A couple weeks ago my husband and I embarked on a trip to Gallup, New Mexico for Trinity CRC’s youth group mission trip. We have helped out at church as youth group leaders this past year and we were so excited to be able to go on this trip! Rachel, Trinity’s head youth leader, and her husband Adam have been friends of ours since high school. This past year being able to join with them in being youth leaders has been such a fun adventure, and this trip just added to that fun!
We spent the week serving at Rehoboth Christian School doing various projects around campus. We did a lot of weeding and a lot of various painting projects. I am so proud of how hard the kids worked this week! They were complemented many times by the head maintenance person on how hard they worked and how impressed he was by how much they were able to accomplish.
The week wasn’t just spent working though. Thankfully we were also given the opportunity to explore just a few parts of New Mexico and Arizona, we learned more about the Navajo culture as well as the major roll they played in World War II. Unfortunately we weren’t able to climb to the top of El Morro National Monument when we went there due to the storms in the area but we were still able to do a short hike around the base of the cliff and see the words etched in the rock from long ago. We also did an incredible hike through a small canyon on private property owned by a family that attends Rehoboth Christian School. It was such a beautiful hike! There was another hike that we were barely able to do because of the storms and rain in the area, but it was beautiful the short amount that we were able to see.
This week in New Mexico was marvelous and life changing. It was the first time I had the opportunity to experience a mission trip as a leader and not as the youth myself, which is definitely a different experience. It was so great to be able to witness the hard work that was done as well as adventure through God’s beautiful creation.
Our trip to New Mexico is a week I won’t ever forget. It was a week of service, hiking, worship, and fun. It was a week of growing closer to each other and to God. It was a week filled with beauty. It was a week unlike any other week in my life.
Tonight as I share this blog post I am thankful for the opportunity to travel and explore the world. I am thankful for the opportunity to grow in community with an amazing group of kids. And I am thankful to be able to serve along side another couple who I have called my friends for over 10 years now.
Enjoy these images and the incredible beauty of Gods creation!
