Every morning it seems harder and harder to get up! Between the heat and the work, it is physically exhausting to be in New Orleans. Our devotion theme for the day was "I will view others with the eyes of Christ" and our scriptures for today were John 15:12-13 and Romans 12:10-13. Tonight at debrief the students will give gifts to our volunteer leaders (Swanie, Jim, Jake, Natalie, Nancy, Carol) and the leaders will give commemorative "Renew New Orleans/We Will Rebuild" bracelets (a fundraiser for New Orleans charities/Salvation Army) to each student. We will also celebrate communion together.
Our work projects were pretty big today. Jim and Natalie's group went back to the house Swanie's group had been at on Tuesday to finish gutting the house. Swanie also went with them to teach them how to do it. (Swanie became a house gutting "expert" on last year's New Orleans trip.) After lunch Dave switched from Jake's team to join in the gutting efforts on this team. After they finished the gutting job, they moved scrap metal for the man who owns the home from a junk pile in the back to a place where he can actually load it up and take it somewhere to sell.
Jake's team (with Nancy and Suzan) spent their morning at Sylvia's home. Sylvia lives near the church and is 85 years old. They weeded and mulched her flower beds and planted some new flowering plants for her. After they finished the work, Sylvia told them about her experience with Katrina. Her children evacuated her before the storm hit and her home was flooded. She didn't get to come back to her house until December and didn't move back in until the following April. She had to throw out some furniture, but not everything. Sylvia broke down crying talking about her experience. It was very touching for the students to hear her story.
In the afternoon Jake's team went to a home in the Upper Ninth Ward where they primed all the new walls and ceilings that had been put in this older home and started painting the various rooms. It was a small house - a living room, 2nd living room/bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and mud room. Gary, the owner, was there and he cleaned out the paint brushes and rollers all afternoon. He had purchased primer and was going to use his outdoor paint (forest green) to paint the inside of the house. Of course, that didn't seem like a good idea to the team, so Suzan went out and bought paint for the all the rooms of the house ( muffin brown for the front two rooms and the mudroom, yellow for the kitchen, and a lime green for the bathroom...don't worry, he loved it!). They stayed at extra 1 1/2 hours so they could get more done. When the team left, the entire house had been primed, all the ceilings were painted, the mudroom was done, the kitchen was done and the front two rooms had all the edges cut and just needed to have the paint rolled on. Next week's team will go back to finish the job.
Tomorrow morning the students have to have their bags packed and in the vans by 6:45 a.m. We'll have breakfast, clean the church where we're staying and head to the airport by 8:15 a.m. We arrive back in Boston late tomorrow afternoon...I hope all the parents remember to come pick up their teenagers!
It has been a great week! Thank you for all your prayers over the past few months and especially this week. They were definitely needed and appreciated! See you on Mission Sunday, August 12!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
New Orleans - Thursday, July 12
Our devotion theme for the day was “I will sweat. I will toil. I will care.” and our scripture for today was 1 John 3:16-20.
Today we all went to City Park together to work on cleaning up Popp’s Fountain and the area around it. City Park is twice the size of Central Park in New York City. Before Katrina there were 24 park employees, now there are 5. The park is pretty much grown over and neglected except for a few areas. Our goal was to clean up the area around Popp's Fountain and get it filled with water and running. We weeded, swept, mowed, weed whacked and painted. The highlight of the day was when the fountain was turned on for the 1st time since Katrina at the end of the day and it actually worked! (They had tried to turn it on once since Katrina, but it was clogged up.) Partway through our day a group (Mike P, Laura, Lauren L, Andrew, Nate P) went with Natalie to a different site in the park to clean up around a playground area. They weeded, weed whacked and took out a bamboo tree that was blocking a walkway. The rest of the group finished their day at the same house some had been at yesterday and finished taking out the ceiling tiles and grid throughout the upstairs. Nate C and Debbie stayed back with Carol (instead of doing the ceiling tile thing) and helped make the dough for tomorrow morning’s cinnamon buns.
It was hot today, but bearable. It was cloudy in the afternoon and by the evening we had a thunderstorm. Everyone was filthy dirty (especially the ceiling group) by the time they hit the showers late this afternoon.
Our evening debrief went really well tonight. A number of students were able to share God moments from the past few days. An early week disappointment for many of the team was that we were not building homes for people...as we had expected to do. Instead, we are rebuilding New Orleans by painting in a school and cleaning up a park, helping individuals move on with their lives by doing demolition work both inside and out, and helping to rebuild the church by promoting an upcoming dance camp for kids. We are all beginning to see that rebuilding in New Orleans isn't just about building houses. God's spirit has worked through each one of us to help us see the significance of what we are doing. We are humbled by God transforming the desires of our hearts to be more in line with what He has called us to do this week.
Our evening ended with what I will loosely refer to as a "Talent Show". There wasn't a lot of talent, but there were a lot of laughs! A highlight of the evening was Lauren S, Sarah A, Debbie and Lauren L singing a "paint chip song" they had made up on Monday while they were scraping paint at the school. Another highlight was Sarah A and Dave...kind of hard to describe their act, but the basic idea is that Sarah had on a large green sweatshirt upside down with her legs through the arm holes, her hands behind her back in the sweatshirt and her head in the hood. She hopped around on stage in somewhat of a squatting position as Dave sang "Five Green and Speckled Frogs." Definitely one of those things you had to see to appreciate!
Today we all went to City Park together to work on cleaning up Popp’s Fountain and the area around it. City Park is twice the size of Central Park in New York City. Before Katrina there were 24 park employees, now there are 5. The park is pretty much grown over and neglected except for a few areas. Our goal was to clean up the area around Popp's Fountain and get it filled with water and running. We weeded, swept, mowed, weed whacked and painted. The highlight of the day was when the fountain was turned on for the 1st time since Katrina at the end of the day and it actually worked! (They had tried to turn it on once since Katrina, but it was clogged up.) Partway through our day a group (Mike P, Laura, Lauren L, Andrew, Nate P) went with Natalie to a different site in the park to clean up around a playground area. They weeded, weed whacked and took out a bamboo tree that was blocking a walkway. The rest of the group finished their day at the same house some had been at yesterday and finished taking out the ceiling tiles and grid throughout the upstairs. Nate C and Debbie stayed back with Carol (instead of doing the ceiling tile thing) and helped make the dough for tomorrow morning’s cinnamon buns.
It was hot today, but bearable. It was cloudy in the afternoon and by the evening we had a thunderstorm. Everyone was filthy dirty (especially the ceiling group) by the time they hit the showers late this afternoon.
Our evening debrief went really well tonight. A number of students were able to share God moments from the past few days. An early week disappointment for many of the team was that we were not building homes for people...as we had expected to do. Instead, we are rebuilding New Orleans by painting in a school and cleaning up a park, helping individuals move on with their lives by doing demolition work both inside and out, and helping to rebuild the church by promoting an upcoming dance camp for kids. We are all beginning to see that rebuilding in New Orleans isn't just about building houses. God's spirit has worked through each one of us to help us see the significance of what we are doing. We are humbled by God transforming the desires of our hearts to be more in line with what He has called us to do this week.
Our evening ended with what I will loosely refer to as a "Talent Show". There wasn't a lot of talent, but there were a lot of laughs! A highlight of the evening was Lauren S, Sarah A, Debbie and Lauren L singing a "paint chip song" they had made up on Monday while they were scraping paint at the school. Another highlight was Sarah A and Dave...kind of hard to describe their act, but the basic idea is that Sarah had on a large green sweatshirt upside down with her legs through the arm holes, her hands behind her back in the sweatshirt and her head in the hood. She hopped around on stage in somewhat of a squatting position as Dave sang "Five Green and Speckled Frogs." Definitely one of those things you had to see to appreciate!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
New Orleans - Wednesday, July 11
Chris did an excellent job leading worship last night at our debrief. Our discussion time focused on ways we can love God (from Joshua 22:5) and why we would want to serve God. Our AT (Accountability Team) discussion time centered on answering the question, "Where are you in your relationship with Jesus Christ?"
Our devotion theme for this morning was, "Talk is not enough. It's showtime." Our scripture reading was from Matthew 25:31-46 ("The Sheep and the Goats"). We also referred to Ephesians 2:8-10 as we were going through our devotions.
Our usual morning schedule is:
6:15 a.m. - Breakfast crew up cooking breakfast. (This rotates through all the ATs.)
7:00 a.m. - Breakfast and packing lunches
7:30 a.m. - Individual Devotion Time
8:00 a.m. - Breakfast and lunch clean-up (Once again an AT rotation.)
8:30 a.m. - Begin our workday
This morning we were treated with Swanie's famous french toast casserole which was very yummy! We only worked half a day today because we were doing some touristy stuff in the afternoon and evening.
Part of Swanie and Jake’s team (Lauren L, Lizzie, Stevie, both Nates, Dave) went to Greg and Sarah’s home (members of Canal Street Presbyterian) where they tore down a brick wall that had been damaged during Katrina. They separated the good bricks from the bad (kind of the like the “sheep and the goats” from our morning devotion), so the family could use them later for a patio. The team moved at least 1000 bricks today. They also demolished the only remaining wall from a shed that used to be in the yard BK (before Katrina).
The other part of this team (Sarah A, Debbie, Lauren S) helped Mary, an elderly woman, pack up some of her belongings. The first floor of her house was flooded by Katrina, so had already been gutted. The second floor had been looted in the aftermath of Katrina, so things were pretty much a mess. Mary was packing so she could move in with her son whose home was in better shape than her own.
Jim and Natalie’s team canvassed neighborhoods around the church delivering flyers announcing an upcoming dance camp for kids being held at the church – hosted by a team from Philadelphia coming in August. Part of this team (Andrew, Chris, Mike, Christine, Laura, Lizzie) also went to a partially gutted house to remove ceiling tiles and grids from the kitchen area.
All teams finished their work by noon, so we could shower early and head down to the French Quarter. Some of the guys ate alligator and gumbo while they girls shopped and tried on dresses. I promised not to tell who spent money on clothing! For supper we ate shrimp and catfish at a local hang-out in a swamp area west of New Orleans. (Okay, not all the kids ate shrimp and catfish...some had hamburgers and chicken fingers.) The food was good and the eatery was pretty much a shack up on stilts, so that made the dining interesting. After eating our guide told us some ghost stories...which were pretty lame...then we headed out on our swamp tour in a flat bottomed boat. We used flashlights to look for the red eyes of the alligators, then our guide would throw marshmallows into the water to try to attract them to the boat. He would also go out on a platform attached to the boat and hand feed the alligators chicken necks. It was pretty cool! We also went through an area of roosting egrets (large white birds) which was beautiful to see.
We got back to the church shortly before 11:00 p.m. and everyone literally fell into bed.
Our devotion theme for this morning was, "Talk is not enough. It's showtime." Our scripture reading was from Matthew 25:31-46 ("The Sheep and the Goats"). We also referred to Ephesians 2:8-10 as we were going through our devotions.
Our usual morning schedule is:
6:15 a.m. - Breakfast crew up cooking breakfast. (This rotates through all the ATs.)
7:00 a.m. - Breakfast and packing lunches
7:30 a.m. - Individual Devotion Time
8:00 a.m. - Breakfast and lunch clean-up (Once again an AT rotation.)
8:30 a.m. - Begin our workday
This morning we were treated with Swanie's famous french toast casserole which was very yummy! We only worked half a day today because we were doing some touristy stuff in the afternoon and evening.
Part of Swanie and Jake’s team (Lauren L, Lizzie, Stevie, both Nates, Dave) went to Greg and Sarah’s home (members of Canal Street Presbyterian) where they tore down a brick wall that had been damaged during Katrina. They separated the good bricks from the bad (kind of the like the “sheep and the goats” from our morning devotion), so the family could use them later for a patio. The team moved at least 1000 bricks today. They also demolished the only remaining wall from a shed that used to be in the yard BK (before Katrina).
The other part of this team (Sarah A, Debbie, Lauren S) helped Mary, an elderly woman, pack up some of her belongings. The first floor of her house was flooded by Katrina, so had already been gutted. The second floor had been looted in the aftermath of Katrina, so things were pretty much a mess. Mary was packing so she could move in with her son whose home was in better shape than her own.
Jim and Natalie’s team canvassed neighborhoods around the church delivering flyers announcing an upcoming dance camp for kids being held at the church – hosted by a team from Philadelphia coming in August. Part of this team (Andrew, Chris, Mike, Christine, Laura, Lizzie) also went to a partially gutted house to remove ceiling tiles and grids from the kitchen area.
All teams finished their work by noon, so we could shower early and head down to the French Quarter. Some of the guys ate alligator and gumbo while they girls shopped and tried on dresses. I promised not to tell who spent money on clothing! For supper we ate shrimp and catfish at a local hang-out in a swamp area west of New Orleans. (Okay, not all the kids ate shrimp and catfish...some had hamburgers and chicken fingers.) The food was good and the eatery was pretty much a shack up on stilts, so that made the dining interesting. After eating our guide told us some ghost stories...which were pretty lame...then we headed out on our swamp tour in a flat bottomed boat. We used flashlights to look for the red eyes of the alligators, then our guide would throw marshmallows into the water to try to attract them to the boat. He would also go out on a platform attached to the boat and hand feed the alligators chicken necks. It was pretty cool! We also went through an area of roosting egrets (large white birds) which was beautiful to see.
We got back to the church shortly before 11:00 p.m. and everyone literally fell into bed.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
New Orleans - Tuesday, July 10
Yesterday our devotion theme was “God has changed me from the inside out and today I am making it real.” Our scripture reference was 1 Peter 4:7-11 and our debrief time centered around the items Peter mentioned in that scripture and how we can apply them to our time together this week.
Our devotion theme for today is “I will abandon my apathy and serve with all my heart and soul because I serve the King of Kings!” and our scriptures today were Joshua 22:5 and Colossians 3:23-24.
We had two very distinct work projects today. Swanie (Mike S) and Jake's team included Stevie, Nate C, Nate P, Wyatt, Sarah A, Lauren L, Lauren S and Debbie. This team spent their day gutting a house about 2 blocks from the church. The owners of the home, Tommy and Carol, are currently living in a FEMA trailer about a block away from their home. They are an elderly couple that aren’t able to do the work themselves, so were very appreciative of the efforts of our team. Gutting a house involves removing wood trim, doors, baseboards, sheetrock and insulation…basically getting the house down to the studs. The team didn’t completely finish the job, so we may be going back to this site later in the week.
Jim and Natalie’s team included Mike P, Chris, Tyler, Andrew, Sarah S, Laura, Lauren M, Lizzie and Christine. This team spent their day doing yard work at the home of an Elder of Canal Street Presbyterian Church (where we are staying). The gentleman does not live here anymore and is hoping to eventually fix up his home and sell it. However, he is responsible for keeping up with the yard work and if we hadn’t cleaned it up for him, he would have had to pay someone to do it. Homeowners are fined by the city if they don’t keep the growth cleaned up on their yards…even if they’re not here. Jim calls the work his team did today “deforestation”, if that gives you any idea of what they were faced with.
If was miserably hot and humid today. The team inside stayed a little cooler just because they were shaded by the house. The outside group found shade under a carport, but was working out in the heat all day. The kids (and adults) were a sweaty mess when they returned to the church at the end of the workday. During the late afternoon we have had some thunderstorms, so maybe things will cool off (somewhat...) for tomorrow.
Once we all gathered together we went on a disaster tour of the city to see the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the breaking of the levees. We started out in Lakeview and finished in the Lower Ninth Ward. Both of those were neighborhoods that were flooded by levee breaks. Lakeview had many deserted homes, but for the most part they were still standing. The Lower Ninth Ward has few homes and many completely vacant lots. Many of the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward have lost their homes and their land because they do not have paperwork to prove ownership. These were homes that had been in families for many, many years and city records to show ownership were also lost in the flood. Other individuals are still fighting for insurance and government money. Homeowners had hurricane insurance, but not flood insurance, so people have not been reimbursed for the damage done by the levee breaks. A number of the deserted homes had “For Sale” signs on them with prices up in the $100,000 - $200,000 range. This is for a house that needs to be completed gutted and rebuilt. Hard to believe, isn't it?!
Our devotion theme for today is “I will abandon my apathy and serve with all my heart and soul because I serve the King of Kings!” and our scriptures today were Joshua 22:5 and Colossians 3:23-24.
We had two very distinct work projects today. Swanie (Mike S) and Jake's team included Stevie, Nate C, Nate P, Wyatt, Sarah A, Lauren L, Lauren S and Debbie. This team spent their day gutting a house about 2 blocks from the church. The owners of the home, Tommy and Carol, are currently living in a FEMA trailer about a block away from their home. They are an elderly couple that aren’t able to do the work themselves, so were very appreciative of the efforts of our team. Gutting a house involves removing wood trim, doors, baseboards, sheetrock and insulation…basically getting the house down to the studs. The team didn’t completely finish the job, so we may be going back to this site later in the week.
Jim and Natalie’s team included Mike P, Chris, Tyler, Andrew, Sarah S, Laura, Lauren M, Lizzie and Christine. This team spent their day doing yard work at the home of an Elder of Canal Street Presbyterian Church (where we are staying). The gentleman does not live here anymore and is hoping to eventually fix up his home and sell it. However, he is responsible for keeping up with the yard work and if we hadn’t cleaned it up for him, he would have had to pay someone to do it. Homeowners are fined by the city if they don’t keep the growth cleaned up on their yards…even if they’re not here. Jim calls the work his team did today “deforestation”, if that gives you any idea of what they were faced with.
If was miserably hot and humid today. The team inside stayed a little cooler just because they were shaded by the house. The outside group found shade under a carport, but was working out in the heat all day. The kids (and adults) were a sweaty mess when they returned to the church at the end of the workday. During the late afternoon we have had some thunderstorms, so maybe things will cool off (somewhat...) for tomorrow.
Once we all gathered together we went on a disaster tour of the city to see the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the breaking of the levees. We started out in Lakeview and finished in the Lower Ninth Ward. Both of those were neighborhoods that were flooded by levee breaks. Lakeview had many deserted homes, but for the most part they were still standing. The Lower Ninth Ward has few homes and many completely vacant lots. Many of the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward have lost their homes and their land because they do not have paperwork to prove ownership. These were homes that had been in families for many, many years and city records to show ownership were also lost in the flood. Other individuals are still fighting for insurance and government money. Homeowners had hurricane insurance, but not flood insurance, so people have not been reimbursed for the damage done by the levee breaks. A number of the deserted homes had “For Sale” signs on them with prices up in the $100,000 - $200,000 range. This is for a house that needs to be completed gutted and rebuilt. Hard to believe, isn't it?!
Monday, July 9, 2007
New Orleans - Monday, July 9
The San Francisco crew arrived in Boston Sunday morning, July 8, just as the New Orleans crew was meeting at the church garage to begin their weeklong mission experience. This week we have a team of 18 teens and 7 adults working in New Orleans to help rebuild the city. The group arrived safely and on-time yesterday afternoon at the New Orleans airport. After renting vehicles we headed over to Canal Street Presbyterian Church, which will be our home for the week.
The church has window air-conditioners in our sleeping rooms, so sleep is bearable...but not as cool as some would like. We each have a blow-up twin sized mattress on which to sleep and there are nice, new shower facilities available to our group.
Sunday night we had pizza for supper, then had an opportunity to worship and pray together before going to bed at 11:00 p.m. Our devotion theme for the day was "I am a servant first and last" and our scripture for the day was 1 Timothy 1:12-17. We spent most of our debrief time talking about what it means to be a servant first and last.
Monday morning we were up for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. After devotions we met with the Canal Street interns - college students who will be guiding us this week, then we headed out to our work site. Today we are all together at Sarah T. Reed High School in New Orleans East painting classrooms. This school did open last year with minimal clean up and housed a mixture of students from Pre-K up through high school. This coming school year it will go back to being a high school. We are here with about 100 other volunteers putting a fresh coat of paint on everything to make the building ready for the fall.
We are working with a guy named Troy who is coordinating all the volunteers who are working to get the schools ready for the fall. His goal is to open 25 existing schools after cleaning them up and renovating them this summer. When I talked with him, he talked about the students who have been away from the city for two years going to other schools in other communities who had the opportunity to experience things such as nice facilities, teachers who truly love their students, and computers in every classroom. When the students come back to their new Orleans schools, not only are they trashed from 2 years of neglect and looting, but they were never as nice as what the kids experienced in their temporary homes for the past 2 years. There is now a sense of people wanting better from their schoools than what they had before. As Troy said, the kids are stuck because no one is asking them where they want to live...they just have to follow their parents (typically just a mother) back to something that isn't as nice as where they've been for the past 2 years.
As we drove to the school this morning it was amazing to see vast numbers of homes, apartments and businesses still closed and boarded up. According to Troy, approximately 40% of the population has moved back and he doesn't anticipate the remaining 60% will return. The painted "X" markings are still on the front of homes (to show the number of casualties and other info from when the national guard was going door-to-door) and in some places you can see the water lines from the blooding. Golf courses are abandoned and affluent neighborhoods are as empty as other neighborhoods.
Today is Nate Pomeroy's birthday! We are celebrating with cake tonight at supper. Happy Birthday, Nate!
The church has window air-conditioners in our sleeping rooms, so sleep is bearable...but not as cool as some would like. We each have a blow-up twin sized mattress on which to sleep and there are nice, new shower facilities available to our group.
Sunday night we had pizza for supper, then had an opportunity to worship and pray together before going to bed at 11:00 p.m. Our devotion theme for the day was "I am a servant first and last" and our scripture for the day was 1 Timothy 1:12-17. We spent most of our debrief time talking about what it means to be a servant first and last.
Monday morning we were up for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. After devotions we met with the Canal Street interns - college students who will be guiding us this week, then we headed out to our work site. Today we are all together at Sarah T. Reed High School in New Orleans East painting classrooms. This school did open last year with minimal clean up and housed a mixture of students from Pre-K up through high school. This coming school year it will go back to being a high school. We are here with about 100 other volunteers putting a fresh coat of paint on everything to make the building ready for the fall.
We are working with a guy named Troy who is coordinating all the volunteers who are working to get the schools ready for the fall. His goal is to open 25 existing schools after cleaning them up and renovating them this summer. When I talked with him, he talked about the students who have been away from the city for two years going to other schools in other communities who had the opportunity to experience things such as nice facilities, teachers who truly love their students, and computers in every classroom. When the students come back to their new Orleans schools, not only are they trashed from 2 years of neglect and looting, but they were never as nice as what the kids experienced in their temporary homes for the past 2 years. There is now a sense of people wanting better from their schoools than what they had before. As Troy said, the kids are stuck because no one is asking them where they want to live...they just have to follow their parents (typically just a mother) back to something that isn't as nice as where they've been for the past 2 years.
As we drove to the school this morning it was amazing to see vast numbers of homes, apartments and businesses still closed and boarded up. According to Troy, approximately 40% of the population has moved back and he doesn't anticipate the remaining 60% will return. The painted "X" markings are still on the front of homes (to show the number of casualties and other info from when the national guard was going door-to-door) and in some places you can see the water lines from the blooding. Golf courses are abandoned and affluent neighborhoods are as empty as other neighborhoods.
Today is Nate Pomeroy's birthday! We are celebrating with cake tonight at supper. Happy Birthday, Nate!
New Orleans - Sunday, July 8
All arrived in New Orleans safely. The team is painting a school building today and have plans to work a day in City Park (an area larger than New York's Central Park) later in the week.
Pray for relationships to develop between the team and those who they meet in their different work areas.
When we return to the church after our day of work, more information will be posted.
Pray for relationships to develop between the team and those who they meet in their different work areas.
When we return to the church after our day of work, more information will be posted.
San Francisco God Moments
On Tuesday, my group was given the task to help as many homeless people as we could with $20.00 in hand, a 24 block cutoff and a 2 hour time limit. Before I came on this mission’s trip I really prayed that God would make these people real to me. So while we were on “the mission” (God Wink), otherwise known as the Latino section of San Francisco, we met a man named Gill. Gill had the stereotypical dirty hair, shopping cart full of treasures and a stand-offish vive that I had always pictured to be a homeless man. Realizing that we were sent to help him, we stopped and chatted with Gill about his life. To my amazement, along with many of the others in our group, Gill had actually served ten years in the Air Force and has traveled the world. That was when I realized that this grungy-looking man was real, he was not a fragment of my imagination. Gill could have been someone’s father, uncle, brother or friend. My friend Colleen suggested that we pray for Gill which he seemed to be ecstatic about so Josh began to pray. All of a sudden, Gill suddenly started asking to pray for his grandmother, grandfather, father, mother, uncles, aunts and brothers… who were all dead. We could not even fathom the thought, but he continued, please also pray for my wife and my two sons… they are also dead. How were we to help this broken man? Of course we turned this task up to God and prayed for His mercy to heal Gill and to be with him. I knew that God had sent Gill to show us that the homeless are not just unrelatable people when Gill started to break down and cry while we were praying for him. It showed me that even the smallest gesture can make an astonishing impact in someone’s life. This mission not only made Gill real but it made God real to me! (Jenny C)
On Tuesday afternoon we headed back to CSM after our morning ministry work. We got back and after a few minutes, Jimmy our CSM Host, told us we were going right back out for another project. We were going out to help as many homeless people as we could with $20.00, some socks and blankets. After about 90 minutes, we started to head back to our meeting place. On our way to the meeting place, however, we ran into this very nice homeless guy named Jeff. We were talking for a little while and we gave him some things and told him we were from a church in the Boston area. He had a surprised look and said that he was from Marlboro, MA. Then we told him we were from FCCH in Hopkinton, which is a touch town to Marlboro and we flew out here with the church to volunteer in the streets of San Francisco. This guy was flabbergasted. He went on and told us how he has been struggling through his own struggle with the Lord and that about two days ago he had told the Lord that He had won and to show him that the Lord was real. He wanted a sign and boy did God provide. Two days later a group of Christians from the other side of the country came from a town that he was familiar with to help street people and they (we) found him. Jeff told us that we are an answer to his prayers. Towards the end of the conversation, he asked us if we had a Bible for him so Marc ran to a book store and got him one. While Marc was gone, we prayed over him and he told us what a blessing we were. It was definitely a God moment all around!! (Josh L)
On Tuesday night, I had just prayed about an experiencing God this week with my AT (Accountability Team). It was the last worship song and I decided to sing the meaning rather than the text. When the song ended my body felt like a Tesla coil channeling electricity throughout my body with my stomach as its core – for it felt like I swallowed a cannon ball. It was the same feeling from a vision I had last year in New Orleans. I knew God was talking to me, almost yelling. I felt like a child being scolded for something I didn’t even know was wrong. I felt helpless and stupid. I fervently searched for anything He might be telling me and my eyes were eventually drawn to the song lyrics I was holding. I read the words and they gave me complete comfort to something I had been struggling with. The sensation ceased, I thanked God and returned to earth. (Jeremy S)
Saturday, July 7, 2007
End of the Trip - San Francisco
The students are at the airport waiting to board their flight home. This was our sightseeing day. This morning we were up for breakfast at 6:15 a.m., then we cleaned our housing area before heading to our tour of Alcatraz. After Alcatraz we went over to Pier 39 to a pizza restaurant for their buffet. I felt sorry for other guests at the restaurant because we pretty much cleared all the food off the buffet within 3 minutes of being seated! After wandering through the shops at Pier 39, we drove through Lombard Street (which zig zags) before driving over the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to the Muir Woods. At the woods we hiked back in amongst the giant sequoia trees where we completed our devotions for the day. Our theme today was "How 'bout you? Got the nerve? The nerve to serve? STEP UP." Our scripture today was Matthew 25:14-30. After Muir Woods we headed to the airport. The team is flying home on the red-eye and will land in Boston around 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. You'll probably see some of them at church this morning. I'll warn you...by that time they won't have showered for 2 days!
Happy birthday to Lauren Harvey! She turns 15 on July 8. We decided that her birthday officially began tonight (July 7) at 9:00 p.m. (midnight in Massachusetts). Otherwise, she would lose 3 hours of her birthday during the flight.
This has been a great week! The students learned a ton about meeting the needs of the homeless - physically, spiritually and relationally. We also had the opportunity to intereact with children through Salvation Army camp programs and to work with a food agency (Project Open Hand) which feeds terminally ill individuals. There are lots of stories from the trip - God moments through service and worship and funny things that happened (which generally are only funny to those of us on the trip...). Each one of us also expanded our relationships with the other people on the trip. New friendships have been formed and older friendships have been strengthened. Each one of us has grown in some way and we are closer to God than we were a week ago.
Thank you to those of you who have supported us with prayer! Prayer partners should continue to pray for the team members as they transition back into their daily routines. Please pray specifically that each team member will continue with their daily time with God. Pray for families to be patient with their teen as they enter back into their homes. The group has been challenged this week to serve God...pray that they will each individually find some way to
continue to do so.
Look for more information about the San Francisco trip on Student Mission Sunday, Aug. 12.
Happy birthday to Lauren Harvey! She turns 15 on July 8. We decided that her birthday officially began tonight (July 7) at 9:00 p.m. (midnight in Massachusetts). Otherwise, she would lose 3 hours of her birthday during the flight.
This has been a great week! The students learned a ton about meeting the needs of the homeless - physically, spiritually and relationally. We also had the opportunity to intereact with children through Salvation Army camp programs and to work with a food agency (Project Open Hand) which feeds terminally ill individuals. There are lots of stories from the trip - God moments through service and worship and funny things that happened (which generally are only funny to those of us on the trip...). Each one of us also expanded our relationships with the other people on the trip. New friendships have been formed and older friendships have been strengthened. Each one of us has grown in some way and we are closer to God than we were a week ago.
Thank you to those of you who have supported us with prayer! Prayer partners should continue to pray for the team members as they transition back into their daily routines. Please pray specifically that each team member will continue with their daily time with God. Pray for families to be patient with their teen as they enter back into their homes. The group has been challenged this week to serve God...pray that they will each individually find some way to
continue to do so.
Look for more information about the San Francisco trip on Student Mission Sunday, Aug. 12.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Day 4 - San Francisco
Wednesday, July 4
Today we all spent the day together in Oakland volunteering with the Salvation Army at their 4th of July Block Party. Unfortunately, Nicole and Mrs. P (Sue Priore) had to stay back because Nicole wasn’t feeling well. (She’s feeling fine now.) At the Block Party we ran the games which included things such as wet sponge throw, face painting, t-shirt decorating, fishing games, and dart throw.
After finishing our mission obligations, we took off to ride the trolley cars to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was a great ride and tons of fun! After a couple of hours of eating and buying souvenirs we tried to catch a bus back to our vans. We stood at the bus stop for over half an hour and didn’t even have any buses come by. At this point it was about 9:00 p.m. and we were anxious to get home to get to bed (we had decided not to stay for the fireworks because we would have been out way too late), so we rented limos (for the same cost as riding the trolley back home). Everyone was pretty excited to get a limo ride on top of everything else we had done today.
Today we all spent the day together in Oakland volunteering with the Salvation Army at their 4th of July Block Party. Unfortunately, Nicole and Mrs. P (Sue Priore) had to stay back because Nicole wasn’t feeling well. (She’s feeling fine now.) At the Block Party we ran the games which included things such as wet sponge throw, face painting, t-shirt decorating, fishing games, and dart throw.
After finishing our mission obligations, we took off to ride the trolley cars to Fisherman’s Wharf. It was a great ride and tons of fun! After a couple of hours of eating and buying souvenirs we tried to catch a bus back to our vans. We stood at the bus stop for over half an hour and didn’t even have any buses come by. At this point it was about 9:00 p.m. and we were anxious to get home to get to bed (we had decided not to stay for the fireworks because we would have been out way too late), so we rented limos (for the same cost as riding the trolley back home). Everyone was pretty excited to get a limo ride on top of everything else we had done today.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Day 3 - San Francisco
Tuesday, July 3
Sorry for the delay on the update! We’ve been really busy the past two days and I had to get some sleep. Hope you understand!
Tuesday was a day of incredible God-moments! I’ll try to get Josh L. and Jenny to write up their group’s experience from today…it was pretty amazing! Jeremy also had an incredible experience during worship that I’ll have him write up for you as well.
Group 1 spent most of their day with Project Open Hand (POH) Kitchen and Grocery Center. The group did a variety of tasks such as packing frozen fish and hot dogs, labeling boxes, and popping bubble wrap to make it smaller for recycling purposes (no kidding!). Later in the afternoon the group personally delivered meals to homebound and terminally ill people.
Group 2 prepared food for the Haight Ashbury Food Program. In the morning they prepared food for lunch, then had the opportunity to actually serve lunch to over 240 homeless people. In the afternoon they were told to wander around the Mission Neighborhood and look for people to help. They were given $20 to spend on needs of the homeless and they took socks and blankets to donate as well. There were lots of God-moments from that trip! (This is what you should expect to read about in the update from Josh and Jenny that will be posted later.)
Group 3 worked at Salvation Army Harborlight where they had volunteered on Monday. Today they started the day with worship, then made ice cream and did science experiments with dry ice. In the afternoon they went to a playground and swimming at a local pool. The students have made lots of friends with the kids and are sad to not be going back later in the week!
Supper tonight was at an Indian restaurant (Naan and Curry). Most students loved the food while a few found it too spicy. Mike H. and Amanda actually tried some new food tonight…and liked it!
Worship and debrief was excellent tonight! The students are beginning to see lots of God-moments and Matt does a great job leading us in worship. The night ended with a birthday celebration for Kayla who turned 17 today. Happy birthday, Kayla!
Sorry for the delay on the update! We’ve been really busy the past two days and I had to get some sleep. Hope you understand!
Tuesday was a day of incredible God-moments! I’ll try to get Josh L. and Jenny to write up their group’s experience from today…it was pretty amazing! Jeremy also had an incredible experience during worship that I’ll have him write up for you as well.
Group 1 spent most of their day with Project Open Hand (POH) Kitchen and Grocery Center. The group did a variety of tasks such as packing frozen fish and hot dogs, labeling boxes, and popping bubble wrap to make it smaller for recycling purposes (no kidding!). Later in the afternoon the group personally delivered meals to homebound and terminally ill people.
Group 2 prepared food for the Haight Ashbury Food Program. In the morning they prepared food for lunch, then had the opportunity to actually serve lunch to over 240 homeless people. In the afternoon they were told to wander around the Mission Neighborhood and look for people to help. They were given $20 to spend on needs of the homeless and they took socks and blankets to donate as well. There were lots of God-moments from that trip! (This is what you should expect to read about in the update from Josh and Jenny that will be posted later.)
Group 3 worked at Salvation Army Harborlight where they had volunteered on Monday. Today they started the day with worship, then made ice cream and did science experiments with dry ice. In the afternoon they went to a playground and swimming at a local pool. The students have made lots of friends with the kids and are sad to not be going back later in the week!
Supper tonight was at an Indian restaurant (Naan and Curry). Most students loved the food while a few found it too spicy. Mike H. and Amanda actually tried some new food tonight…and liked it!
Worship and debrief was excellent tonight! The students are beginning to see lots of God-moments and Matt does a great job leading us in worship. The night ended with a birthday celebration for Kayla who turned 17 today. Happy birthday, Kayla!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Day 2 - San Francisco
Monday, July 2, 2007
The day started bright and early with breakfast at 6:00 a.m. for most of our group (the rest got to “sleep in” until 6:30 a.m.). After breakfast (cereal, toast, milk and juice) we headed out to our worksites. Students are divided up into 3 teams for the week:
Team 1 – Paige Carr, Lauren Harvey, Amanda Lombardo, Christina Tomasetti, Ben Harcovitz and Jeremy Sutton with Michael Cotsford, Suzan Culver and Donna Moses.
Team 2 – Jenny Chang, Nicole Cooprider, Dayna Lynds, Colleen McBride, Zach Culver and Josh Laurence with Sue Priore, Marc Crosier and Matt Tomasetti.
Team 3 – Steph Laurence, Sarah Monroe, Ally Moses, Kayla Poillucci, Mike Hottleman, Josh Meister, and Joe Ross with Mike Swanick and Mike Laurence.
Marc Crosier, Suzan Culver, Mike Laurence and Matt Tomasetti will be rotating through the groups throughout the week.
Today TEAM 1 made sack lunches (PB & J sandwiches, fruit, chips, candy, juice box) that they delivered to individual homeless people hanging outside around City Hall. It was an opportunity to have a conversation with a homeless person and learn to see them as people. TEAM 1 spent most of the day working at the Haight Asbury Food Program distributing food from the food bank to over 100 individuals.
TEAM 2 spent their day with the children from the Tenderloin Central Corps Day Camp. They worked with over 50 kids ages 4-12. The staff at the Day Camp numbered 6, so they were thankful for the extra volunteers! The day at the Day Camp was spent doing school work and crafts, watching a movie, and playing at the park. We came with two crafts to share with the kids – decorating visors with stickers and painting on t-shirts with fabric markers. The t-shirts were a big hit!
TEAM 3 also spent their day with kids. They were at the Salvation Army Harborlight – a ministry for children ages 6-12. There were approximately 40 kids and 2 staff members. They obviously couldn’t make it through the day without volunteers! They started with games, had a craft time, and educational lessons. The day ended with games and playtime in the park.
This evening we ate gyros for supper at the Aquatic Park on the harbor near Fisherman’s Wharf. We had debrief and worship outside, then headed over to Ghiradelli Square for ice cream. The temperature dropped so much during debrief, that we were freezing but somehow managed to eat ice cream. Go figure!
The devotion theme for today was “God has changed me from the inside out and today I am making it real” and our scripture was 1 Peter 4:7-11. Students shared at debrief how they had seen God at work throughout their day. Stories were shared about conversations with people on the street as well as with kids at the day care.
Lights were out at 11:00 p.m. and they were all thankful to get to bed.
The day started bright and early with breakfast at 6:00 a.m. for most of our group (the rest got to “sleep in” until 6:30 a.m.). After breakfast (cereal, toast, milk and juice) we headed out to our worksites. Students are divided up into 3 teams for the week:
Team 1 – Paige Carr, Lauren Harvey, Amanda Lombardo, Christina Tomasetti, Ben Harcovitz and Jeremy Sutton with Michael Cotsford, Suzan Culver and Donna Moses.
Team 2 – Jenny Chang, Nicole Cooprider, Dayna Lynds, Colleen McBride, Zach Culver and Josh Laurence with Sue Priore, Marc Crosier and Matt Tomasetti.
Team 3 – Steph Laurence, Sarah Monroe, Ally Moses, Kayla Poillucci, Mike Hottleman, Josh Meister, and Joe Ross with Mike Swanick and Mike Laurence.
Marc Crosier, Suzan Culver, Mike Laurence and Matt Tomasetti will be rotating through the groups throughout the week.
Today TEAM 1 made sack lunches (PB & J sandwiches, fruit, chips, candy, juice box) that they delivered to individual homeless people hanging outside around City Hall. It was an opportunity to have a conversation with a homeless person and learn to see them as people. TEAM 1 spent most of the day working at the Haight Asbury Food Program distributing food from the food bank to over 100 individuals.
TEAM 2 spent their day with the children from the Tenderloin Central Corps Day Camp. They worked with over 50 kids ages 4-12. The staff at the Day Camp numbered 6, so they were thankful for the extra volunteers! The day at the Day Camp was spent doing school work and crafts, watching a movie, and playing at the park. We came with two crafts to share with the kids – decorating visors with stickers and painting on t-shirts with fabric markers. The t-shirts were a big hit!
TEAM 3 also spent their day with kids. They were at the Salvation Army Harborlight – a ministry for children ages 6-12. There were approximately 40 kids and 2 staff members. They obviously couldn’t make it through the day without volunteers! They started with games, had a craft time, and educational lessons. The day ended with games and playtime in the park.
This evening we ate gyros for supper at the Aquatic Park on the harbor near Fisherman’s Wharf. We had debrief and worship outside, then headed over to Ghiradelli Square for ice cream. The temperature dropped so much during debrief, that we were freezing but somehow managed to eat ice cream. Go figure!
The devotion theme for today was “God has changed me from the inside out and today I am making it real” and our scripture was 1 Peter 4:7-11. Students shared at debrief how they had seen God at work throughout their day. Stories were shared about conversations with people on the street as well as with kids at the day care.
Lights were out at 11:00 p.m. and they were all thankful to get to bed.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Day 1 - San Francisco
Sunday, July 1
Our morning started off early as we met at the church at 6:15am to check in before leaving for the Boston Airport. Several Elders came to pray for us, along with family and friends. Thank you to those who came early to send us off.
The flight was uneventful. It was a 6 hours trip from Boston to San Francisco. The in-flight movie was less than exciting, Blades of Glory, but the company was great. We were seated all together in the middle of the plane.
During the flight we completed our devotions for the first day. Today’s theme was, “I Am a Servant First” based on 1 Tim 1:12-17.
After landing, we quickly got our luggage and got into our 5 rental mini vans, we are a group of 27, to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped near the bridge to enjoy scenery, stretch our legs and take some pictures before heading off to the Center for Student Missions (CSM) for
check-in at 5pm.
Just as our last van pulled in, Jeremy Sutton was dropped off at CSM. He had been in the area for the past week visiting his grandmother and arrived to spend the week with us. It was pretty cool that we all arrived at the same time.
We are staying in a church in two large rooms, one for the guys and one for the girls. We are sleeping on bunk beds and everyone has a mattress.
After settling in and having a brief orientation we headed out to supper to a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant. The food was outstanding and we all had to eat with chop sticks.
After dinner we headed out in our vans for a prayer tour of the city. This was a combination prayer time and information session. We learned tons about the city and the people who live here….both the wealthy and the poor.
We prayed individually and in groups but mostly our eyes were opened to the plight of the poorest of the poor. As we looked out over the lights of the city we were challenged to be light to the world for Christ. The final question posed by our guild as we completed the tour was, “where would Jesus be hanging out if he were in the city tonight?”
Our evening ended with a debrief of our day’s devotions and the prayer tour . Matt Tomasetti sent us off to bed at 11pm (2am Boston time) with a worship song and we all quickly fell asleep after a long day of travel, anxious for the day ahead and hopeful of the week ahead.
It doesn’t appear that I will have internet access so the updating of the blog will occur as time allows.
Our morning started off early as we met at the church at 6:15am to check in before leaving for the Boston Airport. Several Elders came to pray for us, along with family and friends. Thank you to those who came early to send us off.
The flight was uneventful. It was a 6 hours trip from Boston to San Francisco. The in-flight movie was less than exciting, Blades of Glory, but the company was great. We were seated all together in the middle of the plane.
During the flight we completed our devotions for the first day. Today’s theme was, “I Am a Servant First” based on 1 Tim 1:12-17.
After landing, we quickly got our luggage and got into our 5 rental mini vans, we are a group of 27, to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped near the bridge to enjoy scenery, stretch our legs and take some pictures before heading off to the Center for Student Missions (CSM) forcheck-in at 5pm.
Just as our last van pulled in, Jeremy Sutton was dropped off at CSM. He had been in the area for the past week visiting his grandmother and arrived to spend the week with us. It was pretty cool that we all arrived at the same time.
We are staying in a church in two large rooms, one for the guys and one for the girls. We are sleeping on bunk beds and everyone has a mattress.
After settling in and having a brief orientation we headed out to supper to a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant. The food was outstanding and we all had to eat with chop sticks.
After dinner we headed out in our vans for a prayer tour of the city. This was a combination prayer time and information session. We learned tons about the city and the people who live here….both the wealthy and the poor.
We prayed individually and in groups but mostly our eyes were opened to the plight of the poorest of the poor. As we looked out over the lights of the city we were challenged to be light to the world for Christ. The final question posed by our guild as we completed the tour was, “where would Jesus be hanging out if he were in the city tonight?”
Our evening ended with a debrief of our day’s devotions and the prayer tour . Matt Tomasetti sent us off to bed at 11pm (2am Boston time) with a worship song and we all quickly fell asleep after a long day of travel, anxious for the day ahead and hopeful of the week ahead.
It doesn’t appear that I will have internet access so the updating of the blog will occur as time allows.
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