At the end of today (day 5), The Reverend Christian Baron (who accompanied the Youth on their mission trip to Arkansas along with the two amazing leaders Elizabeth Brubaker & Howard Heyser) reflected that they are ALL tired, sore, and ready to come home. However, after a day that produced 30,000 pounds of watermelons loaded into a truck he wanted to pass along a few last reflections from their work this week.

First from youth leader Elizabeth:

We’ve learned a lot this week. We’ve learned about World Hunger. And Hunger in the U.S.

We learned about different organizations that work to fight hunger, and about some of their programs.

We learned a little about some of Little Rock’s history. We learned that Arkansas has some pretty interesting wildlife. We learned how to tell a good eggplant and a good watermelon from a bad one. We learned how to harvest eggplants, tomatoes, and watermelons. We learned how to efficiently bag rice in one cup bags.

And we learned that four teens can work hard together to defy our expectations. We learned that they can keep harvesting, keep loading trucks, despite high heat, high humidity, or even rain.

And we learned, as perhaps they did too, that four teens can have a great time while making a significant difference for hungry families in the Little Rock area this week.

~Elizabeth

And from Youth Missioner Duncan Kelley:

My experience.

This week was filled with helping, learning, and working. We learned all about hunger in America and how we can help others to get fed. Bill (the guy in charge) did some simulations to help us get the tiniest feeling of what being hungry was like, and showing us how much of a problem it really was.

In the fields, we gleaned hundreds of pounds of egg plants, 250 pounds of tomatoes, and thousands of pounds of watermelons to give to food banks. One of the days we went to a “rice depot” and bagged over 1,000 rice bags for the back pack program.

This trip was amazing, and I hope we can continue to help those who need it back home.