We're back!
Our final day in Detroit was filled with laughter and tears, joy and sadness. We are tired, and yet also feel revived. We woke up this morning, packed up our stuff and cleaned up the areas of the church we were using. I was happy that Keith McBain, our property elder had spent the night with us, so he could get the cleaning supplies ready for us. at was definitely good scheduling! After a brief stop at Starbucks for coffee (just for the adults) we were headed downtown to have breakfast served at Fort Street.
After breakfast, we set up for a special closing worship service. The service was lead by the Youth from the Presbytery of Detroit (POD), the church from Indiana and us. We praised God, sang, read scripture and listened to a message by one of the youth from Calvary Church. The kids from Geneva acted out the story of the Good Samaritan. It was a wonderful way to end our week together - worshipping and praising the Lord that opened our eyes this week and gave us this wonderful opportunity to serve Him through the people of Detroit.
After many group pictures and good byes we walked over to my favorite downtown Detroit restaurant, Lafayette Coney Island and ate lunch. It was a beautiful day to walk the streets of Detroit once again. On the way back we saw a few people in need, not too far from Fort Street. We were able to hand out our last two sack lunches! What a joy that was.
We spent a few hours after lunch at the Detroit Science Center. We were very happy to be able to see our friend, Rick Russell, who helps a lot with Geneva Middle School Ministry and also works at the Science Center. We had lots of fun together laughing at Marilyn's hair sticking up with electricity (though it was NOT much fun when she shocked me!!)
When we came back to Geneva we gathered together, read from scripture the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and we had a foot washing/prayer ceremony. This ceremony is very emotional for many of us. We have time to reflect about the love of Jesus Christ, the joy of being a servant and what it means to serve Jesus through serving others. This was a great way to end our week together.
I had a fantastic week. Watching the youth and adults working together, seeing the joy on everyone's face, being open to wherever God was leading them this week renewed my heart. Our kids, and the youth from Indiana and the POD brought a little bit of hope to Detroit this week. More importantly, Detroit brought hope to them. In this desolate, violent, poor, blighted city, we saw joy, and laughter, and love and giving spirits.
Our youth once again blew me away with their spirit and willingness to help (except some of the 'not-so-morning people had a little harder time....) They never backed away from a challenge. They never complained about the hard work, they never complained about who they were working alongside. They did everything with joy and compassion. It was such a pleasure to see the attitudes of these young people. They pushed themselves way past their comfort zones and did more than they possibly thought they could. Speaking and praying with strangers, 'farming' for hours on end in the hot sun, leading worship, and seeing God in EVERYONE they met.
I'm very happy we chose to do our mission trip to Detroit this year. I am especially excited because we've made connections and friends with people we can see and serve and be with again, not just for a week every few summers. We can see what impact we have made in the community garden when we go back to harvest it. We can catch up with the friends we met eating at the soup kitchen, and we can work alongside and fellowship with our new friends from the churches in Detroit. We can serve this city again and again and again.
We thought we we would find sadness and down-filled spirits. We thought we'd see a city falling apart, losing hope and with no future. Instead, we met people who were proud of their city, who were working to help make it a better place through shelters, community gardens, youth programs, domestic violence programs, educational programs and hunger programs. We understand that with enough hope, with the help of God, with the commitment of God's people working together, the city of Detroit can have a future. It's going to take some time, and I hope we can continue to be a part of Detroit's future.
Thanks for praying for us and blessing us with your support for this trip. We hope that next time you can join us!
Once again, good night.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Detroit Day Four
It was another amazing day in "The D." Our kids had so many different experiences today showing God's love and being the hands and feet of Jesus. (Their words during our reflection/devotional time.)
As you remember, on Tuesday, we participated in the sandwich ministry through Riverside Church out of ETS. This morning, after ate our breakfasts and made lunch for the day, we used all the leftover bread, tortillas and bagels to make sandwiches and we packed lunch bags with sandwiches, chips, peanuts, cookies, fruit and any other food we had leftover. We ended up making about 28 more small sack lunches. We divided them up into cars so we could hand them out to hungry people that we met today. Even before we got to Fort Street this morning we got to hand a sack lunch to someone. They were very grateful. The kids were super excited that someone actually accepted their offering of food.
After our morning meeting at Fort Street we all went back to Gratiot Avenue Church. There we were given our assignments for the day. Don and Debbie and their team stayed at Gratiot Ave. Church and helped spruce the place up. They cleaned pews, did lots of yard work, helped clear out ancient hymnals and made the place look great. They were surprised that the church members that they met were so proud of their little church. This group worked hard helping to make the church shine. Once their work was finished at the church, they went to one of the members' homes and helped spruce that place up as well.
My group went to go work in another one of the Detroit Rescue Mission sites. This one was a facility for men on Woodward in HIghland Park. Drew and Breana, along with two Calvary Church youth helped to serve lunch to over 75 people. Travis, along with another Calvary youth work in the back of the kitchen preparing potatoes for dinner. Billy and Josh stayed out front greeting the people, helping to clear their dishes, offering more water and just fellowshipping with them. One of the staffers, James, who assigned the jobs, told me they would love to have us back at any of the DRM sites. He said this particular site serves 10,000 meals a year (breakfast lunch and dinner every day.) I think all the kids understood the reward of serving those less fortunate. I can't wait to go back.
After our lunch service, my group headed over to an organization called The Hub of Detroit on Cass Avenue. This is a place that restores bikes and either sells them or gives them away. Even with little or no experience with fixing bikes, we definitely got our hands very dirty and actually fixed a few donated bikes.
To and from all of our ministry sites today we saw people in need. We were so happy that we had made all those extra lunches that we could hand out. I know in my car the kids would yell out, "Stop, there's someone who could use a lunch!" and I'd pull over so they could run out and say hello and offer a sandwich and sometimes a prayer. We met many many kind individuals today that we are praying for tonight.
Around 3:30, our group met back up at Fort Street, where we were going to eat dinner. Since we had some time, we walked past Cobo Hall to Hart Plaza, then all the way down the riverwalk to the carousel at the end. We had a few sack lunches left and tried hard to hand them out. We met some very interesting people as we were handing out our lunches. You might just hear about them Sunday, if not, you'll have to ask some of the kids (especially Jessica, she has a great story!) Also along the way we stopped and played in the fountains behind the Renaissance Center. At first the kids said they didn't want to get wet, but they were hot and the water looked so inviting..... next thing I knew.... Madeline was soaked (and proud of it!) It really cooled them off and they had fun playing.
Dinner at Fort Street was a little different than we've been experiencing this week. This week in Detroit there is an event going on called the US Social Forum. A Youth group from Minnesota joined us for dinner as well as a group from the Presbyterian Hunger program that has been on a journey called Heaven on Earth. They have been on a road trip that has encompassed 8 states, starting in Louisville and ending at the US Social Forum here in Detroit. So we had lots of extra people at dinner, plus, we ate dinner where they serve people at the Open Door Ministries, so that was cool.
After dinner, we had worship lead by some youth from Fort Street Church. I was sitting at the table with them at dinner and discovered one of the youth was from Plymouth and goes to Salem High School! We've been having lots of experiences like that this week. We keep running into people we know, or who have one or two degrees of separation. We are finding that we really are all connected, no mater where we are. After worship we heard form the Louisville group who spoke to us about their road trip, and their passion for using local food whenever possible and food justice projects. It was very interesting and we were invited to think about where our food comes from and who might be involved in that process.
The rest of the evening was showers, and longer sharing and reflecting during our devotional time since we are finished with the service portion of our week. We also prepared for our part of the worship service tomorrow morning at Fort Street and by the time that ended it was just about time for lights out!
Tomorrow we all meet at Fort Street for breakfast and then we will have a worship and closing service together. Our plan is to eat lunch downtown and go to the Detroit Science Center before we come back to Geneva for our own wrap up and closing ceremony.
I'll write one last blog tomorrow night (hopefully not at midnight, like it is now.) Until then, good night.
As you remember, on Tuesday, we participated in the sandwich ministry through Riverside Church out of ETS. This morning, after ate our breakfasts and made lunch for the day, we used all the leftover bread, tortillas and bagels to make sandwiches and we packed lunch bags with sandwiches, chips, peanuts, cookies, fruit and any other food we had leftover. We ended up making about 28 more small sack lunches. We divided them up into cars so we could hand them out to hungry people that we met today. Even before we got to Fort Street this morning we got to hand a sack lunch to someone. They were very grateful. The kids were super excited that someone actually accepted their offering of food.
After our morning meeting at Fort Street we all went back to Gratiot Avenue Church. There we were given our assignments for the day. Don and Debbie and their team stayed at Gratiot Ave. Church and helped spruce the place up. They cleaned pews, did lots of yard work, helped clear out ancient hymnals and made the place look great. They were surprised that the church members that they met were so proud of their little church. This group worked hard helping to make the church shine. Once their work was finished at the church, they went to one of the members' homes and helped spruce that place up as well.
My group went to go work in another one of the Detroit Rescue Mission sites. This one was a facility for men on Woodward in HIghland Park. Drew and Breana, along with two Calvary Church youth helped to serve lunch to over 75 people. Travis, along with another Calvary youth work in the back of the kitchen preparing potatoes for dinner. Billy and Josh stayed out front greeting the people, helping to clear their dishes, offering more water and just fellowshipping with them. One of the staffers, James, who assigned the jobs, told me they would love to have us back at any of the DRM sites. He said this particular site serves 10,000 meals a year (breakfast lunch and dinner every day.) I think all the kids understood the reward of serving those less fortunate. I can't wait to go back.
After our lunch service, my group headed over to an organization called The Hub of Detroit on Cass Avenue. This is a place that restores bikes and either sells them or gives them away. Even with little or no experience with fixing bikes, we definitely got our hands very dirty and actually fixed a few donated bikes.
To and from all of our ministry sites today we saw people in need. We were so happy that we had made all those extra lunches that we could hand out. I know in my car the kids would yell out, "Stop, there's someone who could use a lunch!" and I'd pull over so they could run out and say hello and offer a sandwich and sometimes a prayer. We met many many kind individuals today that we are praying for tonight.
Around 3:30, our group met back up at Fort Street, where we were going to eat dinner. Since we had some time, we walked past Cobo Hall to Hart Plaza, then all the way down the riverwalk to the carousel at the end. We had a few sack lunches left and tried hard to hand them out. We met some very interesting people as we were handing out our lunches. You might just hear about them Sunday, if not, you'll have to ask some of the kids (especially Jessica, she has a great story!) Also along the way we stopped and played in the fountains behind the Renaissance Center. At first the kids said they didn't want to get wet, but they were hot and the water looked so inviting..... next thing I knew.... Madeline was soaked (and proud of it!) It really cooled them off and they had fun playing.
Dinner at Fort Street was a little different than we've been experiencing this week. This week in Detroit there is an event going on called the US Social Forum. A Youth group from Minnesota joined us for dinner as well as a group from the Presbyterian Hunger program that has been on a journey called Heaven on Earth. They have been on a road trip that has encompassed 8 states, starting in Louisville and ending at the US Social Forum here in Detroit. So we had lots of extra people at dinner, plus, we ate dinner where they serve people at the Open Door Ministries, so that was cool.
After dinner, we had worship lead by some youth from Fort Street Church. I was sitting at the table with them at dinner and discovered one of the youth was from Plymouth and goes to Salem High School! We've been having lots of experiences like that this week. We keep running into people we know, or who have one or two degrees of separation. We are finding that we really are all connected, no mater where we are. After worship we heard form the Louisville group who spoke to us about their road trip, and their passion for using local food whenever possible and food justice projects. It was very interesting and we were invited to think about where our food comes from and who might be involved in that process.
The rest of the evening was showers, and longer sharing and reflecting during our devotional time since we are finished with the service portion of our week. We also prepared for our part of the worship service tomorrow morning at Fort Street and by the time that ended it was just about time for lights out!
Tomorrow we all meet at Fort Street for breakfast and then we will have a worship and closing service together. Our plan is to eat lunch downtown and go to the Detroit Science Center before we come back to Geneva for our own wrap up and closing ceremony.
I'll write one last blog tomorrow night (hopefully not at midnight, like it is now.) Until then, good night.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Detroit Day Three
OK, now I'm beginning to wonder why I promised to blog every night! It's almost 11:30 again, and we just had lights out. I'd love to sleep, but I really do want to tell you about our day today.
These kids are amazing. We worked really hard today. Instead of working with our "car" teams, we were asked to stay with our churches again today. We were sent over to work with an organization called the Greening of Detroit. We helped clear debris and rocks from several plots on Mt. Olivet Street near Van Dyke and McNichols. The kids found some very interesting things, rusted cans, old tennis balls, random pieces of metal, and even a rusted old bicycle frame. They worked really hard until lunch. After lunch, we created rows with stakes and string, hoed out trenches for planting seeds, planted seeds and watered. It was amazing to see this lot transformed from full of junk in the morning to planted and ready to begin growing by 3:00. The plots are owned and used by a very interesting woman named Edith Floyd. You'll hear more about her on Sunday when we share our mission trip experience.
It was humid and hot. The sky was threatening a storm right before lunch. At noon, I said it was lunch time and almost as soon as we gathered for lunch on the porch of Ms. Floyd, it started raining. Not too hard, and it stopped before we were ready to go back to work. Great timing... God is Good (All the time) (Something else you'll hear about Sunday.)
I was once again so impressed with the work ethic of the kids that joined me on this trip. They were hot, sweaty , and tired, but they kept pressing on. They were as anxious to see this lot transformed as much as I was. The time for watering the seeds came just at the right moment, we were almost as hot as we thought we could stand, but a few sprays of the cool refreshing hose revived us.
After we finished on M.t Olivet Street we headed over to Belle Isle for a bit (oh, after we stopped for ice cream of course....) We had a beautiful view of the Detroit skyline and the kids joined the kids from Calvary Church at the playscape for a while until we had to go to dinner.
Dinner was at the Second MIle Center. Driving there from Belle Isle was an eye opening experience. We took Jefferson Avenue northeast, through Detroit, then through Gross Pointe, then back to Detroit. The kids were amazed that there was such a drastic and noticeable difference when you left Detroit and came into Gross Pointe.
After dinner some youth from the second mile center performed a liturgical dance for us. It was very moving. Apparantly they perform this song a lot, at many different places. You cold see their love for Jesus as they performed. Then it was our turn to lead worship. We sang Awesome God (even with the verses, not just the lyrics.) Performed an interpretation of a scripture passage (which is going to be our children's time on Sunday!), read a readers' theater version of the Lord's Prayer, prayed and ended with the song Lord of the Dance. I think they kids did a wonderful job leading worship; praising our wonderful God.
We hurried up during our shower time at the Summit tonight as we heard of tornado and storm watches and warnings. Just to be on the safe side, we had our devotional time in the hallway of the lighthouse area. Diana Noble dropped off ice cream treats earlier for us, and we ended our day with those yummy treats (thanks Diana!)
Speaking of our devotional time... we end each evening reading a scripture passage and asking ourselves some relevant questions. Then we reflect on our day; talk about our experiences, share what we learned or discovered, speak about where we saw God, comment about what we might be concerned about and write down what we will be praying for. Listening to what these kids say they've learned, how they've grown, what they've experienced has been such a joy. They are so full of the spirit. They are so insightful. They are so full of joy and wonder and amazement and hope and willingness to serve and share the love of Jesus Christ that they've received. It's been such a blessing every night for me and listening them share has made all this worthwhile.
We are continually blessed by your prayers for us. Thanks praying for us and for reading this and sharing your comments. I'd like to ask that you also pray for the people of Detroit who have been touching our lives. That we may also have the hope we're seeing in them.
Good night.
Nancy
These kids are amazing. We worked really hard today. Instead of working with our "car" teams, we were asked to stay with our churches again today. We were sent over to work with an organization called the Greening of Detroit. We helped clear debris and rocks from several plots on Mt. Olivet Street near Van Dyke and McNichols. The kids found some very interesting things, rusted cans, old tennis balls, random pieces of metal, and even a rusted old bicycle frame. They worked really hard until lunch. After lunch, we created rows with stakes and string, hoed out trenches for planting seeds, planted seeds and watered. It was amazing to see this lot transformed from full of junk in the morning to planted and ready to begin growing by 3:00. The plots are owned and used by a very interesting woman named Edith Floyd. You'll hear more about her on Sunday when we share our mission trip experience.
It was humid and hot. The sky was threatening a storm right before lunch. At noon, I said it was lunch time and almost as soon as we gathered for lunch on the porch of Ms. Floyd, it started raining. Not too hard, and it stopped before we were ready to go back to work. Great timing... God is Good (All the time) (Something else you'll hear about Sunday.)
I was once again so impressed with the work ethic of the kids that joined me on this trip. They were hot, sweaty , and tired, but they kept pressing on. They were as anxious to see this lot transformed as much as I was. The time for watering the seeds came just at the right moment, we were almost as hot as we thought we could stand, but a few sprays of the cool refreshing hose revived us.
After we finished on M.t Olivet Street we headed over to Belle Isle for a bit (oh, after we stopped for ice cream of course....) We had a beautiful view of the Detroit skyline and the kids joined the kids from Calvary Church at the playscape for a while until we had to go to dinner.
Dinner was at the Second MIle Center. Driving there from Belle Isle was an eye opening experience. We took Jefferson Avenue northeast, through Detroit, then through Gross Pointe, then back to Detroit. The kids were amazed that there was such a drastic and noticeable difference when you left Detroit and came into Gross Pointe.
After dinner some youth from the second mile center performed a liturgical dance for us. It was very moving. Apparantly they perform this song a lot, at many different places. You cold see their love for Jesus as they performed. Then it was our turn to lead worship. We sang Awesome God (even with the verses, not just the lyrics.) Performed an interpretation of a scripture passage (which is going to be our children's time on Sunday!), read a readers' theater version of the Lord's Prayer, prayed and ended with the song Lord of the Dance. I think they kids did a wonderful job leading worship; praising our wonderful God.
We hurried up during our shower time at the Summit tonight as we heard of tornado and storm watches and warnings. Just to be on the safe side, we had our devotional time in the hallway of the lighthouse area. Diana Noble dropped off ice cream treats earlier for us, and we ended our day with those yummy treats (thanks Diana!)
Speaking of our devotional time... we end each evening reading a scripture passage and asking ourselves some relevant questions. Then we reflect on our day; talk about our experiences, share what we learned or discovered, speak about where we saw God, comment about what we might be concerned about and write down what we will be praying for. Listening to what these kids say they've learned, how they've grown, what they've experienced has been such a joy. They are so full of the spirit. They are so insightful. They are so full of joy and wonder and amazement and hope and willingness to serve and share the love of Jesus Christ that they've received. It's been such a blessing every night for me and listening them share has made all this worthwhile.
We are continually blessed by your prayers for us. Thanks praying for us and for reading this and sharing your comments. I'd like to ask that you also pray for the people of Detroit who have been touching our lives. That we may also have the hope we're seeing in them.
Good night.
Nancy
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Detroit Day Two
OK, it's 11:30 when I finally have some free time to write this. We just had lights out. I'm going to make this short today since it's so late.... We had a busy, fun, challenging, god-filled, awesome, amazing Detroit day. I could jus stop there but I'm sure you want some details.
This morning we met at Fort Street Presbyterian Church. We were welcomed by the pastor, Rev. Sharon Mook. She told us a little bit about the history of Fort Street and and the church today and it's missions. We then all left to go to Gratiot Avenue Church> We learned about it's history and we had a little bit of time to clean up debris and trash on the property and start digging for a flower garden before we needed to leave.
From Gratiot Avenue, Our group from Geneva and the youth from the Presbytery of Detroit went to the First Congregational Church where they have an Underground Railroad living museum. At this museum experience we were taken on a journey to freedom from slavery. It was very eye opening to all of us.
We travelled back to ETS (where we started our scavenger hunt yesterday) and ate lunch, then we got a tour of that building. I told the kids from Geneva that we've had at least 3 people I know from our church attend the seminary there, and we have someone (Meg!) starting there in the fall. ETS houses a new church development called Riverside church that has a sandwich ministry. Here's where our challenge came. We were asked to bring sack lunch out in to the streets, introduce ourselves to people and offer them a lunch! Complete strangers! We left in small groups of three or four. It was an amazing experience. Once of our youth commented that it was way out of her comfort zone to go up to strangers like that, but it was extremely rewarding. We also asked people if we could pray for them, and asked if there was anything specific we could pray about. That, too was amazing. Several of the people we met actually asked if they could pray for us! ONce again I was so impressed that our youth walked right up to people, introduced themselves and offered food and prayer. They explained to people that they wanted to share the love of Jesus Christ with them, and they sure did!
We had some time before dinner after we finished passing out all the sandwiches, so I tool our group to Heidelberg Street near Mt. Elliot. That's where there is an outdoor art exhibit by artist Tyree GUyton. It's very difficut to explain what this is.... here's a link, but I also encourage you to ask the youth when you see them what they thought.
Dinner was at Calvary Presbyterian Church which was special to us in two ways: It is the church where Billy's dad attended when he was growing up (It was known as Montieth then) and it is also the church where Beth Delaney did her internship. Beth even came and joined us for dinner!
After dinner worship was led by the group from Indiana. We were asked to lead worship tomorrow night. After our showers, and a stop at Carvel Ice Cream for some extremely yummy treats we came back to church. We had a short devotional and then began preparing for our worship service tomorrow. Whew! We went so late rehearsing they had no free time tonight. I didn't hear too many complaints though.....
Good night all. Keep us in your prayers.
This morning we met at Fort Street Presbyterian Church. We were welcomed by the pastor, Rev. Sharon Mook. She told us a little bit about the history of Fort Street and and the church today and it's missions. We then all left to go to Gratiot Avenue Church> We learned about it's history and we had a little bit of time to clean up debris and trash on the property and start digging for a flower garden before we needed to leave.
From Gratiot Avenue, Our group from Geneva and the youth from the Presbytery of Detroit went to the First Congregational Church where they have an Underground Railroad living museum. At this museum experience we were taken on a journey to freedom from slavery. It was very eye opening to all of us.
We travelled back to ETS (where we started our scavenger hunt yesterday) and ate lunch, then we got a tour of that building. I told the kids from Geneva that we've had at least 3 people I know from our church attend the seminary there, and we have someone (Meg!) starting there in the fall. ETS houses a new church development called Riverside church that has a sandwich ministry. Here's where our challenge came. We were asked to bring sack lunch out in to the streets, introduce ourselves to people and offer them a lunch! Complete strangers! We left in small groups of three or four. It was an amazing experience. Once of our youth commented that it was way out of her comfort zone to go up to strangers like that, but it was extremely rewarding. We also asked people if we could pray for them, and asked if there was anything specific we could pray about. That, too was amazing. Several of the people we met actually asked if they could pray for us! ONce again I was so impressed that our youth walked right up to people, introduced themselves and offered food and prayer. They explained to people that they wanted to share the love of Jesus Christ with them, and they sure did!
We had some time before dinner after we finished passing out all the sandwiches, so I tool our group to Heidelberg Street near Mt. Elliot. That's where there is an outdoor art exhibit by artist Tyree GUyton. It's very difficut to explain what this is.... here's a link, but I also encourage you to ask the youth when you see them what they thought.
Dinner was at Calvary Presbyterian Church which was special to us in two ways: It is the church where Billy's dad attended when he was growing up (It was known as Montieth then) and it is also the church where Beth Delaney did her internship. Beth even came and joined us for dinner!
After dinner worship was led by the group from Indiana. We were asked to lead worship tomorrow night. After our showers, and a stop at Carvel Ice Cream for some extremely yummy treats we came back to church. We had a short devotional and then began preparing for our worship service tomorrow. Whew! We went so late rehearsing they had no free time tonight. I didn't hear too many complaints though.....
Good night all. Keep us in your prayers.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Official Day One
We had a terrific day today. God is good and I see him in every one of the kids I worked with today. I saw him in the people I served and the adults and advisors, too. Our first day in Detroit was great. This morning we started out at Westminster Church for a little orientation about Detroit. Our Geneva group was split into two teams. Josh, Travis, Billy, Breana, Drew and I were called Team Corvette (not our choice....) Marilyn, Amanda, Jessica, Lauren, Madelyn, Don and Debbie were in Team 300 (again, not their choice, each team was given a car name.) (Amanda O was recovering from Pneumonia and didn't join us until tonight.) Team Corvette also consisted of 5 youth and 2 adults from Columbus Indiana. Team 300 was joined by 5 youths from Calvary Presbyterian in Detroit.
Team Corvette went to work at one of the Detroit Rescue MIssion Sites. We sorted food, helped prepare lunch, cleaned the beds and served lunch to about 35 men. I was so impressed with my group. After serving lunch they were right in and sat down with the individuals and started up conversations. I loved seeing our Geneva group set the example of not being afraid to talk to people who are different from us. They commented later that they were surprised at the joy they saw in these people, even though they were in such tough situations. They felt like these people welcomed them into their lives. They were surprised at that and they learned a lot today. Tonight during our "where did you see God today?" discussion many of the kids saw God in the people they served at the shelter.
Team 300 visited Calvary church and helped prepare hygiene kits and baby kits for the people of Haiti. This group had very joyful heats as they did this task. While they had a specific rule to follow for the hygiene kits, they were excited to be able to personalize the baby kits. Tonight during our devotional we talked about the parable of the mustard seed, and how those small acts (seeds) turn into "huge trees."
After lunch we all met up and went on a little scavenger hunt through Detroit. We stopped at several key places and ended up at St John's Presbyterian Church on Lafayette where we were going to have dinner. We had a lot of time to kill before dinner, but this gave our kids the opportunity to fellowship with the kids from Indiana and Detroit who joined us. I love seeing these kids form friendships so fast.
After dinner we had a worship service led by the youth of the Detroit Presbytery, but our Team 300 joined in with a special dance they learned! It was wonderful seeing them up there with the other kids having fun and showing their love of God. We'll be leading the worship service on Thursday I think. The kids are excited to share some of their favorite songs and scripture.
While we didn't stay in Detroit for the fireworks, we came back to Canton and had our own fireworks show in the parking lot. (Thanks, Jeff Doering for keeping us safe and lighting the fireworks so I didn't have to!!)
Hopefully I'll have some time to upload some pictures tomorrow.
Keep praying for us!
It's off to bed now, some of the kids are still excited from the day and looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.
Team Corvette went to work at one of the Detroit Rescue MIssion Sites. We sorted food, helped prepare lunch, cleaned the beds and served lunch to about 35 men. I was so impressed with my group. After serving lunch they were right in and sat down with the individuals and started up conversations. I loved seeing our Geneva group set the example of not being afraid to talk to people who are different from us. They commented later that they were surprised at the joy they saw in these people, even though they were in such tough situations. They felt like these people welcomed them into their lives. They were surprised at that and they learned a lot today. Tonight during our "where did you see God today?" discussion many of the kids saw God in the people they served at the shelter.
Team 300 visited Calvary church and helped prepare hygiene kits and baby kits for the people of Haiti. This group had very joyful heats as they did this task. While they had a specific rule to follow for the hygiene kits, they were excited to be able to personalize the baby kits. Tonight during our devotional we talked about the parable of the mustard seed, and how those small acts (seeds) turn into "huge trees."
After lunch we all met up and went on a little scavenger hunt through Detroit. We stopped at several key places and ended up at St John's Presbyterian Church on Lafayette where we were going to have dinner. We had a lot of time to kill before dinner, but this gave our kids the opportunity to fellowship with the kids from Indiana and Detroit who joined us. I love seeing these kids form friendships so fast.
After dinner we had a worship service led by the youth of the Detroit Presbytery, but our Team 300 joined in with a special dance they learned! It was wonderful seeing them up there with the other kids having fun and showing their love of God. We'll be leading the worship service on Thursday I think. The kids are excited to share some of their favorite songs and scripture.
While we didn't stay in Detroit for the fireworks, we came back to Canton and had our own fireworks show in the parking lot. (Thanks, Jeff Doering for keeping us safe and lighting the fireworks so I didn't have to!!)
Hopefully I'll have some time to upload some pictures tomorrow.
Keep praying for us!
It's off to bed now, some of the kids are still excited from the day and looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Canton/Detroit Mission Trip Day One (sort of)
It's Sunday night, everyone's nestled in they sleeping bags. I'm not sure if anyone's asleep yet, they all seemed so excited. We met at the church around 5, get settled in, went over the rules and reviewed the convenant that they all signed. Joining me this week is Don Glass and Debbie Krone and each night a dad is volunteering to come sleep on the floor of the church with the boys and Don.
Around 6:00 we left to head on over to Farmington Hills to eat dinner with some folks there and with the visiting church from Columbus, Indiana. They had just arrived but we ate right away. Pizza and salads and yummy desserts provided by First Farmington.
At first the kids from Geneva all sat at one table together. All I had to do was ask them to go introduce themselves to the people from the other church and they were off. The boys ended up sitting at a table of boys, some girls sat with a table of girls, and some other girls introduced themselves to a full table. I was so proud of our kids setting the example of welcoming, friendliness and hospitality.
After dinner the youth all played a game (led by our kids!) while the adults had a meeting to find out how the week was going to work. I loved looking over and seeing our kids interacting so well with the group from Indiana.
After we came back to church we had a visit by Beth Delaney, who told some history of Detroit and Calvary Church (where we will be eating dinner on Tuesday.) The kids seemed very interested to hear some of Detroit's history, are saddened by racism and can't wait to start doing stuff in the city.
Another game, and reflection/devotion time was followed by some "business." Not much free time at all before lights out (which was late), but we should get enough sleep for a full day tomorrow.
Whew... seems like we've done a lot and we haven't even started "working" yet. I"m looking forward to seeing how God works through these young servants this week.
Keep praying for us this week.
Your sister in Christ,
Nancy
Around 6:00 we left to head on over to Farmington Hills to eat dinner with some folks there and with the visiting church from Columbus, Indiana. They had just arrived but we ate right away. Pizza and salads and yummy desserts provided by First Farmington.
At first the kids from Geneva all sat at one table together. All I had to do was ask them to go introduce themselves to the people from the other church and they were off. The boys ended up sitting at a table of boys, some girls sat with a table of girls, and some other girls introduced themselves to a full table. I was so proud of our kids setting the example of welcoming, friendliness and hospitality.
After dinner the youth all played a game (led by our kids!) while the adults had a meeting to find out how the week was going to work. I loved looking over and seeing our kids interacting so well with the group from Indiana.
After we came back to church we had a visit by Beth Delaney, who told some history of Detroit and Calvary Church (where we will be eating dinner on Tuesday.) The kids seemed very interested to hear some of Detroit's history, are saddened by racism and can't wait to start doing stuff in the city.
Another game, and reflection/devotion time was followed by some "business." Not much free time at all before lights out (which was late), but we should get enough sleep for a full day tomorrow.
Whew... seems like we've done a lot and we haven't even started "working" yet. I"m looking forward to seeing how God works through these young servants this week.
Keep praying for us this week.
Your sister in Christ,
Nancy
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