Fortress Mission Trip

This week I accompanied 21 middle school girls and 7 other sponsors to Ft. Worth to serve the Fortress Youth Development Center. This is one very cool ministry. They have a church that meets there on Sundays and the rest of the time they serve the neighborhood. There were kids all over the place. They have literacy programs, VBS programs, and just a whole lot of fun.

Our team did a lot of cleanup. We weeded gardens, cleaned trash out of a creek at the park, organized the barn, cleaned their kitchen, bathrooms, floors and just about everything that needed cleaning. Another amazing thing we did was a drive by prayer time. We followed their director around to different parts of the community, stopping along the way to hear what was going on in that area and then we broke up into groups of 3 or 4 and prayed over that space. It was very powerful to see these young women pouring out their hearts for this area and the residents there. Along the way there was poppin' and lockin' and steppin' and chantin' and crumpin' and paying it forwards. We even squeezed in a Ranger game and shopping. There was never a dull moment I tell ya.

Some of the many people who had a huge impact on me this last week at Fortress were Mrs. Dee, Michael, Willie, Juan, Daniel, Dr. Tiggs, Kenneth and a whole slew of amazing young women. I have a whole new appreciation for our youth minister who managed to keep us all safe and busy and incredibly organized. That is a huge job.

Lately I've been noticing birds. They seem to be all over the place doing odd things. The first day on our way to Fortress I looked up and saw a flock of black birds with one lone white bird flying right in the middle of them. I thought that was an odd sight. I'd never noticed anything like that before. The second day on our way to Fortress there was one white bird flying over us. Then again on the third day, same thing, one lone white bird. I mentioned it to Sarah sitting next to me and she looked at me kind of funny. On the fourth day we were driving to the mall when we saw a herd of cows and on one of the cows there sat a big white bird. When I pointed it out Sarah said, "There's your white bird for today." Interesting. I'm not sure what to make of it. I just love that we were followed around by white wings. Could be there's some significance. I'm just not sure. I know one thing. It was an amazing four days and I want to go back next year.