Day ??

Another work day in the books! Most of us returned to our previous work assignments, but some got new assignments. Alexia, Libby and Ryan went back to the Boys and Girls Club, Megan, Annika, Trevor and Angie (mom) were at a retirement home; Rob, Leah, Duncan, Rachel and Maddy are at the New Wineskins Ministries' food bank; Jan and Ana are at a different retirement community, Michelle, Emily and Moose (Chris) returned to the Third Phase shelter and food bank.

Everyone seemed to have good days today. It rained really hard in the morning, and lightly for the rest of the day, which meant we all got to (or had to, depending on your perspective) stay inside. Tomorrow is the big day for the food bank and we're really looking forward to seeing the people that we've been preparing to help all week.

We came back to the church after our work assignments and grabbed showers and got ready for dinner. After dinner we had our evening program/worship time, followed by devotions.

Last night we got to have our free night, so we went downtown to check out the Circle Centre Mall. We ended the night by going to Dairy Queen and Youth Group Devotions before heading back to the church for the night. Below are pictures of the group at the War Memorial, My work crew and one other on the way to our site.

Today was a hard day... for me...

Speaking from the perspective of my work-group, who is spending the week at the large food-bank, today was a hard day. We arrived at our location right on time this morning, ready for whatever they were going to throw at us, or so we thought. The day started off great. The Executive Pastor, Pastor David gave us a tour of the worship space in this large and impressive church (which actually used to be a large department store) that holds 1,500 congregants on Sunday mornings. We got to hear the story of Pastor David's life and where he was born, his experience in the Army and the time trials he's faced with segregation in the south and being in the Vietnam war. It was amazing and inspiring to hear about some of the trials of his life and how he used them as growth opportunities, rather than moments of pity. It set the mood for a great day of helping.

After that we were told we'd work outside for a little while, while it was "still cool." Unfortunately, none of us even knew that it was possible that we might work outside, so most did not have work gloves. None of us had bug spray or sunscreen, and we were just not in the mindset to cut and haul brush. We worked for about two hours cutting and hauling brush and branches and picking up some truly filthy garbage. We took a break for lunch, then had our time for devotions. After lunch we spent a lot of time moving from task to task, getting a little bit done here and there, but not enough to feel like we'd really accomplished as much as we could have.

At the end of the work day it felt like a bit of a wasted day. I'm still looking forward to the other days because I know there will be a lot more work to be done before we open for the public on Thursday. Hopefully I, and the rest of my group can be inspired by the words of Pastor David and take this set-back and use it to our advantage.

Blessings,

Rob

Day 1 of work

All of the Youth and adults got to see their first working action of the week today. Three of the work crews wound up at the same location this week, the New Wineskins Ministry which serves as a food/clothing bank. This food bank serves 50,000 families every month, and they're only open on Thursdays! We spent a large part of the day folding and sorting through clothes that had come in from a clothing drive that the church held on Saturday.

We also helped to unload and repack large quantities of frozen bread and creamed corn. We then sorted through several pallets of toiletries and a large pallet of bottles drinks. We've just begun to scratch the surface of all of the items that we'll sort through this week before the public is allowed to come in and select items on Thursday. 

The director of the organization, Reverend David prayed with us and help us to understand how much we were helping the people of Indianapolis, but also how much we would be served in the process. How we would see the face of Jesus in the people we meet. How handing someone food when they need it will change us forever. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week, and I know the Youth are too.

Blessings,
Rob

Megan's Blog

Today is Monday, the first official day of work for our Week of Hope mission trip in Indianapolis. Today we all got to go to our assignments for the first time and see what we'll be doing for the week. Megan got to go to a retirement community where she got to meet the residents and talk with them and learn about them. The highlight of Megan's trip was looking at a scrapbook of one of the resident's 90th birthday. It made Megan happy to share he new friend's memories because it made her happy to have someone to talk to and share with.

Megan will go back tomorrow and make more memories with more new friends and continue to love this new adventure.

We made it!

Wow, it's been a crazy twenty-four hours. We managed to get ourselves safety (and relatively efficiently) to Indianapolis! We started out with tours of our host church and a little circle soccer in the parking lot for good measure. We had our first evening program at 7 PM which included a lot of pertinent information for the week. Emily and I played and sang three songs, which was a lot of fun! We were divided up into work crews, so we all got to find out who we'll be spending the week with and approximately what we'll be doing. A lot of us wound up in a food pantry, so we'll be sorting, cleaning and organizing a large food pantry within a church in Indy. Some from St. Mark's are going to a homeless shelter and at least one person is going to help with a children's program at an inner city church.

Our theme for the week is "repair." We are to see not only what types of physical, mental and emotional repair we can have with/for others, but we'll witness first-hand the repair that Jesus will have on our lives if we are open to it. "God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing." - Ephesians 2:10 We have all selected titles within our work groups and been given different responsibilities within our group. (We brought a lot of "organizers," go figure.)

We had Youth Group devotions after our meeting and then we stayed up too late playing knock-out in the gym/multipurpose space.

All in all things are going as well as can be expected. I'm excited to see what the week holds for us all!

The picture below is us at dinner and before the opening program/worship.

Rob

Indy is right around the corner!

Alright folks, this is it! In a few short days we'll depart for our mission trip to Indianapolis! I am very excited that 13 Youth (and four adults) have chosen to make this journey. Some of you (Youth) have been on one or more mission trips before, so you pretty much know what to expect. Some of you are mission tripping for the first time, so perhaps you don't know what to expect.

Picture this, we will spend a week "camping out" inside a local church in the heart of Indianapolis spending every waking moment together! We'll help prepare meals, clean our space and play games together. There will be Youth there from other churches and states, we'll get to make new friends. We will worship together everyday, briefly in the morning, then for a longer time in the evenings.

Every morning we'll pack our lunches, then pile into separate vehicles with our work groups and make our way to our destinations. Each day will be a new adventure. We might be working with the elderly, or animals at an animal shelter. We might be leading a Vacation Bible School or making food for the local food bank.

There will be so many opportunities to help, but also opportunities to see God at work. As Christians we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We are called to be His hands and feet everyday, and I know we try to do this in our everyday lives, but it's easy to get complacent. That's why we mission. That's why we will be pulled out of our collective comfort zone and given a task, or tasks, that stretch who we are. We will find out what we're made of, and what our friends (old and new) are made of. And we'll see that we are not alone in our walk with God. People from all walks of life, geographic locations and socioeconomic backgrounds will gather together to serve and be served. We are all connected be the One True God we serve.

Philippians 2:1-4 (NIV)

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

I am so excited to see all that this trip has in store for us, I know we, together with God will do awesome things!

Blessings,
Rob

God's Terms

I got a new cell phone yesterday! My old one was limping along after three years, a dinosaur by smartphone standards. Of course I spent the better part of two hours configuring it and downloading all of the apps I wanted it to have. I discovered all of the new features that have been invented since the last time I got a phone, some of which I might actually use. Every time I downloaded or opened a new application, I had to agree to the "terms of agreement" or "terms of use" for each one and select the permissions. Some permissions are basic, i.e. the email app would like permission to read your email. Seems easy enough, but why does Facebook want to listen to my phone calls? Okay, I don't think that one was actually on there, but you get my point.

I am feeling unnerved about how easy it became to push the "accept" button on each of the "terms of agreements" that would continually pop up. Has anyone ever actually read one of those? They are dozens of pages long and written in a way that would confuse most lawyers!

This got me thinking. What are the "terms of agreement" for being a Christian? How about the bible? It's longer than even the longest TOA that Google writes.(Probably) It's often filled with confusing language and commands. Are we treating God the same way that we treat Apple? Are we saying "sure, I accept that," without really knowing what we've agreed to? Are we accepting the Terms of Agreement as they are written in our third-grade bible without reading them through?

I'm not saying that you have to have read every word in the bible by the time you're in the third grade, (or even the 12th grade or the 16th grade) but it is an agreement that we should get to know. If you're reading this right now, I challenge you to pick up your bible and read. Don't know where to start? Try 1 John, chapter 2. (toward the back :-)) Read for five minutes, or ten minutes, read a chapter or a whole book. Just spend some time with the word of God today.

Blessings,
Rob