mission trip recap

Two weeks ago I was on a mission trip on Sullivans Island, SC with the youth group I was in in high school. For today’s post I thought it would be fun to recap the week and share some of the pictures I took of our time down there.

day one: friday

On Friday night we all met up at the elementary school. We picked which vans we would be riding in and loaded up all of our luggage, said goodbye to our families, prayed for a safe trip and a fulfilling week and were on the road. We left around 10:45. There’s usually at least one car that is designated to some of the college kids, and this year I got to be in it along with five of some of my best friends. We all talked for a couple hours, but since it was so late the four of us girls ended up falling asleep probably around midnight or 1.

day two: saturday

It took me a while to fall asleep, but once I did I slept for probably about two hours before we stopped at a gas station for a restroom break. Once we were back in the car I slept until we stopped again around 6:30. We stopped for breakfast at a McDonald’s a few hours later, and then only stopped one or two more times after that for restroom breaks. The six of us had a blast. Sarena and I who sat all the way in the back of the van slept the majority of the trip down haha. After what felt like forever, we finally got to the church that we would be staying at for the week. We all settled in and then went to Chick-fil-a for dinner, then went to Walmart to pick up some things that we needed for at the church. After we got back we all just hung out until going to bed. 

day three: sunday

On sunday we woke up and got ready to go to a church service at the church we were staying at. After church we planned on making lunch and eating there, but a baby shower was going on in the fellowship hall so we ended up going to Wendy’s. After wendy’s we went back to walmart (I go to walmart more in one week on these trips than I do the rest of my life haha) and some people got some odds and ends stuff that they needed. We left walmart and went to look at the ramp sites we would be working at that week. The first one had already been built, it just needed to be decked and the railings needed built. It also didn’t have a porch, but the man it was for had already arranged for another group to build the porch. The second site had us all very shocked. We ended up calling it the jungle because it had so many overgrown plants. The lady who lived there already had a ramp, but it was way too steep because it was built incorrectly and she said her walker kept getting away from her when she walked down it. We took measurements there and then headed back to the church for the night.

the view of the ocean from the sanctuary 😍

day four: monday (work day no. 1)

Monday was the day we started working at all of our sites. A group went to a domestic violence shelter in Charleston, a group went to the first ramp site, and a very large group went to the second ramp site (aka The Jungle). I got the honor of being in the jungle group. I was really hesitant about this at first. I hate to admit it, but when I first heard this was where I would be working I thought “Oh great, I get stuck at the messy, trash (and probably rodent) filled site all week.” But God knows what you need, and He sure made what I thought would be a long, dreadful week into one of the best three days of my life. I had more fun while working on that ramp than I have had in a long time, I learned so much about so many people, I got to work with people that I haven’t worked with before, and I was able to help fourteen other people turn a front yard that was full of trash and full of overgrown plants and weeds into a beautiful one with a ramp that won’t collapse while someone is using it.

We started the day off by trimming down some of the plants and cleaning up the trash that was scattered around the yard. Once the plants were out of our way we started tearing down the already existing ramp. It’s honestly a miracle that thing was still held together. The more we tore down the more we found out how little of it was actually stable. I mean one part of it was literally held up by a car jack that was sitting underneath it. Once we got the majority of it down we ended for the day. We
went back to the church for some sloppy joes and mac and cheese, and then Sarena and I went to the beach for a little while. It was amazing and the water was so nice. After getting back to the church we had our group devotion time and then headed to bed to rest up for the next day of work.

day five: tuesday (work day no. 2)

On Tuesday both ramp groups got up and went to Home Depot to get wood. After home depot a small group of us went to Walmart (my third time there already haha) to look for some games to buy for the children at the domestic violence shelter. The beginning of a ramp build is normally pretty slow. There’s not much to do yet so there is usually too many people for such little work which leads to all but maybe four or five people just sitting around waiting for something to do. So we figured this would be a good day to do our game shopping. We ended up getting some board games and some balls for the kids to play with. By the time we headed back to the church to drop the stuff off that we bought it was around noon so we just stayed there and ate our lunch until the rest of our “jungle” group got there to eat their lunch. After they were done eating we went back to the ramp site and helped them. The group of us that went shopping in the morning had volunteered to be the group that made dinner that night so we left a little early and headed back to the church to make tacos. After dinner Megan, Sarena, and I were planning on walking over to the beach, but we got about half way over and it started to get really dark and we saw some lightning so we headed back and just hung out with everyone until devotions and then went to bed.


day six: wednesday (work day no. 3)

We got a lot of work done on Tuesday so we were all planning on getting it finished on Wednesday. It was a really stressful day; we still had a lot we needed to get done and it seemed like a million things went wrong. I'm not going to lie, it was a big test of my patience. After working from about nine to sevenish at night, we finally finished. At the beginning of the week I was honestly worried we wouldn't be able to finish it. There was so much we needed to get done in the four days we had planned to be work days, and it looked like it would be nearly impossible to tear down the already existing ramp and then build a whole new one in that short amount of time. In the past it has taken all four days to just build a ramp without any of the extra work before it, so I was kind of scared. Luckily we had a group of really hard workers and were able to finish it up. We basically built the whole entire ramp in one day. We did some of the foundation on Tuesday, but the majority of it was done on Wednesday which still is kind of unbelievable to me. After cleaning everything up we all headed back to the church, had some chicken nuggets and hot dogs for dinner, and had our devotional. That night was so much more laid back than the rest of the nights now that all of our work was complete. Everyone just seemed so much more relaxed and less stressed about what all needed to be done the next day.


day seven: thursday

This was our first free day and pretty much everyone chose to go to the beach. It was an amazing day. The weather was beautiful and we all had so much fun together. We headed over to the island right beside Sullivan’s Island called Isle of Palms to a nicer and more “beachy” beach (with waves) than the one a couple blocks away from the church. We swam for a couple hours and then walked to a little restaurant on the strip where there were a few restaurants, some ice cream, and a couple shops. I had a chicken wrap and it was soooo good. While we were waiting for our food Sarena, Teagan, and I walked over to the shops and looked around, but none of us got anything there. After we all ate we went back to the beach. We layed out for a little bit and then went back in the water. It was high tide by then and the water was so rough and the currents were really strong. It was almost impossible for us to walk against it back to where we walked into the water. Mackenzie and I stayed in for the rest of the time we were there with Nick and Blayne. After a few hours we all packed up our stuff and stopped at the Ben and Jerry's on our way to the car for some ice cream. When we got back to the church we had pizza for dinner and then all walked over to the beach near the church for Lauryn's baptism. It was really nice to be a part of her special moment and I was so proud of her for committing her life to God. 

day eight: friday 

On Friday everybody went into Charleston for a couple hours in the morning. From there some of us girls stayed there until later to shop some and walk around some more, and another group headed back to the beach. Us girls that stayed in charleston all day went to Moe's for lunch. It was our first time there and, oh my goodness, was it good. I think all of us got a chicken quesadilla and it was amazing. It wasn't just any chicken quesadilla. It had a ton of other things in it that made it so good. And you got chips and salsa with your meal. I had the hot salsa and it was amazing too. Then we started walking down King Street which is the main shopping street in Charleston. We stopped in a bunch of stores but all I got while we were there was a pair of sunglasses. We walked through one of the parks near the water and then got on the bus and rode back to the visitors center where our car was. On our way back to the church we stopped for some coffee and also went to a big beach store where I got a headband and a couple shirts. 

That night the whole group went out to dinner at Cracker Barrel. It was absolutely amazing. I had the fried shrimp and it was like $10 for the shrimp, three sides, and biscuits or corn bread which I thought was a really good deal. Somehow I ate almost all of it haha. Once we got back to the church we all cleaned up and headed to bed to rest up for our car ride home the next day.

day nine: saturday 

We woke up early and finished packing up all of our air mattresses and sweeping the rooms we stayed in and then headed for the road. I slept for the first couple hours and woke up when we stopped at a rest stop somewhere in North Carolina. After that I stayed up pretty much the rest of the way home. We all talked for the rest of the way and it was so much fun. It was like sixteen hours but didn't really feel like it at all. I drove for a few hours which also helped the time go by pretty quickly. We got back to Lisbon around midnight and it was kind of bittersweet. I was excited to be home, to sleep in my own bed, and to see my family, but I was also really sad to leave everybody. I made some amazing friendships on this trip and so many friendships were strengthened. I could keep going on and on about why I love going on mission trips, but this post is already so long that I think I'll save that for another day. I also plan on making another post with more pictures once I get more, so be on the lookout for both of those!