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Aug 05, 2013 | Luke Blount

Intermediate Youth Take the Road to Awesome on Mission Trip

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Seventeen kids from across the Diocese of Texas joined together over the weekend for the Intermediate Urban Mission Retreat. This group of 4th through 6th graders spent the weekend in downtown Houston, learning about serving others with the Cathedral Urban Service Experience (CUSE).

 

Throughout the weekend, the kids focused on the “Road to Awesome,” which is taken from a viral YouTube video featuring Kid President. Quoting Robert Frost’s famous poem “The Road Not Taken,” Kid President says, “What if there really were two paths? I want to be on the one that leads to awesome.” According to the leaders of the retreat, you can get on the road to awesome by caring about others and keeping a positive attitude.

 

On Saturday morning, the youth helped at Generation One Academy, a school dedicated to meeting the needs of at-risk children. Urban Mission kids disassembled bunk beds and moved them into a trailer, and they also cleaned up the building. Several kids cleaned toilets, wiped down mirrors and vacuumed for the first time in their lives.

 

When asked why the work was important, rising 6th grader Grayson Peter stated simply, “So we can make other kids’ lives better.”

 

Generation One’s volunteer coordinator Will Vickery emphasized the importance of the volunteer work. “This is essential to our ministry,” he said. “Without people coming in and offering support, we wouldn’t get anything done for the community. It is incredible to see kids coming out and get a sense of what community involvement is. Most of these kids are from the suburbs and getting to see the inner city, and they are able to contribute in some small way.”

 

Later in the day, the children also helped at the Houston Food Bank before spending the evening at the Aquarium downtown. Sunday morning, they attended service at Christ Church Cathedral, and were introduced with applause from the congregation. The kids represented churches from Round Rock, Austin, Killeen, Liberty, Galveston, Cypress and Houston.

 

Before going home, the children were asked to write down how they plan to make a difference in the world. “After this weekend, I will try not to throw out as much stuff as I had before,” wrote one young person. “And I will help people on the streets.”

 

This was the first attempt in over a decade at a diocesan-wide mission trip for children this young, but leaders were impressed by their maturity all weekend. “They did not complain once,” said Jamie Martin-Currie, diocesan missioner for Christian education. “They had to walk 1.5 miles from the bus stop to the food bank in the middle of the day, but they were great.”

 

Organizers are already planning another mission trip next year, perhaps having two retreats, one in Austin and one in Houston, in order to allow for more kids to be involved.