This past week I went to a tiny town in the utmost southern part of IL call Cairo (Sounded out Care-O). I was there on a mission trip for a week, with my whole group. It all started with us packing our bags and filing into a 15 passenger van for about 7ish hours.

Cairo is a very rich in history but also very abandoned, the town boarders MO and KY, which is separated by the Ohio and Mississippi River. It is such a unique location I think. If it were to have thrived a little more, it could have been a great place. But it turns out to be an area that is plagued by poverty and hopelessness. Of the population as a whole, 33.5% lives below the poverty line. Many people would call this town "ghetto" I would not, I would call it "hopeless"

"Cairo is a sad place. It really feels abandoned. The population is roughly 3000 which on face value seems like a healthy number, but the city was built to sustain a population five times larger. The buildings are still there, large stone banks, churches, and government buildings; grand in design, but with their promise unfulfilled. They look sad standing their abandoned." –St. Louis Community College.  

Overall I rate this mission two thumbs up, it was a great bonding experience for our group, we had many discussions that we had been avoiding earlier on. Get gained some unity as a group which is super important. We learned each others dreams and ambitions. We fought off a lot of spiritual warfare especially because the town was oppressed by forlornness. We also come up with some ideas of how we can improve our lives together based on how Two Rivers runs. God sure did move in so many ways this past week!