Our theme this year is "The Good Life." In Genesis 1 God created the world in five days and saw everything and it was Good. On the sixth day he created humans and "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" Gen. 1:31 The Hebrew word for good is tov which means "Beautiful" and "good" and "working in the way it was created to." God created life that was good, us in relationship with Him. But when sin entered the world we begin to walk away from the good life, that is, we begin to walk away from God himself. Because all of this we as humans are quick to see the negativity of our surroundings rather than the good things in life. The story of God is being told in St. Louis, but it is very easy to miss it because of all the poverty. When we walk into peoples homes the fact that they are getting free food but have a 50 inch TV doesn't seem to make sense to us. But if we sit and listen to their story we begin to see that there is more to them than what we see.
"If we only have eyes for what is broken we might miss all the good that is happening." - The Good Life Devotional
The Good Life in St. Louis had been hard to see because of all of the racial tension that is going on in our country, and it started here with the shooting of Michael Brown.
As we discussed in our groups our students in particular opened up about some of the racism they have experienced but the amazing thing is that they also shared about the hope they have for our country.
Obviously the conversation was deeper and more specific. But please know that God is moving among our students in a way that I didn't even see. The next generation has more acceptance of all people and races than any generation before. They are a force to reckon with and throughout the week my hope has been higher than ever that one day the racial tension in this country will be less.
But the better news is that I have assurance that on the day we all bow our knee to the one True God and racism will no longer exist; the Good Life will one day be restored.
Today our teams did a lot in our community: Group 1 - Cooked a meal for the elderly and delivered it to them. One of them was looking outside his window waiting for his meal. For him and many of the other elderly people was about the contact they have with the staff of Campus Kitchen.
Group 2 - Helped with a disability ministry doing crafts with St. Louis Arch.
Group 3 - Ran a VBS Lesson for students ages 5-16 with Sun Splash Organization.
Group 4 - Worked with Gateway Greening to beautify the community.
Here is a testimony from Elizabeth Alvarado: "My name is Elizabeth today I ran a VBS with Miguel, Kennedy, and Jacky. We played soccer with them and it was our entry point to getting to know them and them getting to know is. One of my favorite kids I met is named Jaden. He has a great smile and we spent the morning coloring together. I was shocked that young kids knew stories of the Bible. We taught them about Noah and the flood. It’s m fist mission trip and I’m really enjoying it. The best part for me is the singing and praying; we do this a LOT!"
As always, it's awesome to see our students bonding.