East Coast Mission Trip

     From September 28th - October 26th, Chad and I had the amazing opportunity to tour the East Coast with six young adults.  The main purpose of this mission trip was to host workshops for fellow young adults and train them.  To start out the mission trip we spent 4 very long days in intense training.  We worked from morning till night putting together in depth Bible studies, learning creative evangelism skills and discussing what the students could expect on the road.  For those of you who aren't quite sure what creative evangelism is, AIM uses the art form of mime paired with sign language, and drama set to Christian music to present the gospel. 
     After training camp, we headed out to our first stop, Blacksburg, VA.  There is an AIM team there that operates throughout the year.  We spent two days training them.  It was here that we presented the Bible studies we had put together during training camp as well as teaching them new songs.  From there we went on to Richmond, VA to host a workshop with a group that was interested in starting an AIM team.
     Another main purpose of the mission trips is to be servants where ever we go and to meet the needs of those we stay with.  We traveled next to Purcellville, VA and teamed with a local ministry there, Joshua's Hands, to host their annual Fall Festival.  We helped with setting up the day before and the day of, did two presentations, ran some of the games they had, and helped with clean up.
     From there we traveled to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, and finally ended in Washington D.C.  Obviously we filled the days in each place to the max but in the interest of time and length of this post I'll end with a couple more highlights.  In Pennsylvania, we got to work with a local AIM team there as well as spend a day at a local Christian retreat center doing some heavy outside labor for them.  In New Jersey, we hosted our largest workshop with 50+ students and got to visit the Statue of Liberty.  In Massachusetts we hosted a workshop with a brand new group to AIM and spent a day in Boston walking The Freedom Trail.  In Maryland we worked with a local mime troupe and finally in Washington D.C. we got to present directly in front of The Capitol as well as in front of the Jefferson Monument.
    Needless to say, it was a wonderful trip and Chad and I had the chance to grow right along side of the students.  We enjoyed getting to know each of the students on the trip and appreciated the opportunity to disciple each one of them.
    If anyone is interested in reading more about each stop and all that went on you can go to: http://aiminternational.org/trips/RoadReportEastCoast2011.pdf  It is a road report that is written by the students.  Also to view some pictures from the trip you can visit AIM's facebook page, just search AIM Around the World.