A group of  students from The Compass Church is currently serving in Utah alongside our partners Ritch and Laura. We will be posting reflections from the students during the course of their trip.

In the mornings this week, our team helped The Mission Church run a Kids Camp. Through our Spy Camp theme, we’ve been teaching the kids that God created everything. He wrote His law on our hearts, but we broke that law and are subject to punishment for doing so. Jesus took that punishment for us so that we can be forgiven and have a relationship with God. In the afternoons, we have been doing work projects, spending time at Temple Square, and going on hikes. Here are some reflections from some of our team members:

Yesterday, Wednesday, after our water day for kids we went out to a barn to help move things around and clean. Caleb, Josh, and I got to climb into a dumpster and smash and break things inside to make as much room as possible. Wood, boxes, coolers, metal, and so much more came into the dumpster. Early on in the smashing some street sign poles were tossed in and that became my weapon of choice. After all the work was we went back to the church for a little rest but later came back to the barn house for a cookout with the owners of the house and the Sandfords. It was fun just hanging out and being a big family. Today came for the kids camp and that is where I had the most exciting thing happen. All week one of my kids, Ethan, had been shy and kind of slumped over but today he was talking a lot and at the game today he was all over the place and had a great big smile on his face. I had to chase down kids for our game and when I caught one, he was laughing and having fun. I just pray that tomorrow being the last day will be the absolute best day for all of my kids that show up.

–Chris

Today, Thursday was an awesome day, kids camp was an amazing experience. My kids had so much fun all day and at the end of the day one gave me a hug since it was her last day. After the amazing experience at kids camp our team followed Ritch to go on a short hike to see a beautiful waterfall. When we got up to the waterfall there was a ledge that you could climb to get higher into the waterfall, having a fear of heights I wasn’t real eager to do it. After much convincing from Chris, Molly and Allea, I decided to take a chance and scale up the side to get on top for a good picture. After getting up and getting cool group pictures, came the fun of climbing down the side. When I eventually made it down it felt good to face my fear of heights in order to climb up the waterfall and see how beautiful it was. All of this was amazing but the best part of the day was surprising Scott’s car with a Moana flash mob to How Far I’ll Go. Overall today was an amazing, God-filled experience and I can’t wait to take on the last day of our trip

–Holly