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
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
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
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Youth Sunday!
We are participating in lots of ways for Youth Sunday, May 16. We will be leading both services along with the senior highs that day. We spent time at the retreat planning and practicing. If you were not at the retreat, we still want you involved!
Here's what we're doing as a group:
~Gathering song - Here I am to Worship - I have the words for this, please find me at church on Sunday and I'll give them to you. Molly will be signing along side our singing.
Here's a link to Here I Am to Worship on Youtube. Check it out. It's got the words and everything!
~Signing the Lord's Prayer - Like we did previously in church, we will be signing the Lord's Prayer after the pastoral prayer.
Here's a link to Julia signing the Lord's Prayer. Please practice!!
Individually,
~Some people are participating in a skit (Josh and Billy) - please memorize your lines.
~Some people have learned the Lord's Prayer song. If you would also like to sing this, please let me know and I"ll get you the music to practice.
~We need worship leaders - that is people to read scripture and be leaders for responsive readings. There will be several opportunities available but we expect you to practice. Let me know ASAP if you want to help out with this.
Practice times for Youth Sunday -
You must be able to attend practice to participate in Youth Sunday (at least one, but both is preferred)
Sunday, May 9 after the 11 service (Yes, I know this is Mother's Day, I expect practice to take about 45 minutes)
Saturday, May 15 at 4:00. We will conclude practice with pizza!
Here's what we're doing as a group:
~Gathering song - Here I am to Worship - I have the words for this, please find me at church on Sunday and I'll give them to you. Molly will be signing along side our singing.
Here's a link to Here I Am to Worship on Youtube. Check it out. It's got the words and everything!
~Signing the Lord's Prayer - Like we did previously in church, we will be signing the Lord's Prayer after the pastoral prayer.
Here's a link to Julia signing the Lord's Prayer. Please practice!!
Individually,
~Some people are participating in a skit (Josh and Billy) - please memorize your lines.
~Some people have learned the Lord's Prayer song. If you would also like to sing this, please let me know and I"ll get you the music to practice.
~We need worship leaders - that is people to read scripture and be leaders for responsive readings. There will be several opportunities available but we expect you to practice. Let me know ASAP if you want to help out with this.
Practice times for Youth Sunday -
You must be able to attend practice to participate in Youth Sunday (at least one, but both is preferred)
Sunday, May 9 after the 11 service (Yes, I know this is Mother's Day, I expect practice to take about 45 minutes)
Saturday, May 15 at 4:00. We will conclude practice with pizza!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Easter!
Easter is ...
resurrection... renewal... redemption.... rebirth....
What does it mean to you?
(It doesn't have to start with "re")
Saturday, March 27, 2010
This is it!
All this hard work.... I think this evening's dinner/entertainment/silent auction is going to be the best one yet. So many people to thank...... I'll do that tomorrow. For now. I just pray that nothing seriously goes wrong. It's in God's hands now.
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