Julie's Story

"Great," I thought bitterly, "we're washing each other's feet. Perfect timing." I stared down at my feet. They were peeling, as they often do from wearing my sandals too often. I'm sure none of you really wanted to know that beautiful fact, but it's necessary, so bear with me.

It was Thursday night, July 10th, and after hearing a lesson on service, our leaders were coming around to wash all of the students' feet. Normally, I'd think this would be a great idea: what can be more humbling than touching someone's feet? Hmm, how about this - letting someone else touch my feet! Classic Peter responses burst forth inside. As one of my leaders came around with her basin, I faced a difficult decision: do I dare decline such a uniting activity because of my pride? Or do I embrace my imperfections as my fellow peers have already done?

Luckily, I chose the latter, and this proved to be a wise decision, considering the entire process took under two minutes and I would have secluded myself from an awesome group we like to call Storm Student Ministries.

This wasn't the first uniting experience we had during our stay in Dunbar, West Virginia. In fact, if anything, the real climax occurred the previous night during our Church Group time, where well over half of our students broke down walls of pride and admitted personal struggles at home, with friends, with forgiveness. It is through these times that I love to be a part of The Storm. Middle school and high school students alike, regardless of background, of maturity, of spirituality, all came together and confessed our deepest burdens. It is through times such as these where I am reminded of my place among my generation. As the bumper sticker states, "I'm special, just like everyone else!" I'm no greater than the kid who gave himself a swirlie and shampooed his hair. Nor am I any less than the student who painted a woman's toenails all day.

On the contrary, we all came together as Christ intended for us to be - united as one body of Christ. It's that basic reminder which is probably most memorable and exciting. Christ took my impurities, my foolishness, and mixed me up with goofballs just like me with the same impurities and the same foolishness, and he called us one body.

That's pretty cool to me. I mean, hey, they don't care what my feet look like. Julie Harp

Lori's Story

I am back from a July week-long missions trip to Dunbar, West Virginia with Central's youth group. Previously I had been to the Dominican Republic and Mexico on mission trips. I doubted what God could really do 8 hours away in a small town in West Virginia. God proved me wrong by giving me one of the most amazing weeks of my life. Saturday afternoon 44 high schoolers, middle schoolers, and adult leaders departed, feeling partly excited and partly anxious not knowing all the things God had in store. Sunday afternoon we met up with 2 other youth groups giving us a total of 69 people. We were split into 5 work groups for Monday-Thursday.

My group did a kids' club for 25 neighborhood children. Many came from broken homes and hadn't grown up with discipline. There were a number of "feuds" between the kids that caused tension during the day. We could see God working in lives as the week progressed. These kids amazed me in their creativity in crafts, enthusiasm in music, diligence in memorizing verses, and energy in games.

Two other groups went to separate nursing homes the first two days to show the residents God's love through talking, playing games, singing, taking them on a picnic or doing their nails. The residents were so overwhelmed that a bunch of youth would do something like that for them. The last 2 groups did construction the first 2 days then switched with the nursing home people the last 2 days. They scraped paint off of houses, bleached walls, painted, fixed gutters and spent time with the people whose houses they were working on.

One of the most amazing things God did throughout the week was uniting our group. There were high schoolers and middle schoolers, with a six year age difference, but after the first day there was no distinction of who was in high school and who was in middle school. In our times every night with our individual churches, we were challenged to move ahead in our relationship with God. So many people opened up and shared what God was teaching them and the struggles they were experiencing. We learned how to encourage others or accept encouragement from others. There was such an openness and acceptance between everyone. I think I can echo thoughts from all 44 people who went on this trip by saying that God is awesome and forever changed our lives through this week! Lori Hansell