disrepair.  Despite the fact that this sounds very overwhelming, our youth group was let down with the lack of work.  The problem was fixed by the next day.
            The youth group had been broken into groups the first day so we could spread out our work and accomplish much more.  The second day after we had finished cleaning up the Lutheran Disaster Relief center, we had headed to our second project, while some other groups finished up the dreaded Ms. Fanny’s house with amazing vigor and stamina.  While two groups began sanding down the walls in Mr. Jacks house for a new paint job, the other two groups pressed on miles away.  Again we were presented with the fantastic problem of having too many people and not enough work, which led to instead of a bunch of students sitting around counting bricks, ripping up weeds, planting a garden, and painting the front porch.  By the end of the week Mr. Jack’s house was quite a few more steps forward toward being fully livable again, Ms. Fanny’s house had been completely altered and unrecognizable, and another group had even moved on to another house and got unfathomable amounts of work done there. 
            The project the group was presented with at this house is a perfect example of why we go on trips like these.  We touched every person we came in contact with on this trip, especially the people of the homes we worked on.  I heard the most beautiful things on this trip from the people we helped.  Mr. Reich apologized to the old man believed to be happy with his peace and quiet about the ruckus we were making in his home.  He merely replied, “No, it was nice to finally hear laughter again.” Ms. Fanny received a call from a friend while the girls were working in her kitchen.  The conversation included the question from the other end, “How on earth did you get those lovely young ladies to work in your kitchen?” She humbly replied, “Oh, I just prayed for them to come, and God sent them.”  And the group that had headed off to the house of the man they would come to know as “Uncle Dale,” brought this burly man who was a nonbeliever to tears with their love and hard work.  This trip wasn’t about us, the amount of work we got done, or the fun we had, it was about the people we touched with God’s love and mercy.  We are the hands and feet of God, and we will do his work.
            Unfortunately we can’t always head off to a land of deep poverty and need every day of our life.  Just and unfortunate not everyone was able to make it on this incredible trip.  How can someone experience that feeling of touch the world around you in an everyday setting?  That’s even more important than taking a week out of your summer to do pure manual labor.  This is because it’s the small things that matter most.  Do small things with great love.  Show your neighbor common courtesies, or do something unexpected to show your compassion for the person sitting next to you. 
            I attended an assembly in my freshmen year that completely changed my outlook on how I treat the people around me.  It was the brother of the first person killed in the Columbine shootings of 1999.  She had the right idea, regrettably the people that attacked her and the school had the complete opposite.  Just recently the girl had won an award for a five-paragraph essay explaining the importance of treating others with kindness.  She explained that she dreamed of a world where the kindness we treat each other with would be like a domino effect, passing on from person to person, creating a world full of people that treated everyone with decency.  The mass murderers that attacked the school made a video just a couple days before saying they dreamed of a world where the hate they felt for the people around them would spread like a virus.  Two completely different ideas and directions, giving people the option to choose their road.
            The world is not a nice place.  It is filled with hate, poverty, hunger, jealousy, greed, and everything in between.  Luckily the world is also filled with love.  We are given two options, two roads to take.  We can either spread hate and misery, or we can spread love and kindness.  It’s as simple as that.  Everyone kept asking why on earth would a merciful God send such an astonishing force like Katrina, causing so much pain and misery.  It’s not our job to know why, but it is our job to try to bring the good out of any situation and spread God’s love.  The amount of love that came out of this hurricane is mind-boggling.  In Luther Disaster Relief alone they had 11,000 groups alone.  Even though they may have been just couples or nothing as large as ours, that is still incredible.  And even with 11,000 groups coming through there they were amazed at our work ethic, the amount we got accomplished, and at the pace that we did it in.  We are changing the world one small step at a time, and not just with mission trips, but here at home too. So spread God’s love, not the pitiful human emotion of hatred.  God may have sent a hurricane that caused a flood of destruction, but he made our Flood of Love stronger.

Ryan