Eight teens, two adults, and one box shaped van. This was the base for the Bethany Lutheran Church teen group as we headed four hours north to the 2015 Bethany Lutheran church summer mission trip. Me and a crazy group of teens canvas to help spread the news of a vacation bible school that kids in the community could attend later in the week.
We were a hungry group of teens when we arrived so the members of Trinity Church fed us tons of food that satisfied us. As we ate we talked about our goal of getting many new people to attend the bible camp. I knew just from talking to the people there that this task was going to be pretty daunting. I also knew that canvassing was going to be hard for me because I am not a pushy person and I do not …show more content…
I had a knot in my stomach and did not get to eat the great turkey sausage that was prepared. Next we headed off to the church for a long hot day of canvassing Ashland. It was a scorching, hot July day and this made the event even more painful. As I walked up to the first home, I could barely stand it. I was not expecting a person to slam their door in my face. I turned away and tried to shake it off. I thought about all the plans I had made the night before and was not going to let that hinder my work. I trudged up to the next house, that by the way looked a little beaten up from the outside, and instead of getting a face full of a door, I got not so kind words. After just two stops, I began to …show more content…
After talking to the other teens and hearing their experiences with the people of Ashland, we decided to call it a day. We headed back to church to plan for the VBS looking dead as a doornail the thought of nobody coming to VBS started to pop in the back of my head I started to think about what would happen if nobody showed up and our efforts were useless. I was also beginning to realize that bringing people into an event centered around religion was an uphill battle. I had always been told that it was easy to spread the word. Everyone in the world is accepting. People are nice. What I was experiencing was the dead opposite. Even though things didn’t look very good, the teen group I was with, continued to decorate for the VBS we planned to continue with even with our poor results from canvassing. As we worked on decorating, I realized how fortunate I was to have the people I was with and I counted my blessings. Another realization occurred to me. Sometimes you have to look around at what you have and be thankful. Everything isn’t going to go as planned. I never had to deal with this struggle before so I was new to this. I knew I could either give up or I could buck it up and get back out
We were a hungry group of teens when we arrived so the members of Trinity Church fed us tons of food that satisfied us. As we ate we talked about our goal of getting many new people to attend the bible camp. I knew just from talking to the people there that this task was going to be pretty daunting. I also knew that canvassing was going to be hard for me because I am not a pushy person and I do not …show more content…
I had a knot in my stomach and did not get to eat the great turkey sausage that was prepared. Next we headed off to the church for a long hot day of canvassing Ashland. It was a scorching, hot July day and this made the event even more painful. As I walked up to the first home, I could barely stand it. I was not expecting a person to slam their door in my face. I turned away and tried to shake it off. I thought about all the plans I had made the night before and was not going to let that hinder my work. I trudged up to the next house, that by the way looked a little beaten up from the outside, and instead of getting a face full of a door, I got not so kind words. After just two stops, I began to …show more content…
After talking to the other teens and hearing their experiences with the people of Ashland, we decided to call it a day. We headed back to church to plan for the VBS looking dead as a doornail the thought of nobody coming to VBS started to pop in the back of my head I started to think about what would happen if nobody showed up and our efforts were useless. I was also beginning to realize that bringing people into an event centered around religion was an uphill battle. I had always been told that it was easy to spread the word. Everyone in the world is accepting. People are nice. What I was experiencing was the dead opposite. Even though things didn’t look very good, the teen group I was with, continued to decorate for the VBS we planned to continue with even with our poor results from canvassing. As we worked on decorating, I realized how fortunate I was to have the people I was with and I counted my blessings. Another realization occurred to me. Sometimes you have to look around at what you have and be thankful. Everything isn’t going to go as planned. I never had to deal with this struggle before so I was new to this. I knew I could either give up or I could buck it up and get back out