits and music. One of the mornings they also had a salvation message for the kids to receive Jesus as their Saviour and the following day were prayed for to receive the Holy Spirit.

Lamisha, Shantana, Dakya - Wonder Kids

Label Man skit

Wonder Kids

Sarah and Aldaberto

All the Wonder Kids Camp workers

Agape Faith Church has a ministry called "Agape Care & Share" where they provide clothes and food to those in need. Our teams were introduced to the program and all it provides and were able to help unloaded food and put it on shelves. On the very last day of the Wonder Kids Camp each of the "Wonder Kids" were able to go in and pick out 3 outfits for themselves.

For a special treat one morning they took a break and headed to a Krispy Kreme. A favorite!

On two afternoons the teams went to a local nursing home to spend time with the residence. They sang, played a balloon game, did a craft, put on skits and give a short message. This was Sarah's favorite thing she did on the trip. She said she couldn't keep a smile off of her face, because it was so fun to see them smiling and happy.

Performing the "Doctor's Office" skit.

They sang "You Are So Beautiful" to the residents.

On Thursday they took some time off to visit Grandfather Mountain which is a North Carolina state park.

This is the mile high swinging bridge.

What was your favorite part of the trip?
Besides the going to the nursing home my favorite part was when we were pulling weeds out at the volleyball court at Agape Faith's Statesville campus. Obviously pulling weeds is not fun, but instead of groaning and whining, I and my friends Natalie and Cayla prayed that we would have a good attitude, which made it all better! You never know, a person could be saved playing volleyball and they wouldn't be playing if we hadn't cleaned things up.

What was your least favorite part of the trip?
I honestly did not have a least favorite part. I loved the whole trip and it definitely is going to make an impact on my life.

What impacted you the most?
The thing that impacted me the most was on Sunday after the Soak'n Sunday when our two teams had prayer and worship time. We talked about breaking down walls and how if we don't conquer our own walls, how are we going to be able to minister to other people. It was just really powerful and emotional at the same time.

Sarah said the food was amazing throughout the week. Miss Caroline cooked for them special dinners for the team each night. Sarah said she even ate her vegetables, which is saying a lot. Unfortunately they didn't get a picture of Miss Caroline, but they did get a couple of pics of them chowing down and a special dessert she made.