A Life-Changing Weekend

This summer I had the opportunity to venture out with my youth group to New Paris, Ohio. We traveled in our van for 8 hours from New York. Throughout this mission trip, I saw God in innumerable ways, so many it is hard not to name them all here. A major way I saw God in our work was through my hard-working crew, who went above and beyond what was required. We were asked to paint the underside of the roof and to construct a wheelchair ramp for the resident's husband, who had difficulty getting down the harsh step to get outside.

On the first day working on the wheelchair ramp, we found we were unable to begin construction due to the concrete base outside the door, which prevented our using well-supported posts to stabilize the ramp. When faced with this obstacle, my group pushed past the wheelchair ramp, waiting until a RedShirt could help us determine our plan of action. We began to paint the underside of the roof, and our leaders noticed that the resident's fence was in poor condition.

Although this was not a part of our job description, and we could have avoided this extra work, it was clear we had been inspired by God, and we took down the fence to repair it's posts and mix concrete to stabilize the wood. By the end of the weekend, we had done at least 5 other important projects for the resident, including the completion of the wheelchair ramp and the painting. It was inspiring to see the residents sitting on the porch outside together for the first time in months, and to see her dogs in the backyard safe behind their new fence.