Recently we had a fifth grade class from Westminster Christian Academy come serve with us for half a day.  We had nearly 20 kids and a few adults here ready to work.  That age group is so fun to work with.  They got here and they were excited about helping out.  So after a brief overview of HFO they split up into teams and started digging, hauling dirt, planting, and drilling.  That’s right we put them to work out in the hot sun.  We were building raised-bed vegetable gardens for five of our neighborhood families.  The Opelousas Lighthouse Mission had been selling seedlings that they had begun growing in their new greenhouse.  The greenhouse was built to aid in their organic garden project.  They were able to donate some leftover seedlings to us for our raised-beds.  The kids really knocked it all out in just a few hours.  By lunch time we had five newly planted gardens in our neighborhood.  These gardens will produce tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and watermelon for the families.  Many thanks to the fifth grade class at Westminster.  We enjoyed having you on the Hill.

I am writing to you today to tell you about my trip to Dallas. When we went to Dallas there were 17 kids and 5 adults. The boys were in one van and the girls were in another one. It was 6 hours before we made it to Dallas where everything is BIG!!

Mr. Loren told me that it was just going to be about 7 kids going. Come to find out when he came to pick me up they had almost all of them in there. When we made it to Dallas they said that we were just going to down town Dallas to walk around. When we went to Six Flags we asked “what are we doing here?”, he said that we are coming to PLAY!! First we ate lunch and then went to the park. When I got in I almost rode every ride. We got on a ride that was so fun that we rode it about 5 times. At the end of the first day we got on a ride that looked ok but it was not. It was the TEACUPS!! When DD, Ty, Kaylan, and I got off it we all were sick! After all of that was that was over Loren told us to get together to take a family picture.

That night we all went to the gym to play b-ball and take a shower. When we got to the church it was so big that it was about 2 blocks long. After that it was time to hit the hay. The next day Loren told us that we were going to a play were you get wet. We went to Six Flags waterpark. Over there I went on every ride. The wave pool was so much fun. The waves were about 8 feet tall. We were there for about 5 hours playing all day. Mr. Johnny, Matt, and Keanu were on the biggest ride there, the Sky Coaster. My favorite ride was the Black Hole. When we got back to the car we were ready to eat. We got back to church and went to the showers. After that we played Hide and Seek. The next morning we went to church with the people out there. Their church was the bomb. After church we went get all of the thing and came back home.

Some things I learned on the trip were no matter how far you go in life God can always turn you around. What I mean about that is that me and DD get into a fight and look we was together the whole trip. I also learned that no matter how mean you are to somebody you should always love that person. What I mean by that is no matter how I am to my sister are anybody I should love them because that is what the Lord would want me to do.

So that was
the trip to Dallas where
everything is BIG!!

I arrived here in Opelousas on May 15 and hit the ground running. My first week with HFO was the last week of school for the students. I was excited to make it in time to watch several of our students graduate from the 6th grade. The teachers did a great job putting together the ceremony. And one of our students Ariel emceed the event. She was name the Historian of the graduating class. Some of our other students were honored with various awards. Tavian and Trevon were recognized for the Social Studies project on Tyler Perry. Their project won first place in Parish and 3rd place in the district. Loren was even recognized for volunteering with the class trip to New Orleans. It was exciting to see the support the school has for HFO and visa versa. The relationships that are beginning to be built between the schools and HFO will only continue to grow each year as God continues to build up the community on The Hill.

Later that day we had our end of the year pool party. All of our kids and a few of our volunteers gathered at one of our volunteer’s house to swim and grill out. We had a blast swimming, eating, and enjoying each others’ company. At the end of the evening we awarded the kids with awards which we thought they were deserving of based on the year of tutoring. They were humorous awards and the kids had fun trying to guess who was going to receive each award. We had everything from the “Miss Boss” award, which of course went to the one and only Tyriana Joseph to the most “Most Dramatic Receiver” which went to Isaiah Charles. Thanks to Ms. Cecette Bassett for opening her pool to us and providing some amazing food as usual.

-Kristina

My name is Kristina Anderson and beginning in May I will be the newest member of the Hope For Opelousas team. My relationship with HFO started about a year ago when I embarked on mission trip with a group of students from Bryan College, the school that I currently work for. I agreed to advise the trip with little expectations and even less enthusiasm. Although, I would like to think that this attitude is not characteristic of my personality, my selfishness was definitely getting the better of me in that time in my life. Within the first couple of days there God just got hold of my attitude and began to show me the things that He wanted to accomplish in that week that we were in Opelousas. There was a great amount of work being done in the city that week, but there was even more work was being done in my heart. God was stirring up a passion in me for the city of Opelousas as well as breaking down the plans that I I had for my future.

I was born in Sioux City, IA and spent the first 18 years of my life there. I grew up in a loving and supportive home, with athletics and academics taking up most of my childhood. There was not a season of the year that both my sister and I were not in sport all the way through high school. I went to college in Northwestern College in northwest IA, not too far from home. After I finished my BA in Psychology at Northwestern I moved to Pennsylvania to pursue a MA in High Education from Geneva College. I spent two years there finishing my degree and working with a college adventure and ropes course ministry. The transition from graduate school to my first full time position was one with a lot of questions on my part and my family’s. I was offered a Resident Director position at Bryan College in Dayton, TN. I had no desire or intention of moving south. I knew I wanted to move back to the Midwest near my family, but God had a different plan for me. After much prayer and wrestling with God I decided to take this leap of faith and be open to how He wanted to use me and also what He wanted to teach me. I have served at Bryan for three years and have had the wonderful opportunity to live life with the college students and engage in a very relational ministry with them. It is a blessing on my life to have the opportunity to mentor and encourage many women in this highly developmental time in their lives.

As I have shared already, working at Bryan gave me the opportunity to advise a mission trip to Opelousas and thus begins a relationship that can only be explained by God’s hand. I was able to spend my summer interning with HFO and in that time my excitement grew for how God was moving through in Opelousas. It was clear from day one that Loren’s and my gifts and working styles complemented each other. For me it was a very natural and encouraging work environment. God’s time is perfect! I knew this summer that I was probably going to be moving on from Bryan after the coming school year and HFO was growing to the point that a second staff person would be beneficial. So this summer we began to dream. I stayed in contact with Loren and Reggie and made a couple trips back to help out over the course of the fall semester. Through a lot of prayer and planning on all of our parts, the board approved the hiring of a second staff member. And during my visit in December, over breakfast, Reggie and Loren offered for me to come on staff with HFO. I was ecstatic! I am moving to Opelousas, I will be working with kids that absolutely blow me away constantly and with people that love the Lord and challenge me in my faith and to live out the Gospel in the midst of uncomfortable circumstances. I know that this is not a move that I would chose for myself, but I find great peace in God’s calling on me to Opelousas, LA. God said jump, so hear I go. Stay tuned!

Kristina Anderson

One of my most enjoyable experiences during this trip was playing basketball, talking, and tutoring with the children from the neighborhood. I worked with one young boy who needed to study for a history exam. He automatically became open to my help as he worked diligently on his homework. All of the children appeared to accept our team with arms wide open.

Their smiles, hugs, and excited attitudes confirmed why the Lord called me to Opelousas. As I watched the children interact with each other, I realized that the Lord desires us to love everyone, but especially children whose hearts are open to His love and truth. My life will never be the same as I consider what the gospel represents to my life and to those around me.

Melissa Longoria
Mission’s Team from Bryan College: Spring Break 2010