Faith Journey Life Journey

Hey parents, friends, and family,

Forty-five people from Excelsior United Methodist Church and Minnetonka United Methodist Church are on a mission trip in Cedar Rapids, Iowa this week and this is our tale. I’m Nate Melcher, the Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries at Excelsior United Methodist Church and I’ll be blogging throughout the week at least once a day, pending internet access and time availability. As you read our blog, I hope you’re inspired to do something wonderful for someone else and write a comment on the blog posts so we get a “letter from home” that can in turn fill us with hope.

A Little Context.

In 2008, eastern Iowa suffered through severe flooding that ruined several homes and businesses. Cedar Rapids, the second-largest city in the state, was especially hit hard downtown and in surrounding residential neighborhoods with water rising up well beyond the first story of many homes. Last year, a group of approximately thirty people from Excelsior UMC and Minnetonka UMC headed down to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to do flood relief. We helped rebuild homes, clean up debris, and gut a building to be used as relief supply storage. You can read all about that trip at my personal blog, The Scrawl.

This year, we’re heading down during the same week to once again do what we can to help. So far, all we know is we’ll be cleaning up debris and working on “punch lists,” which I’ve been told is sort of little tasks that add up to doing a lot of finishing work. Perhaps this week we’ll put in the final nails or paint the last brush stroke before a family can move back into their home. Our group is a little bigger this year, has many returners from last year, and everyone is excited to see what happens next.

FYI, you can read about last year’s trip and see photos at my personal blog, The Scrawl:

• Mission: Iowa 2009 – Day 1
• Mission: Iowa 2009 – Day 2
• Mission: Iowa 2009 – Day 3
• Mission: Iowa 2009 – Day 4

Leaving Town

We all agreed to meet at Excelsior UMC at noon today so we could load up our vehicles and leave as soon as possible. Well, most of us got there at noon. One driver, Eric, had a dead battery due to his van’s dome light left on all night and he had to wait for AAA to come and jump his car. As for me, I was going to be on time (a blessed rarity and something to celebrate), only to be called by Hattie who asked where was the paperwork she gave me. I quickly turned around and headed back to my apartment to grab her notarized parent permission slip. It’s the little things, you know.

“On the Road Again…”

By the time I arrived, nearly half the vehicles had left already. Pastor Kent and I did some last-minute prep and when Eric arrived, the last three vehicles headed out. In Mazie, my beloved Mazda5, Marlys and I had a great chat about inclusive language in church and different towns and cities we had connections in throughout Iowa while Alex O. and Alex N. snoozed and Victoria did wordfind puzzles. We stopped in Floyd, IA to say ‘hi’ to my brother, Jordan, who joined us on last year’s mission trip but is working at a Lutheran Youth Camp all summer and can’t make it. He lent me our mother’s GPS and during the pit stop, Kent informed me we’d actually passed some of the vehicles that left before us.

“We’ll leave the light on for you.”

The drive down was a smooth one and we all arrived safely within a half hour or so of each other. We’re staying at Living Water United Methodist Church, a congregation focusing on contemporary-style worship and which has been used frequently to house relief worker groups in its spacious facilities. It is one large sanctuary with rock band instruments all throughout the chancel on one side with a small kitchen and offices on the other. Down the hall are a small handful of classrooms and a nursery for children. Out back is a shower trailer (generously donated by the Louisiana UMC conference) and just down the strip mall (yes, Living Water UMC is in a strip mall and it has an excellent rapport with its neighbors), is Kang’s Tae Kwon Do which is also letting groups like us use its shower facilities. It’s a generous set-up and we’re all settled in and quite cozy.

A few representatives from the church, including Pastor Marty, were on-hand to give us a tour and then we were left to our own devices. The youth set their cots and bedrolls up, many of the guys opting to make a “Man Fort” – stacked chairs creating a perimeter around their sleeping bags. We left a wide area in the back of the sanctuary open where we played several improv games, name games, and other assorted ice breakers before Kent and Dave S. arrived with pizza and pop. Hungry and tired, we ate quickly and came together for evening worship.

“They will know we are Christians by our love.”

At worship, we sang a few songs intended to get people moving and meeting new people, including The Shoo-Bop (a freestyle dance in which “the dumber you look, the cooler you are”) and Ah, La, La, La (La, La, Lei, Lu, Ia [Ah, La, La, La, La, La, Lei, Lu {Hey!}]). For scripture, I had the group consider the “Come and see” message Philip had for his brother, Nathaniel, in John 1:35-46 in relation to how we have chosen to come and see and do. Then, we watched Conan O’Brien’s farewell speech on “The Tonight Show” and considered how cynicism could creep in during this trip if we weren’t careful and talked about what we could do to stop it when we considered Romans 15:1-2 (The Message paraphrase).

Highlights and Wrap-Up

A few highlights so far: learning “Morgan’s Sister” actually has a name (it’s Kate), Trevor’s newly-feathered hairdo, radio station sing-a-longs, the absurd amount of Twizzlers Jake brought on the trip, Dave M.’s Elvis impersonation during the improv game “Bippity Bippity Bop,” and slowly watching Minnetonka UMC and Excelsior UMC youth intermingle.

We meet our handler(s) tomorrow morning at 8:45am to learn exactly what work we’re doing. That means we’re getting up early so I’m out of here, dear reader.

A final note: pending time permits and internet access is available, I hope to blog at least once a day and add some photos, too. Please pass along word of this new Excelsior UMC blog to your friends and family and we love, Love, LOVE when people write comments on the posts. I will read every comment we receive to the group – it’s like getting a “letter” from home! Don’t forget to subscribe via email (click the button on the right-hand sidebar) or RSS feed, too. If you don’t know what this means, click here.

Thanks for reading,
Nate Melcher

Update: I’ve added a small photo gallery. Click the pic to enlarge it.