Sixty seven youth and adults travelled to Red Lake, Minnesota, June 8-15, 2002, for a week of mission work on the Red Lake Nation Indian Reservation.

The following Mission Trip memories were provided by Diane Slocum:

We camped out in the Red Lake High School, sleeping on classroom floors. Every morning we woke up to the sound of a sweet voice saying, "Wakey wakey work campers." That was not the highlight of anyone's day, at 6:45 a.m. in the morning! After a quick breakfast, and gathering of tools and supplies, everyone headed off to their worksites for a day of painting, roofing, building decks and wheelchair ramps, drywalling, or repairing siding. The weather cooperated nicely by only raining in the early mornings and late at night, and staying relatively cool to work in each day. The worst challenge was the infestation of ticks, that seemed to find their way into everyone's clothes, skin and hair. Every night we had tick check! The girls became known as the "chicks with the ticks!"

Each night we gathered in the gym for a time of worship and celebration. We sang, watched a video series called "Behind the Messiah," heard a local gospel singing group, watched dramas by the youth, heard the Workcamp News Update, and crew stories. On Wednesday night our own Brad Graham and Ross Cheairs were in the Workcamp Talent show. Brad sang a song from Les Mis, and Ross of course had to show everyone his amazing body contortions, with Mike Moyski as his faithful sidekick. Needless to say, they brought down the house! Mark Slocum, Thad Goodchild, and Matt Pokorn won the three on three basketball tournament. I don't know if anyone won the bean bag toss tournament, but it was an intense game played every night during free time.

Thursday night was a powerful night of prayer and solitude as we lit up a cross with lights. The theme for the week was "Ignite the Light", based on the same scripture that we used for Youth Sunday, "Let Your Light Shine before all People," Matthew 5:14. Our youth Sunday t-shirts were perfect!

Wednesday afternoon we went into the town of Bemidgi, on our free afternoon, to do some shopping and have dinner. The kids had fun in their favorite store: Wall-Mart.

There were over 250 youth who participated in this workcamp and completed work on 47 homes. The residents were grateful for all our work, and treated us to a full dinner donated by the town on Thursday night, in their reservation meeting hall (otherwise known as the casino). Despite the electricity going off due to a horrendous hail storm that blew in as we were eating, it was a fun event; and we enjoyed the food.

Our youth group was once again the largest group there, and I was very proud of their conduct and hard work at this camp. God was clearly working in many of our youth, softening their hearts toward him, moving them to new places in their faith journey. WF youth who did not know each other before this week became new friends as they worked alongside each other, and our joys and concern time each night were filled with affirmations for each other and thankfulness to God for how blessed we are. Living in a very impoverished community for a week was a lifechanging experience for all of us.

We were grateful for all the care cards and packages we received from all our prayer partners and friends from church. The staff at the camp were overwhelmed with the amount of mail our group received, and said "You must have a wonderful church family, to support your kids in this way." Yes, we do, and we thank all of you for your support during the year through fundraisers and events that helped us get ready for this trip.

Thank you to the following adults who gave a week of their time to work alongside our youth and be there for them: Gary Graham, Gary Kovanda, Jeff Alvis, Doug Boyd, Cris Ballenger, Sue Massaro, Barb Gassensmith, Valerie Christoffersen, Jo Albert, Heather Ballenger Davis. What a wonderful group of caring, Christian leaders! They were great.

Pictures of the trip are now on the website.