Serving While Traveling by Carson
Howdy. Today I'm going to tell you a little bit about how we tried to focus our 3-week road trip less on ourselves and more on others. We took this trip to do multiple things, varying from chilling by the lake, going to a big family reunion, helping set up and attend a graduation, and visiting our sick great-grandparents. It was basically a four-part trip, and luckily we were able to fit a lot of mission work into each part.
First, we visited Lakeside, Ohio, which is basically a gated town by Lake Erie. For this part of the trip, we unplugged and we weren't on electronics the whole time. We tried to make it to daily mass every day it was available, and Cameron and I were even able to altar serve for daily mass. We invited people to do praise and worship with us by the lake, which was very nice. Also, we went and helped at a non-profit restaurant that feeds people who can't pay for themselves.
Then, we went to Columbus, Ohio, where we stayed at our cousins' house and went to a family reunion. After that, we visited the cemetery to pray for our deceased relatives. Then, we were able to surprise our sick aunt who is in a nursing home, which I think made her day. We prayed with her and asked God to help her.
After that, we drove far to the east to Columbia, Maryland, where we helped set up for our friend's graduation recital. We were able to take some burden off the Coates family's shoulders by helping set up, I think. It was also arranged for us to help at a food drive at their church, which was nice.
Next, our time in Maryland was cut short when we heard our great-grandparents weren't doing so good. They had just gotten out of the hospital, so we traveled to North Carolina to visit them. We surprised them, of course, and really made them happy. We were able to make and clean their meals for them, even if it was only for a few days.
Finally, the biggest way we tried to serve was in our own family. It's simple, but it was probably the most important way we could've served. We definitely didn't do perfect, but being a good loving family is definitely a really good way to witness to others Christ's love. We each changed off mornings having one on one time with mom to talk to her about whatever, and all of us were able to spend a heck of a lot of time with each other on this trip (hanging on the porch, shuffleboard, mini-golf, tennis, time in the car, annoying Tyler, etc.)
Well, that's how we tried to serve on our vacation. If you feel like trying to serve some on your vacations, I would suggest looking into food drives or other places to serve by where you're visiting. These are pretty easy to start, then you can go off of that if you want. A good practice is to pray for anybody you are able to serve, because even if they don't know you are praying for them, it will still help them. If you feel called to it, you can even pray with people you're helping right there on the spot. Well, thanks for reading this post, that's all I have to say for now!
