Mission Camp Road Show: Thank You

We were all uncomfortable at some point of the trip. Mission Camp Road Show returned to Oklahoma July 13, with sore muscles, stories, some skills we didn’t have before the trip, and a different understanding of what it means to care for creation. We were able to take the Oklahoma standard to Texas City, TX, through the generous support of our financial sponsors without whom this trip would not have been possible. Thank you!

Charter Bus Seat Sponsors

Adult Bible Study Class, Central CC Enid
Anonymous Donor (2 seats)
FCC Durant
Genesis Class, Central CC Enid
Rev. John & Sally Wheeler
Ken & Phyllis Hambrick (3 seats)
Linda & Rev. Pat Sutherlin
Lois Tilley
Max Johnson
Michael Allen
Patricia Swann
Rev. Dr. Lisa Davison
Rev. Geoff Brewster
Rev. Paul Ragle
Ruth Moore
Thom & Laurie Bushman (2 seats)
Travis Carlson Family

Trip Sponsors

Central Area Ministries
Central Christian Church Enid
Children, Youth, & Young Adult Commission
First Christian Church El Reno
First Christian Church Moore (overnight host for groups arriving on Saturday before the entire group left Sunday morning at 7am).
Leadership Training School Offering
New Covenant Christian Church
Northeast Area Ministries
Oklahoma Disciples Foundation Grant
Oklahoma Disciples Women

MCRS participants discovered neighbors in south Texas. The gracious smiles, offer of pizza or water, and “thank you” from home owners are imprinted on our group. We went to serve, and in some instances, received more than we gave. You probably know that feeling. Working with Reach Beyond Mission and Disciples Volunteering, ten (10) Oklahoma congregations sent youth and adults on this first Mission Camp Road Show. The people our group met and stories they heard were heart breaking and inspiring. Some of our group were frustrated for home owners who, three years after the Tax Day flood and Hurricane Harvey, are still trying to get their homes and lives rebuilt or restored. Only a few sites were near the water. The majority of the homes our group worked on are inland where the days of rain from Hurricane Harvey overwhelmed storm drains, drainage ditches, and people’s lives.

Houses our group worked in, or just passed each day, still had water line markings on the outside. Some of the sites were homes stripped to the studs and concrete. In neighborhoods concrete slabs are markers where a home once stood. One work team spent three days carefully putting down floating flooring that they had to pull up first. Portable air conditioners worked hard to cool the inside air to 87 degrees not counting the humidity. When they left Wednesday, bedrooms, bathrooms, the living room, and part of the kitchen were no longer bare concrete. There is still a long way to go for this home to be a living space.

One group worked for a family living in a home with sheet rock walls ready for paint. Towels or sheets hung in place of inside doors. Concrete floors are stacked with belongings creating paths to navigate from room to room. A mom, kids, and pets are doing their best to cope and live. They embrace the help of unknown neighbors, like our group, who are in and out of their house daily, if they are lucky, putting together a home flooded twice in the same year. “Hard as it is, you get over being to proud to ask for or accept help.” On Thursday, the hallway is no longer bare concrete. It led the way to bedrooms where our work group moved furniture onto new flooring they had laid. A bit of normalcy.

Some groups worked on several projects during the week. One worked at First Christian Church in Texas City helping paint two walls in the fellowship hall, and repainted the lines in the parking lot. That same group laid flooring, baseboards, mowed the lawn, and painted at a woman’s house the rest of the week.

Another group helped repair a fence, added a door to a shed, put up guttering, painted, and many more smaller projects to complete her house and take it off the list. Another worked at one house all week trying to get it finished, but a plumbing issue created by another well meaning group prevented them from completing that project. That group did finishing work, put up cabinets in the kitchen, painted and installed baseboards and molding, and mowed the yard.

Two groups visited Seeding Galveston, a community garden in Galveston complete with chickens, turkeys, and goats. There they helped weed beds, clean pens, and some learned about composting. Yes, that was a smelly morning. A few took a turn at milking a goat. Another group helped at the Regional Food Bank in Texas City, creating bags of food for children, learning about hunger in Galveston County, and then helping clients who receive a selected basket of food each week.

Both of these groups also spent thirty minutes picking up trash at the Texas City Dike. They went from the recycling and reuse of the community garden to picking up after consumer culture. In just an hour the two groups picked up an estimated 80 pounds of trash from an area about 30 yards by 300 yards. The dike is an access point to the Gulf of Mexico where people fish, earn a living, and play. It protects the oil refineries and Texas City. It was different from the beach in Galveston on Thursday evening.

We give thanks for the adults on this mission trip. Without their time, talent, and willingness to accompany their youth this trip would not have happened. We also give thanks for the Co-Directors of MCRS: Pastor Eula Hledik, Rev. Colton Lott, and Pastor Tara Dew. These three worked alongside me, Rev. Michael Davison, as their congregations New Covenant CC Oklahoma City and First Christian El Reno, co-sponsored MCRS with the Region. Click here to see a selection of photos from the week. More added soon.

Thank you, Christian Church in Oklahoma, for the ways you are a voice of gospel in your communities and through the covenant we call the Region. Summer Camp happens because you are involved. Stay centered.

Congregations @ Mission Camp Road Show