Day 5 Trinity UMC youth mission trip

This is our last day at Midwest Mission Distribution Center. Our mission work this week involved unloading, sorting, packaging, and boxing supplies. The mission of the center is to compassionately help God’s people in need locally, nationally, and around the world and to offer a center to fulfill the call for service to our neighbors in Christ’s name.

First thing this morning we went into the workroom to pack Personal Dignity Kits. These go locally to community based programs that feed, clothe, and provide shelter to the needy among us. Included in a plastic zip bag are a towel and washcloth, toothbrush and toothpaste, razor, comb, nail clipper, soap, shampoo, and deodorant.

Besides working on PDKs, some of our team removed packaging from items for school kits and counted them into inventory.

Supplies had to be brought in from the warehouse and boxes refilled for those rolling PDK supplies inside the towel.

Between 26 and 30 PDKs were boxed, weighed, and labeled for storage.

The last part of our day was spent in the team’s favorite activity--disassembling flood cleaning buckets.

 Before our week was done, we cleaned the workroom.

Two boxes of PDKs are going to Charles City for Jordan River community kitchen and food pantry, and two boxes are going to First United Methodist Church’s community meal program in Iowa Falls. We “prayed out” the boxes with volunteer coordinators Jennie and Stan Lowrey.

If you have enjoyed following our mission trip this week and would like more information about how you can help Midwest Mission Distribution Center with your gifts (donations) or financially or how you can volunteer your time and talents and service, contact Susan Jacob at adkviolet@gmail.com.

Day 4 Trinity UMC youth mission trip

Thursday at MMDC: We started the morning at 8:30 by continuing to sort school supplies. Grace was the official spiral notebook counter. By the end of the day we had boxed up 4,279 notebooks!

Then they were ready for us to unload the truck from the Ohio East Annual Conference. It was a full semi load of health kits, school bags, flood cleaning buckets, bedding kits, and more.

We set up an assembly line--sort of a relay unloading team, passing boxes from the front of the truck, to the middle, to the warehouse. When items reached the warehouse, they were stacked on pallets.

Toward the end when the flood buckets were all that were left in the truck, we were able to slide them down the length of the truck to save our backs in lifting and carrying.

Caden and Alex yelled, “It’s empty!”

Palletized flood cleaning buckets are moved into storage by Outside Volunteer Coordinator Mike Vaughn from Texas. He and Inside Volunteer Coordinator Karen Vaughn are headed home this week.

After the truck was unloaded, Pastor Jim got to work with wood for the school desks. Caden and Josh also assembled desks in the morning.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team went back to sorting school supplies in the third warehouse. Unfortunately, many of the items do not meet UMCOR specifications so they are redirected. For example, those non-fabric woven tote bags are NOT ACCEPTABLE for use as school bags; they won’t stand up to washing and they will melt in tropical heat. And more is NOT better--if it says 50 ounces of laundry detergent, we cannot ship a larger bottle because 1) it won’t fit in the 5 gallon flood bucket if it is too big, and 2) it will be too heavy and we pay by the pound for shipping.

At 2:00 the kids, Heather, and Pastor Jim headed to Knights Action Park for swimming. Grandma Grace and Susan went into the workroom for “sit down” jobs. Grandma Grace opened packages of ink pens and bundled 3 pens for school kits.

Susan did quality control work on hospital gowns, sizing them and putting tags in the girls’ dresses and shorts with a place for the child’s name to be written.

This is the front entrance of the workroom (with the sign to the left along the road).

This is the kit assembly area in the workroom. School kits, health kits, and personal dignity kits are assembled and boxed here. This is where hospital gowns are cut out, as well.

Here is the current loading dock around the corner from the workroom in the first warehouse.

Climate controlled storage is in the first warehouse. (On the floor are anti-fatigue mats from the workroom that were washed today and laid out to dry overnight.)

This is the flood cleaning bucket assembly area in the first warehouse. Twenty-two items go into the buckets.

Here is the outside of the second warehouse.

Here is the inside of the second warehouse. The desk shop is in the back corner.

Caden takes a ride on a dolly through the second warehouse. 

The second warehouse has a wood shop for cutting and planing lumber (and old school bleachers) to make school desks. Outside the wood shop is some of the equipment for building desks.

This is a diagram of the new loading dock to be built at the end of the third warehouse.

Susan is headed to the dorm after the work day.

Here is the dorm. Word has it that they may build a second dorm because this one is booked pretty solid by teams who are here volunteering and they could use more dorm rooms.

 The campgrounds is near the dorm so that volunteers who bring their campers can stay on campus.

There is a picnic shelter between the dorm and the camping area.

The youth spent the afternoon at a Knights Action Park, playing mini-golf and having a great time.

Tomorrow is our last work day. We will leave here at 7:30 Saturday morning in order to be home around 2:00 p.m.