Arrived Safely at Raleigh-Durham

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Sent from my Palm Treo Handheld
Rev. Scott Wilson-Parsons
scottwp@nccumc.org

Boarding in ATL

Pre boarding has begun for the final leg of our flight home. Arrive RDU 3:01

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Sent from my Palm Treo Handheld
Rev. Scott Wilson-Parsons
scottwp@nccumc.org

Progress home

Safely arrived in Atlanta. Depart for RDU @ 1:43

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Sent from my Palm Treo Handheld
Rev. Scott Wilson-Parsons
scottwp@nccumc.org

We are on the road to the airport at 630

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Sent from my Palm Treo Handheld
Rev. Scott Wilson-Parsons
scottwp@nccumc.org

More Reflections on our Trip

• This last night at the mission trip was the most moving of them all. After an evening at The Shed, a brilliant and unusual little restaurant famous for its laid back and unorthodox styles, we had a very emotional and spiritual devotion. Now, our devotions are adult led, but anyone can give any feedback and comment how they like. Once a good number of the adults had given very emotional stories about how God had touched their lives in so many different ways many of the kids began to chime in, ones that hadn't before. One started to see that someone s happy and carefree had really been through a lot, but they have achieved much through Christ. Many of us, about ten, gave ourselves to Christ this night. I was one of them. (Thomas Parsons)
  
• I thought that tonight was going to be a fun and enjoyable night, in which it was but in a totally different way than I expected it to happen. After hearing what some of the adults had said about their past some of the kids chimed in and most likely everyone in the room got very emotional. One of the adults asked the kids, after hearing what Mr. Craig had said about his personal life, that if any of the people in the room wanted to have Jesus Christ in their lives and half of the room had raised their hands and most people were still in tears because hearing the stories that people had brought up, and out of the half of the people that had raised their hands to accept Jesus in their heart and souls, I am happy to say that I was one of the people that did. (Britny Warren)
  
• This has been an awesome experience to work side by side with the youth, including two of my own children. To see the appreciation and gratitude of the families we did work for confirmed that the work of the Lord was done. As the week comes to a close I have seen our precious youth develop a stronger bond with one another and grow in Christ. This was an opportunity for me as well, to grow closer to the adults of my church family. I am already looking forward to the next trip and more opportunities to serve the Lord. (Jessica Nixon)
  
• Tonight was the last night for our mission trip. We had a great time and I loved helping all of the people. To see the great expressions and all the happy faces! This week we built a shed, took out most of the inside of a house, and we took two feet of sheet rock out of a molded house. To hear the devotions and the testimonies, you could tell that the Holy Spirit was moving in the room. The last night's devotions and testimonies had every one in tears. We got invited to or own alter and got saved by the Holy Spirit. Even if you already have it's okay to renew the relationship. At first the Manteo/ Wanchese group and the Currituck group separated from each other, but at the end we all made really close friends. Meeting new friends is a challenge from God, you have to have the fruits of the spirit, that means all of them. –Ginger Shackelford
  
• I'm going to go ahead and tell you this isn't one of those amazing "EYE OPENING" entries like the rest. I'll be the first to say I wasn't about ready to meet new people. I figured I'd just stick with Nick and James. (jimmy) But of course I met tons of people anyway. Nikki, Ginger, Anna, Alyssa, Colton, Ryan, Austin.. MAN! Pretty much everyone. I was really shocked at the maturity of some of the younger kids. (Ginger was great with being REAL mature, she's just the coolest kid). I felt that the work we had been doing was doing a lot, however I wasn't quite feeling the connection to God's work. I mean, it WAS a great experience, but I was surely not getting the whole concept of the entire trip. I had been trying and trying to get with the 'religious' aspect of it. And I sure couldn't do much with it until the last night… Craig was talking about how his father had passed one night.. That really hit me. His main point was "God can take you at any time. We could all not make it to the Airport tomorrow, It's just God's jurisdiction." And I totally clicked with that. I'm one of the worst people who take things for granted. I take Friends, Stuff, and Family for granted. If one of my parents were just suddenly not there… I couldn't handle it. I absolutely love my family even if I may never show it.
  

  Which is relatively off-track. We worked long and hard on Tearing down a shed, rebuilding it, Spraying a man's home for Black Mold, and Moving the furniture from another man's home, and virtually gutting his house of drywall and insulation. It was great work that the hurricane victims truly appreciated, however I just felt that it was what any other human being would do. Who would be as heartless to truly NOT want to help these people.
  

  My biggest feat that really did pretty much make my week, was the fact that old enemies turned to absolutely amazing friends. Alexandra came in truly hating me, however she brought tears to my eyes as she spoke about how people not only made friends throughout the other youth 'congregations', but we also really got to know the ones in our own groups. (yes, she was ACTUALLY talking about me, not some other person :P)
  

  I absolutely plan on coming back, or doing some work along these lines, because it was just an amazing experience. I know you're probably sick of reading about my friends or lack-there-of however I'm sure you'll survive :]
  

  Thanks for reading my mindless babbling, -[Kyle "Charlie" Murphy]
  

  
   

 

Reflections on the Spring Break Mission Trip

• jMy group went to this persons house and we had to tear down their barn . So from the storm they had a whole bunch of trash all in their barn. We saw rats, mice, cockroaches and dead animal bones. After we finished tearing down the barn we had to build them a metal barn. After we were done they came out and hugged us all. (Sidney Lewis)
  
• My youth group went to a house that had been destroyed by floods and storms. So me and my group went in the house and cleaned it all out. It was pretty disgusting but we all had to do our job. We were really grossed out because there was some stinky things that we would not see usually. We didn't like the things that we were seeing because they were really gross, but we knew we were doing a really good thing. I hope we could do mission trip like this again. (Alyssa Nixon)
  
• As a adult on this mission trip my first day my group went to a house about three blocks from the gulf coast. The whole house had to be gutted because of storm damage and the person living in the house had just recently been forced to moved out and we found out he was recently living in the home with no electricity or running water. The second day we went to help a lady out with yard work and we knocked on the door there was no answer and we started moving the grass and a man drove up in the drive way and the lady was no where to be seen. We asked for Marilyn and her live in boyfriend told us she had just recently died and he hadn't told many people. He started crying and he was living in a fema trailor. We mowed his yard and weed eated and he was handicapped and he didn't have much of a life. The third day we went to a house to start demolition work because of pine trees that fell in his house. Rain water completely destroyed the inside of his house and we had to gut the entire house. I have heard stories of situations like these but to see them is a different thing. I am so glad I went. (Lisa Lewis)
  
• This was my first Mission Trip, and so far it has been REALLY fun! I have met so many people and they are hopefully going to be people that I will keep in touch with and hopefully go on another trip just like this one. I have worked on houses that needed lots of help and haven't gotten it for the past four years. We worked on a man's house that needed to be torn down but we only took out a couple of walls along with some of the ceiling. We also went site seeing and some of the story's that I have heard are really touching and I just couldn't believe what had happened. Learning from this experience is defiantly touching in so many ways and I hope that one day that I can come back down here and do it again. (Britny Warren)
  
• Being with this group of young people and adults working together in mission has been a blessing I will never forget. I thank God that I was given this opportunity to experience the facility of Heritage UMC in D'Iberville, MS and the ministry entrusted to them. May many more mission groups come to extend the Lord's hands to the people in this area whose lives have been forever impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The world around us needs to see the love and compassion of Jesus through His people. I hope and pray that the homes that have been repaired by our hands will be a lifelong testimony to the owners and families of God's love for them. (Caroline Stetson)
  
• Encourage and provoke (LJ Hendrix)
  

Building the Replacement Shed for the Davis Family

Nick leads morning devotion

The team has begun to replace a shed destroyed by Hurricane Katrina

Thomas sprays fungicide after a recent spring storm damaged a home that had already been repaired after Hurricane Katrina

A second team visits Mr. Lewis

CELEBRATE!

Alexandra Lorentz and Thomas Parsons celebate after receiving notification that they have both been accepted to the North Carolina School of Science and Math...Congratulations!