Now that Middle School Mission Week (MSMW) is over, I thought I would take some time and share what this week looked like. We have a little bit of variety throughout the afternoons, but each morning looks the same. I should also start by explaining this week is geared towards upcoming 6th graders (graduated 5th graders) to graduating 8th graders. However, we ask that high schoolers sign up and join us as they can help lead in our groups. And this week is meant for the student ministry of Oakhill to come together and serve the surrounding community in Bible camps and service projects, and also to have fun while doing all of this.
Now usually we have a block party in our community the weekend before our mission week, but unfortunately this year there was a decent threat for some considerable thunderstorms and we decided to cancel our party, which is outdoors the entire time.
Also, our Bible camps looked a little different this year. For the past about 10 years we have had one Bible camp at the trailer park community down the road from Oakhill. However, we unfortunately had to end that relationship due to new management on their end. This opened up a new opportunity for our church to partner with a community called Grandin Mobile Homes and this was an exciting opportunity for us! This
community already had such a passion for kids with tutoring and a food pantry. Praise God for opening up this door for us to serve them!
Our Bible camps in the morning also looked slightly different thanks to CEF. Child Evangelism Fellowship is a ministry organization that Oakhill has partnered with in the past, but this year we partnered with them specifically during our MSMW. Their trained team of students came alongside our students and trained them on Bible lessons, songs, memory verses, and a few other items. I believe this was a great opportunity to have many of our students equipped well on how to lead these lessons and see how easy it is to do them too!
With this in mind, we had our Bible camps at Grandin and ColdWater Flats. Each morning, we would set up shop and offer to these communities free games, snacks, water, crafts, and Bible lessons. Praise God for a little more than 20 kids coming to our camps by the end of the week! We were able to share the Gospel, introduce them to the Bible and God, and share with them how much God loves them. We were also able to get some responses from some of the children at these camps! This truly was a great time and experience serving our community and being the light of the Gospel in the community.
After our Bible camps, we either had service projects or fun activities in the afternoons. We went to a couple of fun locations such as escape rooms and an arcade. We also made some little gifts for some of our older members here at Oakhill and delivered them to their doors with a personal note. This one is always a favorite among us and is well received from those who get the gifts. Besides this task, we also helped fix up the North Campus and moved some old stuff out of the shelter house next to the playground. We were excited to get our hands in there so we can have the North Campus work finished quicker!
Overall, we had a very busy and physical week. There was no issue at all each night for me to fall asleep. But I’m very thankful of the great work we were able to do for the Gospel to be known and seen in our group this past week. It is truly my prayer that the Lord would continue to work in the seeds we sowed each day and that more people would come to know Jesus through our work and actions.
His Glory Alone
