Dad and Sue

On August 9, 2010 my dad and Sue got married! It rained in the morning which will bring them luck but for the ceremony the skies were clear and beautiful. It was a great day. It was really nice to see my dad so happy.

Decorating


Getting Ready


The Ceremony


Wedding Party

Mallory, Me, Brittany, Sue, Dad, Mason, Brad, Scott

The Happy Couple

Tooth

In the middle of wedding planning, preparation and getting better from poison ivy one of my teeth broke. It was a back molar and it hurt pretty bad. Good thing I was home for all of this.

Quick visit here and there and now I have a whole new root to my tooth. The best part is that the doctor put in an orange root :) I was wearing my orange shoes and an orange shirt and he thought I should match. That was very nice of him. We also talked about his adventures in the peace core (he was in Africa).

Now that I will always have orange with me, I now need to get a cap for my tooth. So, no one will ever see this orange root but I will always know it is there :)

Beautiful Night

This was my last night in Philly. I just had to share it with you all.


This was a great summer, a great experience and I am thankful for each moment of it (even the poison ivy).

I met great people, traveled to new places, learned new cultures and got to see God work in it all.

I learned that I am a very independent person but I heavily rely on God to guide my every move. And every day He took care of me, whether it was due to a tornado, what to do for the morning, patients, or just sitting and listening to Him.

And now for the next journey of my life. Weddings...

Fun in Philly

My last night in Philly, I had to do all the tourist stuff!

I went to the land of giant game pieces...


And I got a push in the Monopoly wheel barrow.

That is Jen. I was living in her room for the past summer. She is awesome and took good care of me when I was very itchy.

Then we climbed up the stairs Rocky trained on.


And of course I had to find a fountain. I love fountains.

This fountain is in the middle of Logan Square. It may not be as cool as Buckingham Fountain but it was pretty nice.

It was a great night on the town, even though I was really itchy.

Had to Come Home

After a few hours in multiple doctor offices, some confused looks and a change of medication, I realized it would be best for me to head home and get better.

It was a hard decision to make but I realized I was not going to get better and would only hinder my team and myself if I continued.

I said my good byes, packed up my bags and headed home. It has been two days and the swelling on my wrists and ankles have gone down greatly. I am still pretty itchy and very red but doing much better.

It is nice to know that there will always be a safe place to come if anything every happens. It may take a day or two to get home but it is possible and I am welcomed with open arms.

Love Park

The city of Brotherly Love.

I love this place. Not just because it is in the middle of a big city or because it is a fountain but so many people come to hang out here.

One of my favorite memories was bringing about 100 sandwiches and passing them out to all the people who would not otherwise eat that night. Yeah you can say they were homeless but I like to call them friends.

It brought me back to the good old days of Sunday Snacks. Oh and for all of you who have met Foots before, well I found the Foots of Philly. Her name is Sharron. Wild and crazy but you just have to love her :)

A Mix of Groups

Back at Wyoming Baptist we had three different groups there this past week.

One group was from Massachusetts.

The leaders were Tim and Ann. There were 8 energetic high school girls; Allison, Melony, Emily, Hannah, Allison, Kimmie, Hannah and Maddy. I got to do a little bit of ministry with them and they were a lot of fun. Lots of changes coming up for you girls but don't worry God will show you the way.

One group was from Indiana.

Brad and Karen were the leaders. There were 5 high school students: Megan, McKenzie, Natasia, Micheal and Steven. It took a little pushing to step outside of comfort zones but once they did God really used them. Keep on being bold.

The other group was from Connecticut.

This was a group of junior higheres who were very excited and ready to serve the Lord. Leaders: Tim, Karen, Ugo, Megan, Priscilla, Scott, John, Katie, Julie, Rachel, John, Patty and studetns: Michael, Emma, Emily, Carolyn, Jayla, Jackie, CC, Katie, Lizzy, Michael, Erin, Josh, Eles, Katherine, Collin, Steven, Sam, Phinous, David, Elena, Cameron, Jackson, Olivia, Zack, Josiah, Zack, Rommel, Michael, Peter, Ryan, Hassan. It was awesome to see them grow through out the week.

Now that you are all back on your mission field, use what you have learned on the training ground a be bold for the Lord.

It Itches

So here I am in the middle of the big city. I am in the middle of Philadelphia.

We had a work project last week to pull out some weeds form an over grown garden. I did not think twice about helping out. Pulled out a few pairs of gardening gloves for my team and I, and we started pulling, and pulling and pulling. It was like a jungle in there.

At the end of the day I saw a few mosquito bites but it was not bad. Just do not itch it... well the itching got worse and my mosquito bites started to multiply...

I started to second guess myself...Then put it all together...Yep...I got poison ivy!

It is not too bad now. I have spray to dry it out and I am washing all my clothes and sheets to help stop the spreading. One of the church members is a nurse and he is taking really good care of me.

I also told all the students here not to let me scratch. Hopefully it will get better soon.

Back to Wyoming Av. Church

I am back at Wyoming Av. Baptist Church in Philly.

One more week here.

Then I have one week in Roxborough, one week in DC, and then home.

This summer has gone by very fast.

Chciago Group Shot

Cathy, Ryan, Jimmy, Allen, Matthew, Zack, Drew, Austin, Sarah, Allie, Nikki, Jessie, Halsey, Sonny, Brandon, Jim, Dolly, Timmy, Aubrie, Zack, DJ, Andy, Rachel, Megan, Jon and Ms. Pearl (she owned the Day Care we stayed at)

North Carolina Group

Group shot!
Top row: Zack, Izzy, Rabecca, Alisa, Kevin, Matt, Matthew
Middle row: Jordan, Sarah, Anna, Katie, Nikalas, Brandon
Botton row: Sammie, Mikala, Nick, Mark, Pastor Ron (from chruch in Roxborough)


They worked hard. And see that back room that is yellow... That is the nursery and they painted it.

Prayer

We took some time and prayer for the community of Roxborough. In many different ways. The students really got in to the prayers and by the end the whole wall was full of prayers.

Roxborough, PA

I am now back in Philadelphia but I am in the community of Roxborough, which is about a half hour away from where I have been.

I am staying at a Salvation Army. It is cool to see how Salvation Army run because my great grandmother was and officer and I love to listen to stories Grandpa tells.

The group arrived yesterday from North Carolina. It has been fun to hear different accents this summer, especially this group. They have a thick southern accent :)

There are 17 students and they are all Jr. Highers. They are full of energy but they are hard workers.

Chicago Trip

So last week in Chicago I was a little busy. I did not have much time to post but I wanted to share some pictures so you can see how God worked.

I had a great plan for this week. We were going to do so much and it was going to be great. Well I quickly learned that my plan was not the plan that God wanted to happen. The plan I had created was tossed out the window when opportunities to do the Lord's plan dropped right in front of us. Come to think about it... every time I went to make a plan God changed it.

We did God's plan the whole week! One day He lead us to just pray so we obeyed. I had to force the students to stop praying and eat dinner. God was really working!

I got to know a lot of the students really well and got to see Jesus work through all of them. God is good!

I pray that they continue to seek and ask God in all that they do.

Ohio group in Chicago

I arrived at the site Saturday afternoon. Yesterday morning we cooked for the homeless and the group arrived. They are from Ohio and are very excited to serve the Lord with week.

I am excited to serve with them.

Short Visit Home

I flew from Philly to Chicago and there was no complications, no storm, no tornado, did not run out of gas and did not loose my luggage. Other than the baby screaming in the seat behind me it was a great fight.

My mom picked me up from the airport and we got Chicago style deep dish pizza, mmmmmmm. Played some cards with Mason and Mallory, then saw Dad's and Sue's house, fell asleep watching a movie and then it was morning.

Ate breakfast with mom and then lunch with Mason and Mallory. Mason drove me to my next trip and now I wait for the group to arrive.

It was really nice to see my family.

VA Group Shot

This is the group from VA.

Food

Working all day really gives you an appetite.

These kids eat so much!

Ericka: the girl that is bending over in the white shirt is our cook and she makes great food

Work Projects...

This whole white board was full of work projects we could, maybe should, have had the group do but we left it up to the Lord to tell us what to do.

Some of them got done like painting the bathroom in the parsonage (that is our bathroom in the house and it looks so good) but with leaving it open to what the Lord wanted us to do we were able to accomplish more that we could imagine.

Groups went all over talking with people, building relationships, cleaning up trash, praying, passing out food and just enjoy the beautiful breeze God gave us. (It has been soooo hot).

It is cool how if you just ask God will direct you and if you act on how He is guiding you amazing things happen.

He Answers

I was with a group this morning doing our door to door ministry. In this ministry we walk up and down the streets going into small businesses and asking if they need any help: cleaning, organizing, washing tables, mopping, restocking, ect.

Often people look at us like we are crazy that we want to help for free. Our purpose is to show Jesus's love through us, others care for them and rise up the community. Some people say thank you and send us on our way. But then some people really put us to work.

Today was a slower day. We had walked all the way up Front Street and only had 3 more businesses left. I asked the students in my group to pray that God will open some doors for us so He could use us to bless someone. Not only were we running out of street we still had an hour left for our morning ministry time.

They prayed, said Amen and not even five steps later a women was struggling carrying a big pot. We asked if she needed any help and she looked at our (all Caucasian) group and said 'really?!' We assured her we just wanted to help and would do it for free.

She told us she had been asking herself how she was going to get these 6 LARGE barrels of soil to her back yard. She said a quick prayer and then we walked up.

After carrying lots of soil, playing with dogs, planing a few things, cleaning the back yard a little, talking, mowing her little patch of lawn, talking and praying, over an hour had pasted.

Sure we blessed this women but wow did God bless us with answering our prays and using us to bless someone else.