Third Day of Work

Wow! Are we busy! I’m not even able to write this until 10:00 PM, during our church group time.  Sorry- no time for pictures....

The “wicked” crew is telling me about their day… They went to the United Gospel Mission, the place where the “seek” crew had been the past few days. It sounds as if their experience was a little different than ours. First, they didn’t peel potatoes! They pulled pork! After lunch they sorted envelopes. They didn’t have too long to visit with people, but they are hoping they’ll be able to tomorrow.

The “seek” crew went to a large nursing home high up a hill in Duluth. We hung out and visited with some residents EVERYONE did an awesome job with conversations. One woman even wanted Luke to stay at the home with her.  Later Brenna and Lindsey helped with morning exercises. Before lunch we visited some more, some of us just talked and some played cards. After lunch, Nancy, Brenna and Lindsey went to help in the Alzheimer’s wing, a real challenge but the girls jumped right in. The boys went to another long-term care wing and played bingo.  Though I think we worked hard today, challenged in uncomfortable situations, the youth really thought they had a fun day!

After showers we went to a park for pizza dinner, and swimming or volleyball at Point Park. About 15 minutes after dinner, a big breeze came up and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees. That didn’t deter some kids from swimming anyway. We were supposed to stay at the beach but it looked as if a storm was coming up so we played it safe and came back to the church for club time.

These days always go by so fast on mission trips. We plan for so many months and think about the trip for so long, and then it goes by in a flash! We’re already ¾ done with our service days! We only have one more day of service… It’s really hard to believe.

Your prayers are reaching us…. Thank you. 

2nd Work Day

Whew- busy day for everyone! (And I hear it was super busy in Red Lake too!) God sure is present in Duluth.

The “seek” crew was back at the Gospel Mission helping to prepare food. (Putting together sandwiches for lunch and cutting up chicken for dinner, and of course….. more potatoes!! We served more people during lunch today and had lots of time to visit with guests in the afternoon before we got picked up. We are sorry to have to leave this place, we’ve really enjoyed serving here, but we’re looking forward to serving at the rehab center tomorrow.

The “wicked” crew worked on that deck more today, painting, painting and more painting. Of course, another hike was included! This time before lunch. Duluth sure is pretty. They also were able to visit Enger Tower, a 5-story stone observation tower on top of a big hill. What a view from there!

After showers today everyone from Youthworks went to United Gospel Mission for dinner. We ate and interacted for a very short time with the other guests there. We also took some time to visit a memorial close by dedicated to 3 African-American men who were lynched in Duluth in the 1920s. That was a pretty moving experience for all of us.

When we came back from the city we had a long free time before the evening Club activities started. The youth (OK, and me….) used this time to play and interact with kids from other churches.

Tomorrow both crews go to new ministry sites. “Wicked” to United Gospel Mission and “seek” to the Chris Jensen Rehab Center.

Thanks again for your prayers….

First Work Day!

We had a great first day of work! The “wicked” crew (Jeff, Zach, Alex and some people from Minneapolis) spent the day working at the home of Emily, a single mom with a 5-year-old girl. They swept the deck, then sanded the deck, caulked all around and smoothed it out. They had an “epic” lunch break, according to Jeff. They walked down to a park for lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Then after lunch while waiting for their wood filler to dry, Adam, the man from One Roof Community Housing ,took them on a hike in a park along a river with a series of waterfalls.  Adam also told them a lot about the history of Duluth. Once they got back to the site, they started priming the deck. They didn’t have a chance to finish, so they will finish tomorrow.

When I saw them after their work day, before their showers, they had a bit of primer on them, but they were also smiling, they had a good day!

The ‘seek’ crew (Nancy, Nathan, Brenna, Lindsey, Luke and Louie) got dropped off at Union Gospel Mission and were immediately put to work peeling potatoes and quartering potatoes. It only took ½ hour before we had our first casualty (Lindsey’s finger was cut with the potato peeler, but it was fixed with a band-aid.) After the potatoes were finished, we had a chance to visit with the guests of the mission. People were very nice, and the kids did well interacting with strangers. A few were a little shy, not talking too much, but they quickly relaxed and some genuine conversations were taking place.  We ate our lunches early, then, set up a table with donated bakery items from a local food store. We stocked the table with breads and rolls and sweets that guests could take home after they ate lunch. Once we finished stocking, it was time to serve the guests for about an hour. Once the guests left, we cleaned up (wiping tables, sweeping and mopping) It was more food preparation. We peeled and cut cucumbers (no accidents this time!) and peppers.  You’ll hear more about the Union Gospel Mission when we share more about our trip Sunday after church.  

Tonight’s dinner was tacos/nachos/burritos. The staff here had a challenge. They called it “Messy Mexican Monday” they challenged people to eat their dinner without using their hands. Jeff, Luke and Louie accepted the challenge! I’m not thinking we are going to institute this at home…. It got pretty messy!

Tonight we’re going to Canal Park to hang out a while…. More tomorrow.

Thanks again for your prayers….

Day Two- Travel, Leisure and Arrive at Youthworks!!

We left Marquette bright and early this morning (stopping at Starbucks of course for Nancy)

This morning’s car ride was much quieter than yesterday’s. Most of the morning the kids slept or read in the car while Jeff and I listened to worship music. We arrived in Duluth at about 12:00 central time, and began looking for a place to eat lunch. The lead car’s GPS (not ours) told them there was a McDonalds not far, but it sure seemed far by the time we got there!

After lunch we said our good-byes to the high schoolers as they went on their way to Red Lake Reservation (check out their blog at genevaseniorhighs.blogspot.com - Mike will be posting…)

We had about 3 hours before we could check in at our Youthworks site. Someone suggested a movie, and there just happened to be a showing of Despicable Me 2 in about 5 minutes, about ½ mile away! So off we went.

We all enjoyed the movie, but we still had about an hour to kill so we went to Canal Park for a bit and walked around.

Once we checked in at our Youthworks site, we met the staff: Mike, a recent graduate who would like a job in Youth Ministry; his wife Rachel, beginning graduate studies in the fall; Macy, a college student and Starbucks fan (I like her already!) and Kelly a student at Colorado State University.  The staff is warm and friendly.

As soon as we unpacked and set up our sleeping areas the girls, Brenna and Lindsey began playing cards with girls from another church while we waited for dinner.

After dinner was adult leader orientation and youth orientation. In the adult leader orientation, we learned how our church groups were split up and what sites we’d be going to. At this orientation, I was reminded that all mission trips aren’t ideal. That we don’t always get to do what we want to do or have the experiences that we want to have, but that God will be able to use us no matter what. I  found out that our group was not split evenly (or close to it) but into a group with one leader and 5 youth and no other churches working with us, and another group of one leader and 2 youth - working with another church. Part of the reason I like mission trips is so our youth get to meet other kids, but for 5 of our youth, they’re going to have to meet and hang out with other kids not during work time. The good news is we actually are traveling to our work sites with another church (they are going to drop us off…) so I guess that’s something.

Our crews are broken up into “Seek” - Nancy, Brenna, Lindsey, Nathan, Luke and Louie and “Wicked”- Jeff, Zach and Alex (along with some people from another church).  “Seek” will be hanging out Monday and Tuesday at Union Gospel Mission, primarily known as a soup kitchen and food shelf. Wednesday and Thursday we’ll be at Chris Jensen Rehabilitation Center, a nursing home and short-term rehab center. “Wicked” will be working Monday and Tuesday with One Roof Community Housing, which is an organization to promote and sustain home ownership in Duluth. On Wednesday and Thursday, they’ll be at the Union Gospel Mission.

I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us this week. Thank you for your continued prayers!! 

First Day of Travel!

Saturday morning we picked up our 2 vans. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to reach the pedals, but I could!  After deciding tat we had to remove the back seats to fit our luggage, we packed up and were on the road around 10:00 AM.

The middle schoolers and high schoolers are traveling in separate cans. Jeff and I are with the middle schoolers. Almost right away, this group started playing games together. They played car games,(the alphabet game, pictionary telephone and mafia) the entire way!! Jeff and I thought we were going to have to be the instigators in getting the kids to talk with each other and interact, but we didn’t have to.

The high school van was a little quieter we hear, with reading, sleeping and small conversations…

Thanks to someone having to stop for a bathroom break, we stopped at a rest area that was right along Lake Michigan. Dan and I couldn’t resist getting our feet wet, so we all stopped for about ½ hour, walking through the water and getting refreshed. The water felt really good.

We made it to Marquette just before 7 PM and were welcomed by a member of the First Presbyterian Church with plates of homemade cookies! After being shown to our sleeping rooms, we went to a park on Lake Superior to swim. We were told the water was 41degrees, but that didn’t stop 16 people from going swimming! (3 of us were out getting pizza for the rest of the group.) We have a very brave and courageous group!

After staying in Marquette for the night, we left bright and early to head towards Duluth. We plan on eating lunch together, then the high schoolers will head towards Red Lake and the middle schoolers will stay in Duluth to start our week of mission!