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Once upon a time in an old old town, I fell in love. The month was April- the year- 2014. When I fell in love, I fell fast. I fell hard, I fell and I didn't even realize I was falling. But what I did realize was that I will never, ever, be able to look at the city of Tucson the same again. When I visited that city two months later- my love only grew deeper.
I went to Tucson June 6-July 1 and July 16-August 2 to lead 5, week-long mission trips and serve with some amazing people. I knew God was doing a work in Tucson- I could feel it when I went down in April, but I got to experience it during my last journey. My first week there I had three churches, one from Minnesota, Kentucky, and Florida. They did some construction, service projects, and sports ministry/evangelism. Every night we went down to a park in San Manuel and played basketball with a bunch of local teens. Side note- San Manuel has a large problem with teen drug use. As a matter of fact, the first night we arrived at the basketball court we saw some kids that were already high on drugs. We talked and played some basketball with the kids and guess what- we didn't tell them how to live their life or that they should stop smoking pot. Instead, we listened to them share their plans for their life, their hopes, their dreams. We talked with them about our life, and how Jesus changed us- we encouraged them, we prayed for them and we gave them New Testament Bibles. And ya know what? They didn't ignore us, they begged us to back. They didn't just throw the Bibles away, I saw many of them actually open them up and start reading, even when they thought we weren't looking. They felt important, valuable and heard. It was awesome. And that was just the first week.
The second week I got to be part of a group from Georgia that re-tiled a home for house-parents who take care of 10 foster kids. The group worked hard, long, 10 hour (or more) days to complete the project And God showed up in an incredible way. The day of the project, the group began repairing a part of the foundation with concrete, after coming back from lunch and noticing the concrete was still a little wet, they decided to write a bible verse on it- which would later be covered by tiles. In the concrete they wrote, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." A beautiful verse for a family who has sacrificed so much to help out these foster children. However, shortly after they finished writing that, and just shortly before they began the last few tiles, the house parent came in and saw the verse and immediately began crying. This was the first time the group had actually met the house parent, so they weren't sure exactly what to think or do- then the mom explained that her mentor had been praying for their foundation to be fixed and had specifically been praying that verse over their foundation. God- in his greatness- answered her prayer using that verse and allowed the mom to see it before it was covered with tile, never to be seen again. Isn't it amazing?
God is so good.
His goodness is more than I will ever be able to comprehend.
The beginning of the Summer marked the beginning of a cherished and incomplete love story. One that continues to deepen and strengthen the more I see. hear. touch. and know about the Old Pueblo.
There's more to my journey this Summer- stay tuned for the epic Summer finale...
