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.

Group from VA

A group from Virginia came Sunday and first day of ministry went well.

I am very busy with finishing up the KC trip, doing this trip and getting ready for next week. I am leaving Philly for Chicago. I really wish I had time to see home but I do not think I will have time. Kind of bummed but God will give me strength to get through it.

27hrs Later

I started my journey Friday afternoon, around 12:30pm. I left Kansas for the airport in Missouri. I arrived way too early due to the fact that there was no traffic and security took about 2 minutes to get through. But that was ok, I had some time to relax.

I had a lay over in Minnesota before I got to Philly. It turns out there was a big storm in MN so all flights going there were delayed. An hour or two later we got on our plane and headed toward MN.

The storm got so bad that while we were flying the airport shut down and we had to circle in the air. After about an hour or so we had to land in Iowa to get more fuel. We got off the plane for dinner and we tried it again. We had to fly up to South Dakota and around the back way to land in MN.

We arrived in Minnesota around 10:30pm only to wait in a long line that told us not flights were going out tonight. The next one was Saturday at 10am. All the hotels were totally booked so I had a choice of sleeping at the airport or calling friends. I chose to make a few phone calls but because it was so late, no one was awake to pick up their phones.

Then I remembered the group I was leading in KC was from MN and they had just gotten back. I called the leader and they were willing to pick me up and let me sleep at their house for the night. It is nice to have connections. Got back to the airport the next morning for my 10am flight which turned out to be a 12pm flight.

I arrived back in Philly at 3pm, my team picked me up and drove back to the church. There was so much traffic going back to the church we did not get back until almost 5pm.

Long day of travel but I made it and now it is time for a nap.

Small World

At Rosedale Church in KC on Sunday, Africa came up in conversation. I then mentioned I spent some time in Ghana. Well this church supports a missionary couple in Ghana. I was really excited and asked where they were. They said in a village called 'Q'. I had no idea where that was but they kept saying in the northwest corner of Ghana. I was in the northwest corner of Ghana. I was in Wa and the surrounding villages. And the Russells knew all the missionaries in the area and I met most of them but I could not put my figure on 'Q'.

Last on in the week I was talking about it with the pastor and found out that these missionaries are in Wa, well rather they are in a village of Wa that you can only get to by dirt bike.

After asking what their names were I realized I had met them! Crazy. A few people from the church are going to visit these missionaries; I wish I could go with. I am going to brush up on my Braille and send some notes to my students along with some school supplies for them to drop off while they are on their way to the village.

Crazy! Usually people have never hear of Wa but they not only know people there, they are going there! Way cool.

MN group shot

Pastor Matt is in the orange and Pastor Alan is in the white from Rosedale Church

Art is in the middle with the gray shirt: he was our cook for the week

Dana is in the green in the first row: she was one of our worship leaders.
John, who is not in the picture was our other worship leader.

Leaders of group: Brian, Dan, Kyle and Julie

Kids: Alyssa, Chase, Grand, Hannah, Kassi, Jared, Lucas, Clay, Lauren, and Jared

KC has come to a close

Wow has God worked this week.

VBS, jr. high youth group, organizing, eating, senior high youth group, cleaning the church, pool party, Rescue Mission, prayer walks, cleaning out the dungeon, running through the fountain, debriefing and always of course bowel movements...

God has shown His compassion for us so that we were able to show compassion to others.

So, let me tell you a little story: It is really hot and humid here is KC and I told the group they needed to drink a lot of water. Well, I found they were just not drinking enough water so I turned it into a game. It was a competition of who could pee the most in one day. The least was the first day at 2 but once we started counting they were going 5-8 times a day. That means they were drinking water. That was good. The total record for most times peeing in one day was 12.

This was a great group and I wish them well as they go back to MN.

What a great week. Now back to Philly.

Pictures bottom to top: songs at VBS, Lucas and VBS kid, organizing the jr. church room, assembly line while cleaning out basement (dungeon), debriefing/praying at the end of a long week