“Some call it mission work. It can also be called loving others.”

Dear friends, Happy Friday!

For those of you that do not know me, you may recognize my face ushering most Sundays at the 9:30 service. Not only do I usher, I have also been called to serve as the 2022 adult mission trip leader for St Matt’s.

COVID may have deterred our plans to travel internationally and love others - but three and half years after our last mission trip to Puerto Rico we are finally making plans to help our friends on the Gulf Coast.

If you have never been able to experience a mission trip, let me share this: The five days that I spent in Puerto Rico, filled my heart with more joy than I can ever even put into words. I learned how to plaster the inside of a house with cement, helped move hundreds and hundreds of pounds of sand, and learned how to build interior and exterior walls for a house.

For five days I got to know and become friends with some wonderful people of St Matt’s that I did not previously know very well (other than their names). We ate meals together and prayed together. I even made a few new friends in the neighborhood where we were serving – I laughed, I cried. For five days I got to live and breathe the St. Matt's mission To Know and Share God’s Love. . . and then some.

A mission trip can be a life-changing experience. It can broaden your perspective. It can give you better direction. It can teach you new skills. It will revitalize your soul. You will help folks that can never repay you. As Mother Theresa once stated, that is living.

We will be traveling down to New Orleans from July 16th to the 22nd. I ask that you prayerfully consider joining us on this mission trip to help so many impacted by the hurricanes the last few years. I would love to laugh with you; minister with you; share God’s love with you, and make small changes in the world with you.

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

Be kind,

Zena