Restore Church - Portsmouth, VA

Our youth group at Unity church in Greenville, NC spent a week in Portsmouth, VA for our annual youth missions trip. We focused on ministering to the lives of those we crossed while we were there, as well as a focus on outreach for Restore Church. We canvassed the areas to pass out fliers for Restore and invitations to our one day "mini Vacation Bible School" that would be held at the home of one of the church members at Restore.

Our hopes and expectations were high as we set up the tents and prepared to conduct our lessons and children songs for the many kids that would attend our day of fun and Jesus. We were disappointed. Nobody came. We only conducted our day of VBS for the four children that attended Restore and lived at the home where we had vigorously prepared to minister to students.

However, the Lord did something in our hearts that day. The Lord showed us ministry. Ministry is not easy and it's not always as rewarding as we expect it to be. We often look at the "big" christians - like David Platt or Chris Tomlin - and expect to have big crowds come and adhere to the Christianity that we teach. We focus on the disappointment of not having a crowd and we lose sight in what really matters. It's not about who shows up and who doesn't, it's about spreading the gospel and doing the work of the Lord.

We didn't have a big crowd attend our VBS, but we did have 10 new families attend Restore Church the Sunday we were there, thanks to the long hours of sweating and walking around neighborhoods to canvas. We also ministered to the people of Portsmouth, VA and showed the love of Jesus Christ. If even only one life was changed, that's one more than before we came.

This is a photo of two of our youth ministering to the young children at the playground and letting Jesus show in their hearts.