Kansas City Misison Trip 2011

Pastor Schiele was our mission group's
contact at Grace Baptist Church. He
made our lives so much easier! Thanks!

Have you ever had a week when you are totally surrounded by teenagers in the sweltering heat doing manual labor and loving it? I have! I know that it doesn't sound like much fun but when you are doing it all for the glory of God and the fellowship of believers it really can be amazign!

This past week was our fourth mission trip with the youth of Villebrook Baptist Church. In order we have served in Springfield, MO; Springfield, MO; Memphis, TN; and now Kansas City, MO. I love youth and I love missions, and it is amazing to see the students that my husband has mentored in his 13 years of doing youth ministry that are now youth ministers themselves. Our group this year included three groups that were led by former "Jimmy kids".

For eight days, six groups from three different states came together for a total of about 90 people serving. We had everyone from infants to senior adults living together at Grace Baptist Church. I just have to stop for a second and say how grateful we are to Pastor Lavendar and Pastor Schiele for allowing us to invade their facilities and for being very gracious and accommadating to our group. If you don't know anything about Grace, it is in a pretty rough area in Kansas City. That in and of itself was definitely out of our kids comfort zones. Not to mention that it was uncomfortable because it was possibly the hottest week of the year! So we all bonded together in the midst of our discomforts.

Everyday, our teams would undertake three hours of morning service. During that time we divided into groups that did tutoring for elementary school children, teaching life skill classes at Ivanhoe Community Center, and gardening in a local park. Then we would all meet back at Grace for lunch.

In the afternoon we headed out for three more hours of service. This time our teams did a Daycamp at Macedonia Baptist Church, community revitalization with Ivanhoe, street witnessing around the KC Metro, and services projects for the people of the Kansas City Baptist Temple. I was pleasantly surprised at the consistently great attitudes our kids had--even when they were shoveling sewage in 100 degree heat. Once our work for the day was finished we headed to the YMCA for showers and back to Grace for supper and worship.

It made for some really long but really awesome days. I am happy to say that we saw four confirmed salvations during our time of service plus we planted many more seeds. Not to mention the changes that God did in the hearts of our students during this trip.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support as we undertook this great adventure.

Missions & Ministry

This is our whole mission team. Villebrook Baptist Church & the Harrison Baptist Association.

Whew! Just got back from a week of ministry in inner-city Memphis, Tennessee. Jimmy and I took our youth group on their third mission trip this year. The previous two years we went to Springfield, Missouri, but this year we were allowed to take them a little farther out of their comfort zones.

We used the eight days that we were on mission trip to teach and reach. Our teens had classes in the mornings to challenge their brains and equip them mentally for life and missions work. In the afternoon, we took them to their ministry sites to get down and dirty with people who live in extreme poverty. One team was doing street witnessing. Whether they were feeding the homeless at Church Without Doors or handing our water bottles in the Memphis heat, their real purpose was to share the love of Jesus Christ. Our other team did a vacation Bible school for an inner-city church that couldn't afford to do one for themselves. They loved on kids, fed them snacks, taught them songs, and connected them to people in the church who would continue to help them long after we had gone.

The week was long and hot but much good was done. I saw our students gain a new appreciation for their physical possessions and for their families. I saw children who came broken hearted leave with a smile on their face because they had found a small piece of hope and happiness. I saw God move.

I would suffer all the heat and heartache in the world to have the joy of seeing people come to Jesus!

Welcome to Life as a Minister's Wife

Hi, my name is Christiana and I will be your guide during your time on "Life as a Minister's Wife". Since we will hopefully be spending a lot of time together, I want to take some time to introduce myself, my husband, and our ministry to you. SO let's get started!

Who am I?
As I said before, my name is Christiana. I am 26 years old. I graduated for Southwest Baptist University in December 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts in Intercultural Studies. Now I work for the Missouri Baptist Children's Home, a non-profit ministry that serves children and families all around the state of Missouri. I moved to St. Louis in 2006 when my husband and I started dating. Most importantly as it pertains to this blog, I am the wife of a youth minister and a full-time partner in our youth ministry.

Who is my Husband?
My husband's name is Jimmy. He is wonderfully creative and organized (surprising for a youth minster). He helps to make life interesting with his humor, inside jokes, and unique approaches to life and ministry situations. We have been married for almost 4 years now, but we have been doing ministry together since 2000. Jimmy has been a youth minister since he graduated from Southwest Baptist University in 1998, so that's 12 years of ministry experience. Jimmy is currently the youth minister at Villebrook Baptist Church in Hazelwood, Missouri.

What is our Ministry?
Youth ministry! It's what we do. It's why you're reading this blog, but let me tell you a few more specifics about where we are right now. Since 2007, Jimmy and I have been working with the youth and college students at Villebrook Baptist Church. We call ourselves "Live Out Loud Student Ministries" or LOL for short. Our first Sunday at Villebrook we had 5 teenagers now we average around 35 on any given Wednesday night. It's amazing to see what God can do in just 3 short years!

The mission of LOL Student Ministries is to reach the lost, train the saved, and apprentice the next generation of ministers. It can be a real challenge sometimes, but what is good in life that isn't a bit of hard work.

Until We Meet Again
Now that you know who I am, who my husband is, and what we do I have only a few short moments left. In the posts to come I hope that you will be able to relate to the struggles and the joys that I have or will encounter in my Life as a Minister's Wife. May God richly bless you and all that you do today.

Grace and Peace,

Christiana