A short term missions project to…Gainesville, GA!

Less than a week ago I returned from being on a short term missions trip to Gainesville, Georgia.  Now, if you are thinking to yourself, "But isn't that where you just recently moved to?"  Well, yes, you would be correct.  It may strike you as odd that a missions organization who is in the business of mobilizing others to go out and serve would have a short terms missions trip in the city in which they are located, but I believe that this is because they understand that serving their local community matters just as much as serving abroad.  So, I went on this trip to shadow and be coached in the process of being a project leader for AIM.   So, unlike many of the short term trips where I would catch a flight to a foreign county, I instead jumped into my car each morning and drove 10 minutes down the road to meet with our local ministry partners, whom we would be serving alongside all week. The AIM Staff (myself and my friends Laura, Inus, and Trevor) be leading a group of 53 participants from Barrington, Illinois in ministry at various locations.  
 

The different locations where we did ministry in Gainesville were:

Rahab's Rope– a store that sells goods that are made by women who have been taken out of the sex trafficking industry in India 
Jesus' Way Ministries– a warehouse of donated supplies that is organized in order to send to Haiti- we help organize donations and work on preparing a school bus to become a dental and medical bus that will be shipped to Haiti and used by this group to travel all over Haiti doing mission work
Local Nursing Home- here we tried to just spending quality time with the residents and remind them that they were loved.  many residents have not been visited in weeks or month, and this is a huge encouragement
Queens City Bridge- a bridge in Gainesville where the homeless live under the bridge of the Queens City Parkway, it is somewhat of a tent community next to the railroad tracks.  We spent time picking up trash under the bridge and talking with those that live there.
Prayer Walks in Little Mexico- Gainesville has a very large Hispanic population which predominantly live in an area called Little Mexico, which is one of the neighborhoods that we would go into to simply walk around and pray with those who might want to receive prayer.
Good News at Noon– a Christian center that is a work oriented shelter (must prove that you are searching for work in order to stay there) and kitchen that provides lunch for the homeless.

Needless to say we were in a lot of different locations, doing a broad variety of ministries.  What struck me about this is just how often we live in a location and have no idea what the need is right around us.  I know that for this group from Barrington we exposed them to some different ministries and helped them wrestle with the topic of homelessness within the context of Gainesville.  And because of their experiences, there were several students who shared at the end of their trip, "my life will never be the same."  

"My life will never be the same" seems to be a statement that indicates a major shift in one's thinking, in how one sees the world, and hopefully in how they live.  We as leaders celebrated that our participants lives were changed, but we also just kept reminding them that these types of opportunities have to exist where they are at as well.  They don't have to let this experience stay in Gainesville as an isolated event.    They will not find the same exact ministries when they go home, but if they look around them and if they are truly willing to invest, then there will be other opportunities to serve.  There would definitely be ways to apply what they have learned when they return home.  

We shared this challenge with them to go home and to consider serving in their local community, but the challenge hit me as well.  I have never been on a mission trip where I came home…to the same place I was just in. Now, I know that anywhere I go is a mission field, but the thing that struck me is that Gainesville does not even seem like the same place to me as it was a week ago.   I know that when I come to the intersection of Dawsonville Highway and Jesse Jewel Parkway that a block away there are folks living under the bridge, and I know their name, and I know their story. I can't help to think that when I go to Walmart to get groceries, that right behind Walmart is the neighborhood where I walked around with a small group of high school students and prayed for the folks who live there.  And all of the sudden…this place has changed.   This whole city looks different.  

So, I have been pondering what this means for me.  I want to be sure that I don't take lightly the things that I have seen, heard, and experienced, but I also realize that I can't serve at every ministry that is available, and so I am still pondering this.  However, what I do know is that I am regularly enamored by the fact that God can use whatever He wants to change to me and my perspective.  And this time, he used the very city that I live in to change me.  

That's right…God can use even Gainesville, Georgia (the poultry capital of the world) to change my head and my heart. He never ceases to amaze.