5-Given's HOME together as a Family: Memphis, TN

Well we just finished another amazing mission trip at SOS (service over self) in Memphis. This is about the tenth year that we have taken a group down for a week long mission. This year we took 45 youth and adults. The part that we love most about SOS is that the kids and adults think they are going to help people that are less fortunate by doing some construction work on their homes. Instead they end up having their lives changed as God works in and through them during the week.
Was it hot? Yes! Was it fun? Yes! Did you get a lot of work completed? Yes! These are the questions and answers that are asked and given when we return from this trip. The problem is that these questions don’t give an opportunity to tell about what this trip was like. We had a drug addicted prostitute visit the home we were working on. She worked with us some and shared with us about the bad choices she had made in her life. Her husband is in jail and she sells herself to strangers to help pay for drugs and her rent. After she shared her story we shared the gospel with her and prayed for her, we held hands with her and prayed for her. We did not look down upon her but rather lifted her up. I have never experienced something so incredible. She has people that pay money to have their way with her and treat her like trash, but we chose to love her right where she is. We are all his children no matter where we are in this world. The college crew leader on our job is trying to help her by getting her into a rehab center. There are many more stories and I could go on for hours. There is another group of youth from our Church in Washington DC this week on a mission trip. Then on July 11th we start a local week long mission trip, which we run out of our Church called “Transformation Zone”. We have about 160 youth campers that are involved in the mission week. Most of the mission work will be in the Columbus area.

Let me now share a little bit about our adoption progress. This Friday is our appointment date to have our USCIS finger prints completed. We are also looking forward to finding out what our new numbers for July will be in the next couple of weeks.

All of the campers and staff in front of the SOS building.