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.