As a few of you may know, I am working with a youth group in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This summer has been absolutely wonderful up to this point, although I have not had the typical intern experience (another story for another post possibly). The month of June at our church is generally filled with camp and retreat type events. So as the month transitioned into July, our event focus changed from one of “fun and fellowship” to “mission and service”. To kick off our month of missions, our middle school teens partnered with Youth Encouragement Services and hosted a mini VBS for the kids there. That said, this past week I had the opportunity to spend some time ministering to some inner-city kids in Nashville, TN and be ministered to and loved unconditionally in return. Many of the kids came from very poor households or had recently immigrated to the States. As a result many of the kids did not fit in at their respective schools. They were, to an extent, the “outsiders.” Our group, which totaled 13, including the chaperones, started the two-day series off with a chapel where we sang silly songs with children and performed a skit relaying our theme of honesty. Breaking off into 3 predetermined age groups, our middle schoolers (and two high schoolers) did an awesome job with crafts, teaching the kids about anger management, and just goofing off and playing games with them. Our morning schedules for our VBS days were identical, but our evening activities differed. On Thursday, we put on a carnival (complete with inflatable obstacle course and bounce house, be jealous!) for the kids and their parents. This was one of the most impactful times of the half-week for me. The opportunity to mingle with the kids in a less-rigid setting (as if VBS is really that structured) and the opportunity to meet with their parents, hear the struggle they were going through, and getting a holistic view of their families was a moving experience. On Friday we treated the kids to a slip and slide after VBS. Despite a few injuries (we used rocks to hold down the plastic tarp, not our brightest moment), the little kids had a blast! We returned home the next afternoon after spending the day touring the city, and though we all were quite exhausted from action packed days of hanging out with kids and some community service thrown in there, we all came away with a real feeling of having made a difference in some children’s lives. I will be leaving for Mexico with our high school kids on Saturday and hopefully will share some stories with y’all about how God is working both domestically and abroad.