Two weeks after we arrived home, I am finally sitting down to sum up the last few days of our Bathurst mission trip.
It’s hard to describe the progress that we made over the course of the week in terms of what we did because the days sound the same on paper – wake up early, pray as a team, eat breakfast and head to the church, run VBS and connect with the kids. True, each day of VBS followed the same pattern, but what happened within each day truly built on the day before, and the whole team was inspired with the progress we saw over the course of a week. 
Most of the kids who started the week by testing limits and challenging our leadership finished the week proudly participating in the different stations and singing the songs we learned together. Some kids brought friends over the course of the week, so we finished with more campers than we started! One huge highlight for me was on the very last day of camp with a boy who came for the first time that day, and when the day was over he said, “This was so much fun, I wish I came all week! Are you coming back next year?”
Other highlights from the end of the week include one little girl who spent the first four days constantly wandering away from her group and clinging to various leaders finally being able to take a big step of maturity and stay with her group on Friday. Personally, I connected strongly with a rambunctious little boy who loved looking after Torre, keeping him entertained with antics and stuffed animals. This is a boy it would have been easy to label as “bad” or “disruptive,” but instead he flourished by getting some responsibility and having his energies channelled to do something positive instead of just being punished for not sitting still and paying attention.
When the final finale had been sung, we celebrated the end of VBS with a lunch that St. Lukes provided to all the families who had participated in daycamp. It was great to meet parents and siblings, hear highlights and just enjoy time together. 
There were other highlights and activities in the second half of the week – we got to enjoy another bonfire at the beach, and we spent our last night in Bathurst at Papineau Falls – a beautiful place to explore and reflect on the beauty and power of God’s creation.
What struck me most this year on the mission trip was that the greatest thing our team had to offer was God’s love and hope. And that is something we have to offer our own community as well as Bathurst. If you are reading this because you supported our trip financially or through your prayers, thank you SO much for the opportunity to go and to share what we learned. And I am already looking forward to next year 🙂