North Carolina Trip

Our squad just finished our first two weeks of ministry!  We went to North Carolina and worked in the community of Black Mountain.  

I was really excited to finally be out in the field and I fell in love with Black Mountain immediately when we got there.  It was an absolutely beautiful fall scene with mountains on all sides.  We were in an ideal environment with a very kind, welcoming community.  

Going into this trip, we were told that we would be doing a variety of jobs all over the community, but that was the extent of the information we had when we started.  Most days I found out what ministry we were working with when we were in the van on the way there.  I jumped around to many different jobs throughout the two weeks and enjoyed quite a few of them.  Some of my favorite ministries were at Ridgecrest Conference Center, Bounty & Soul, and Black Mountain Home.  

My team went to Ridgecrest on our second day in North Carolina and our jobs were so fun.  We started the day setting tables for an upcoming banquet.  It was a great job for a perfectionist because the place settings were very particular.  That day we also sorted silverware, cleaned, and plated food.  I felt like a real chef drizzling chocolate designs on a plate to dress-up a piece of cake from a box.  That job also came with the perk of a buffet lunch which is a real blessing on the World Race.

Monday of the second week was a day I had been waiting for since day one.  During our introduction, our hosts told us about an organization called Bounty & Soul that gathers and redistributes food from grocery stores that are about to throw away expired or leftover items.  I’m extremely interested in that type of work, so I really hoped I would be able to do ministry with them during our time.  When I found out we were headed to their drive-through market for the day, I was so excited!  We showed up to set up the market and then we got to hand out boxes of produce, bread, and flowers to people driving through.  It was a really sweet day.

Our time in North Carolina ended with the Black Mountain Home for foster care kids.  We set up and volunteered at a fall festival for the community.  On Thursday I worked with one of my teammates and decorated the grounds of the festival with mums and pumpkins.  We were enjoying the beautiful scenery and every time I walked outside I took a second standing in awe of the mountain view right outside the door.  It was a textbook fall day and I was loving it.  Then on Saturday we went to the actual fall festival to run games for the kids.  A couple of my teammates and I were in charge of Nerf archery.  I got to help kids that were half the size of the bow as well as encourage other kids who could seemingly hit the target with any shot they took.  I got to watch kids run away cheering about winning a stuffed animal.  And I got to watch my teammates working next to me.  In the time that we weren’t running a game, we were running around playing the rest of them ourselves and bidding on baskets at the silent auction, hoping that someone would outbid us because we don’t have space for anything in our backpacks.  The festival was a great way to wrap-up our time in Black Mountain.  

We worked with many different ministries in the community, we met amazing people, and we had lots of opportunities to serve. 

Next stop: Guatemala.