Collide, By McKayla R.

Collide

By McKayla R.

When I pulled out of my church parking lot on Saturday afternoon, I didn’t expect for my life to be impacted in the manner it did.

My church’s youth group partners with a ministry called Cross Culture Ministries. The organization’s purpose it for students to experience the missionary lifestyle while developing their spiritual gifts. Normally the church goes to CCM’s camp in West Virginia, but this year they allowed a few select students to travel three hours and represent KMBC on a lot more local trip.

Six girls and three chaperones were to meet up with two other churches from West Virginia (First Baptist Fairlea and Ronceverte Baptist) where we were to work with the Boys and Girls club and do a make shift Vacation Bible School for the club’s members.

That Saturday night after all three churches were united, we ordered pizza and really hung out with our respected groups. None of us really knew each other nor were we excited to fellowship together. The next morning at breakfast it felt like there were invisible boundaries separating the churches. We just didn’t socialize very well.

After a long ordeal with one of our vans breaking down, we attended Sunday morning service at the church we were staying at, and it was a total God- thing. The people there were so thoughtful and caring; one lady washed our Collide Ministries shirts every night so we would have them for the next day and other families would drop off snacks and pizzas.

That night was our training session. All 25 students were split into two different teams; a recreational team and a leadership team. The people on the leadership team were split into five other teams. One team for each age group. A guy from West Virginia, a girl from my church, and I were in charge of the 6-7 year olds, which was right up my alley. Children about that age have always been my favorite to deal with. After learning what our lesson was going to be the next day, we all went our separate ways to relax before the busy week.

One of the first lessons I learned was that 6-7 year olds don’t. shut. up. It was VERY difficult to get a hold of their fast moving minds. It was a constant stream of “Stop hitting me!” and “I’m hot!” The B&G leader for the group finally yelled “Blow a bubble!” and it felt like the rapture had happened it was so quiet.

It continued like that for pretty much the rest of the week, but as our time together grew, I began to learn the kids on a personal level.

Tef is a kid who looks strangely like a mix between Bob Marley and acts like Katie from Horton Hears a Who. He has dread locks to his waist. We did a lesson on our third day about the blood of Jesus, and I promise he knew more about the Bible than I do.

Antonio is a boy who has a heart of gold. He was always encouraging his classmates and helping them. Anytime we told the group to be quiet, he was the leader who paved the way for the others. If anyone is “The real MVP”, it is him.

Kristian is… Kristian. On our first day she called a girl ugly and then later proceeded to beat the same girl with a flag. If any of our 24 children were to have a warning sign, it would be her.

If I were to write you something on all the children it would take days for me to tell you everything about them. How ecstatic they were when we handed out Bibles (one boy took his and went in a corner and started reading Genesis 1 and continued till we had to leave). How they had to remove one of the boy’s arms from my waist when the Collide members walked out for the final time. How when they gave an alter call for the children who wanted to get saved and every kid but around ten prayed the prayer of salvation.

Look at me, crying at the memories.

This trip has shown me not only how present God’s hand is, but also how much the devil likes to destroy everything God has done. There was a guy from one of the other churches and we were talking and at one point he started telling me that he had imagined us doing certain things together and if I wanted to be “satisfied” all I had to do was talk to him.

We all knew what he was getting at. I knew what he was getting at. Thankfully I removed myself from that conversation ASAP before it went any further.

This week was just so amazing. Throughout the week I have stretched myself spiritually in a way I didn’t think was possible and I’m so excited for what else God has in store for me!

If you would like to hear more about Cross Culture Ministries you can visit their website at http://crosscultureministries.org.