Preparation For Joplin

As you can imagine, preparation for a mission trip is chaotic, stressful, and requires a massive cooperative effort from everyone involved. However, I am convinced that God had His hand over us through all of it. No matter how much time or money was required to get it done or how impossible the work seemed, God gave us everything we needed.

The preparation for CSF’s trip to Joplin consisted of three main areas:  getting connected with groups in Joplin, determining and satisfying the financial need, and developing a curriculum for a God-focused week.

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CSF Goes To Joplin, MO

Have you ever had the opportunity to spend a whole week focusing entirely on God’s two greatest commandments: Love God, Love Others? (Matt. 22:37-40) Well, as some of you already know, ten of our very own CSFers did just that in Joplin, Missouri during Spring Break this year!  We met many amazing people along the way and exchanged a lot of life-changing, world-changing love with them!
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New friends in Joplin :)

Today was definitely my favorite of the trip so far! For most of the day, our group split in half. Five of us spent the day mudding and sanding drywall as we worked with Americorps to help Dan (a really cool old guy) rebuild his house. The other half of our group helped Eric ( a young hairdresser and artist,)fix up the outside of his house to deter the city from demolishing it.

Then, we spent an amazing evening with Carol, a woman we met while helping the Salvation Army yesterday. She has a huge heart for God and people and she's always expressing how thankful she is for volunteers! She invited us to eat dinner at her church, where we met a lot of loving people with amazing stories (they even made special placemats just for us...see picture) Then she showed us all around Joplin, telling us her story and others' stories along the way. We are so very thankful for Carol and her church, St. Paul United Methodist, for making this trip so special!

Check back for more details and updates after we get back to Morgantown!

Love,
Julie

Spring Break 2012

CSFers at recent fundraising bake sale.

We’ve been to New Orleans.

We’ve been to Maytown.

This year, Christian Student Fellowship is going to Joplin, MO for Spring Break 2012. As many of you know, Joplin was hit hard last year by an F-5 tornado that completely leveled the town. Hundreds of people tragically lost their lives, and even more lost their homes, their jobs, and their way of life.

Joplin has a huge need, and CSF is totally pumped to help meet that need. On March 24th, we are leaving from Morgantown to hook up with a group called Rebuild Joplin to connect with, work with, and love the people of Joplin.

We have about 11 people going with us this year, 4 of which have never been on a mission trip with us.  A couple have never been on a mission trip ever! Not only is this going to be a great opportunity to meet and love new people, but also it will be a week of facing new challenges, exploring our faith, and growing with each other in Christ.

--
Matt Law

 

Joplin pictures from Josh Walker. Taken with 36 hours of the tornado: