Jamestown United Methodist Church - Youth

Like any good mission trip, we arrived safely at our destination and then when we realized a couple of items we forgot, we headed to the nearest Walmart!

In all seriousness, today was a smooth travel day across the border into Mexico and we enjoyed a beautiful drive along the Pacific Ocean. 

After getting settled at Monte Sinai we went out for dinner, our first taco stand trip of the week. 

Today we are attending a worship service with our church partner - it was their 52nd-anniversary celebration!  So far everything with the trip is going great!

We had the opportunity to share briefly in the service this afternoon. We are thankful to be here and hope our ministry this week is an encouragement to the church and the community here. 

This morning the teenagers of our group went shopping for food distribution. After that, we visited with two families from the church. This was super powerful for our team and a powerful way to get to know members of the church.

Kids ministry has begun and we are playing games with the old kids… and the big kids among us are having a good time, too. 

Grace is coloring with the kids from Monte de Los Olivos. To help with the communication she’s using Google Translate. 

We thought we were only going to do prep work to paint today… but we got a giant boost of energy and painted half the church!

A fun way to end our day of ministry was an evening walk in the community. This was particularly true for Phil and the women on our team, who took a special journey down a massive hill. AND LIVED!

This morning we started our day by visiting two families from the church to bless them with a bag of groceries. Food distribution is a practical ministry that offers fellowship while also meeting a material need. 

As we get more comfortable, our community is getting more excited about our kid's ministry. Tons of more kids showed up today!

This afternoon we are working on painting the church.  We have 15 more gallons of paint to go! We also plan on cleaning up an area behind the church. Our hope is that the church can begin to use more of its property for ministry. 

This week we have had the honor of coming alongside Monte Olivos to help with home visits and food distribution. This has been a great opportunity to get to know and pray for the community. 

We wrapped up our ministry week, got paletas, and then went to the overlook. The team is pretty tired, so no walk tonight. 

Among all the ministry activities this week some of the group participated in morning yoga. While I’m not stretchy enough to be part of that, those who are said it’s been a great way to start each day.