The reason I'm not going on the missions trip...

So, my youth group is going on a missions trip to downtown Vancouver... When they first announced it, people started signing up immediately, but I was kind of 'meh' about it, so I didn't...
Now, here we are, 6 months closer to the date, and I'm still feeling 'meh' about it... (Good thing I'm not going! haha)

Wanna know why?

Because we live 30 minutes away from downtown Calgary...

Why do we feel the need to go, not that Vancouver is *that far*, away to do missions?

A couple weeks ago, my youth group went and served at a ministry downtown called the 'Jesus Loves You Society". Pretty much what we did, we helped serve a turkey dinner to families, we brought 50 presents that we had collected from the church community, we talked with the moms, played with the kids and then helped clean up and then went home...

Do you think we made a difference?

To the kids we gave christmas presents to, who possibly wouldn't have gotten much else that year... Do you think we made a difference? To the mom's who have a hard time providing for their families, and saw us playing with their kids... Do you think we made a difference?

I think we did, and I think we could make a bigger difference by going every week, getting to know the kids that go there all the time... Building relationships with those people.
And you know what? I think my youth group that goes to Vancouver this summer will make a difference there too.

If my youth group went downtown, to the JLYS or elsewhere, once a week for the next 10, 20 or even 30 years (By then we wouldn't be the same group, but it would still be a group of teens from Mckenzie Towne Church), would we completely fill the need in our city? Would every single homeless person have a home, every lonely person have a friend, every hungry person be fed, every unsaved person get to know Jesus?

Not by a long shot.

So why do we need to fund raise and spend hundreds of dollars to take 12 people to another city just like our own, to do exactly what we could do without spending that money?

The definition of the word 'missionary' is:

a person sent by a church into an area to carry on evangelism or other activities, as educational or hospital work.
Or: Someone sent on a mission.
They didn't say how far you had to go to be a missionary. What is the difference between 'going' to Vancouver and 'going' downtown Calgary? Or 'going' to your next door neighbour? Is one more noble than the other? Does one make a bigger difference?

And, just so everyone knows, I'm not saying that going 'away' for missions trips DOESN'T make a difference, I just think that we can have an impact at home, too...

Its just something I've been thinking a lot about lately... What do you think?

Jamie the Very Worst Missionary (Who occasionally swears on her blog, but is awesome anyway!! haha) wrote a couple of posts on short term missions and the sometimes negative of them... (Please read them! They are worth reading!)

Later this year she's going to write about the positive side of short term missions trips... I can't wait to read it!

So, while in the basement the other day, I found something thats Awesome  cool  funny... Let's just say, "blog material".  I'm planning on bloging it, as soon as I get some pictures...

For now, I just used a Facebook app to find my top 10 status updates of 2011... Since I don't blog and Facebook the same stories, these might be new to some of you... Enjoy :)

During a frustrating car ride, Mom may or may not have used the word 'stupid'. (Not at a person..I think she called the bead kit that people were fighting over 'stupid'...)
Gage: mom!! Say sorry!

Mom: Sorry, Gage...

Gage: Its ok, its just that... You said the 'S word'.

They were playing 'risk'. If you've never heard of that game, the point of it is to take over the world. By rolling dice and challenging the other players armies. Which aren't armies at all, just little peices of coloured plastic.

I think the game is pointless, because people don't really win wars by rolling a six when the other person gets a three.. But anyway.

My dad had quite a strong army in the Congo, and a pretty small army in Mongolia. My cousin, naturally, decided to take on Mongolia.

"Whaat? You're challenging Mongolia?! GOOD LUCK! Mongolia is going to KILL your army!"

"Dad, Mongolia's not in Africa. You only have one army in Mongolia."

...

**I have a feeling that sometimes people don't read to the bottom, because the first bit is sometimes boring... Trust me, I'm just giving the back up so you can 'get' it... Read to the bottom :) **

Dad looks down at his plate of stew, "So what, am I on a hunger strike or something?"

Mom: Would you like some more?

Sloan: ONE TIME!! Wendy told Bob he should go on a diet... And then Mrs. potts was like, "Mayor, you should go on a diet too!" and then they were like, 'nooo' but then they did go on a diet.

Mom: What?

Sloan: It's on Bob the Builder.

Mom: oh. Are Bob and Wendy married?

Sloan: Nope, they're just boyfriend and girlfriend. They live across the street from each other and yell 'good night' out the window.

mom: Really?

Peyton: Yup! And sometimes they have sleepovers!

Me, Dad, Mom and Sloan: Uhhhhmmm...

Peyton: What? you've never seen that episode?

This weekend, our youth group from chruch is going sledding... Unfortunately, I cannot go with them... But, it reminded me of a story that happened last year when everyone went sledding.
Sloan was at the hill, and a small person dressed in many layers (It was about -4zillion that night...) comes up to Sloan...

Person: Hey, is that a plasma sled?

Sloan: Yeah, it is!

Person: Cool! My best friend has one of those!

Sloan: Oh, really? That's awesome...

Person: Wait, SLOAN?!

Sloan: KAYLA?!

Person who we now know is Kayla: Um, you're the 'friend'.

Mom: your breath smells wonky?

Me: What? Oh, that... See, Peyton asked me how I could possibly say 'no' to her little face, so I made a list...

Mom: Well, out of all the people in our family, Sloan is one of the few that does NOT have wonky breath. Lots of people do, but Sloan doesn't.
(not naming names, *cough charter cough*... but some people in our family *do* have really wonky breath.)

Me: Mom, I said Peyton, not Sloan.

Mom: Oh. Well in that case... Never mind then...