Spring Break 2011: Washington, DC

This past week was Spring Break for South and I spent the week in Washington, DC on a mission trip with the BCM. It was a unique experience and very different mission trip...

We left last Friday (3/11) and headed up to Tuscaloosa, AL and spent the night there and then caught the Amtrak train to DC. The train ride was interesting and my first train ride. It took roughly 18 hours to get to DC and we were all ready to get off of the train. We stayed in Georgetown [which is a fancy place and part of DC] at Georgetown Baptist Church. Saturday night we just chilled and picked our prayer partners for the week by random drawing.

Sunday we started out by prayer walking around the church for the community to seek God through a church and to let people know that Georgetown Baptist was there for them. We also handed out magnets for the church when we got a chance. We then went to George Washington University and prayer walked around the campus. The university is close to the National Mall so we went there and saw some monuments: Lincoln, Washington, Vietnam Memorials.

Monday through Thursday we did more prayer walking around Georgetown and Georgetown University. We also worked with the Georgetown Homeless organization and made sandwiches for the homeless and helped pass them out. In Montgomery, MD we went to an organization called "Manna" which is a food bank for the needy. Braden and me helped distribute the food while the others went through canned goods and organized them. It was estimated that we all moved around 1,000 lbs. of food. The people at the organization were blown away by how much food we moved. We also cleaned up the church we were staying at.

Throughout the week we also visited the Capitol, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and saw the White House.

This was a different mission trip because it focused on prayer and not really service. We spent hours praying for the community, the church, and the DC area. Our goal was to help build up the community and to let the community know that the church was there or them. We tried to be effective in building relationships with people and to show that the church cares for them. We did do the two service projects but that was it service wise.

I enjoyed this mission trip and I am glad that Jerrod opened our eyes to the different types of missions. Thanks Jerrod!