Norfolk Team Update - Day 2 - 7.24.15

The Norfolk team rose this morning with an excited energy that permeated everything we did today! After breakfast, the team loaded up the vehicles and headed to Union Missions Ministries.  Union Missions is a local homeless shelter where they feed, clothe and house around 350 men and 120 women and children a day.  While there, people get a chance to meet with case workers who help them devise a plan to get them off the streets and back on their feet.  The team met with Miss Linda, one of the staff members, who gave us an introduction into homelessness and the goal of Union Missions.  After talking with the team and answering questions we had about the work that they do, we took a tour of the facility.  The team followed the path of the donations that we brought down, from the drop off point to the warehouse, where they sort all of the donation items and send them to the distribution rooms.  Finally, the thrift store that the Mission runs to help not only the homeless but also those in the area that may have homes, but are financially overwhelmed.  It was great to see our team engage with the workers at Union Missions and also feel compassion for those that have much greater physical needs than we do.

Afterwards, the team left to go to a park near our next stop, Consulate Health Center, where we ate lunch before heading over to Consulate.  Once we arrived at Consulate we met the group of elderly men and women who were waiting for us in another nearby park for a picnic.  It was awesome to see the reactions of both the group from Consulate and our own team as we walked up to the pavilion to cheers from the elderly.  Our team jumped at the opportunity to engage with them.  After the picnic, our team helped our new friends back to the health center across the street.  It was such a vision of God working in and through our group as the team helped those that could walk and those in wheel chairs safely get back to their rooms.  One of the workers at Consulate commented once we had gotten everyone back that we had saved them at least an hour and a half of transportation time.  We said goodbye to our new friends at Consulate and headed to the beach for a few hours of fun and an oceanside dinner.

After dinner, the team headed back to Spring Branch for Porch Time where they had an opportunity to recount some of the days events before listening to a talk from Nick.  Tonight Nick talked about faith and why our faith seems to make more sense when we leave our comfort zone.  He spoke from John 11, where Martha gets uncomfortable when Jesus asks her to move the stone from Lazarus' tomb.  He used the story to talk about the fact that God oftentimes asks us to get out of our comfort zone and trust that God will give us the strength and courage we need.  When we are willing to actually live out the things God is asking us to do then we get to experience the glory of God.  The team was challenged to actively look for how God shows up in our daily lives as we think about taking what we're learning on the trip and applying it in our daily routines.  After the talk, the team split into small groups to discuss this further and then headed to bed excited for out final day of serving tomorrow!

Norfolk Team Update - Night One - 7.23.15

The Norfolk team started their trip this afternoon by having a great trip down to VA Beach.  It was great to watch as the team immediately began to bond on our car ride down I-64.  There was no complaining about the traffic, but instead the extra time in the cars was used to play car games and have great conversations.  As a result, spirits were high as we made it to our housing site, Spring Branch Community Church, and settled into our home for the next two nights.  Spring Branch is led by Travis Simone's father Pastor Michael Simone, and we have had a wonderful partnership with them for many years.  One of our favorite things about the church is their youth room where they have a pool table, foosball table, and a brand new octagon ball court setup.  Octagon ball is a great game played in a walled arena where you attempt to hit the other players below the knee with a soft ball.  The whole team was super excited to see all the fun things Spring Branch has to offer.

After dinner and some free time playing games we began what was for most of the team their first ever "Porch Time." Porch Time comes from the Nicaragua trip where the teams would spend the evening on an actual porch and talk about where they had seen God at work during the day and we use the same title for all of the nightly meetings on every Student Ministry mission trip.  Tonight, Nick spoke from Matthew 25 where Jesus says that "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." He spoke about the idea that we can look around us and see God at work in the situations that God has placed us in and in the people around us as well.  The team was challenged to look for God at work tomorrow as we engage and serve the people God has placed in our paths. After Porch Time, the team split up into small groups and continued the conversation about how we can see Jesus at work on the trip and in our daily lives at home.  After small groups, the Norfolk headed to bed excited for the opportunity to serve tomorrow!

Norfolk Mission Team Departure Details

We are planning to leave at 5pm from the Chapel.  We will start checking everyone in at 4pm in the Student Ministry Worship Room.  Your kids don't need to pack a meal because we will eat pizza as soon as we arrive at our housing location in VA Beach tonight.

Feel free to text or call Luke Kincaid at 757-570-0292 or Nick Mercer at 757-345-1816 if you have any last minute questions.

Final Senior Experience Training Meeting

Last night we had our final training meeting for the Senior Experience. If you have any questions about the trip, please see the Checklist below or contact Alexis at akincaid@wcchapel.org.

The trip begins this Sunday, July 19th at 3pm. Please meet in the Student Ministries Lounge with all your stuff for the trip at that time.

Senior Checklist #3

Final Norfolk Team Meeting Info - 7.14.15

Thanks everyone for coming out to our final Norfolk Meeting! In our meeting we held a competition where the kids split into groups and were asked to create a unique game out of three random objects of their choosing. It is amazing what Middle School Students can do when they are given the opportunity to use their creativity! This task was to get them to think creatively about entertaining people as we have opportunities on the trip for this. After the competition, Nick gave the third and final Moses teaching that focuses on excuses that Moses makes when God calls him to action.  In small groups the students talked about some of the excuses that we can sometimes make when God calls us to His plan for our lives.
Here are the questions the kids looked at in their small groups
SG questions #3

Just in case you still need any of the forms/handouts: 
Packing List
Parental Consent Form
Norfolk General Schedule

If you have any other questions leading up to the trip please contact Nick at nmercer@wcchapel.org 
We are excited for the opportunity to serve with this team and can't wait for next week!

Nashville Team Update – Friday, July 10, 2015

What a great way to end our week in Nashville . . .

Serving Group 1:

For their final morning in the city, Serving Group 1 once again returned to the Andrew Jackson Boys & Girls Club to help with their summer camp and play with the kids. The team was surprised to see how quickly they formed bonds with these children and how quickly it became challenging to say goodbye for the last time. In the afternoon, Group 1 spent time at Open Table Nashville, an interfaith organization that journeys with the marginalized and provides education about issues of homelessness. They spent their time at a local Baptist church, helping them prepare to house 18 homeless men and women that evening by setting up and making beds, cleaning the fellowship area, and setting up tables for dinner. After their time of service was over, the group headed out for a sweet snack before returning to the housing site to pack, clean, and get ready for dinner.

Serving Group 2:

Serving Group 2 began their day with one more trip to Y-CAP to assist with the summer camp there. Similar to Group 1, Group 2 also found it bittersweet to hug the children goodbye today. What encouraged the group was knowing that the staff and future volunteers will continue to provide love and support to these energetic kids. After lunch, Group 2 returned to Nashville CARES, Tennessee’s leading community-based AIDS service organization. Whiles at CARES, the team packaged meals for clients who are suffering from this awful disease. Other members of the group did some grounds-keeping around the facility, while still other team members assisted with some filing. The staff was very impressed by the amount that Serving Group 2 was able to accomplish in just an afternoon.

Serving Group 3:

Meanwhile, Serving Group 3 spent the entire day at FAM. They participated in sidewalk Sunday school and then helped set up for the camp water day. They shared a meal with the students cooked by the staff chef, who also happens to be one of the main pastors! After lunch, they played water and field games with the children. They set up pools and slip ‘n’ slides, while some of the children enjoyed basketball as well. The team explained their time today as one of the most fun experiences of the trip. Overall, they loved finishing up their week with FAM and the friendships they built with the children throughout the entire week!

Serving Group 4:

After getting to sleep in a little bit this morning, Serving Group 4 headed to Fifty Forward, a senior citizens day care center that other groups had the privilege to also visit earlier in the week. The team spent time talking with the elderly, asking questions about their lives and sharing stories from their own. After eating lunch with the clients there, the group also enjoyed a nice music session, complete with piano playing and singing. After saying their goodbyes, Group 4 drove to meet up with Serving Group 5 at Catholic Charities Refugee Training Center. Catholic Charities is a national organization focused on efforts to reduce poverty, support families, and empower communities. Groups 4 and 5 helped out by sorting and organizing donations that would soon go to support refugee families and children.

Serving Group 5:

Project Transformation, Serving Group 5’s anchor site for the week, is closed on Fridays, so the team participated in “Operation Hydration” this morning. The team walked around downtown Nashville handing out water bottles to homeless people in the community, as well as police officers. After they ran out of water bottles, they ran through fountains and played with some local children. The entire team agreed that this experience was their favorite of the trip. It was such a joy to see the students serving others even outside of their scheduled ministry activities. After lunch in a local park, they joined up with group 4 to help sort and organize donations at Catholic Charities.

After each group had finished their serving opportunities for the day, the entire team met back at the housing site to clean and pack before embarking on our “free night” activity. To celebrate our last evening in Nashville, everyone got dressed in western gear (or t-shirts the groups had purchased at Walmart), and all groups headed to a famous, family-friendly restaurant downtown to enjoy a BBQ buffet and some country line dancing lessons. The team bonding experience was the perfect way to end such a great week of service and unity.

Tomorrow, the team plans to depart the housing site around 8am (9am EST) to return to Williamsburg. We will do our best to make good time, but we humbly solicit your prayers and patience as we prioritize safety and healthy bladders. With a team of 62 people, frequent stops are difficult to avoid. Again, please pray for safe travels, no traffic, and great group bonding time in the vehicles. This will be our final blog post for the trip, so to get on the text list to receive updates on our travels, please text NASHPARENT to 41411. We are excited to get home to share with you in person all that God has done in us and through us.

NC Team - Day 5 - 7.10.15

Today was the final day at our work site for the NC team.  However, similar to yesterday, the 7th grade girls spent the morning at the local Manna Food bank where they sorted food as well as stacked packages of diapers that will be distributed to families in need.  The girls loved getting to serve alongside each other and it was neat to watch the team of girls work diligently to sort things for people they will probably never meet.  They came back from Manna with stories of all the things they stacked and were excited to tell everyone how much they had done.

While the 7th grade girls were gone the rest of the team continued our project at Miriam's house.  We were able to finish our final trench after only a couple hours in the morning.  Then we quickly began digging the trenches to connect all the pipes, finishing the supply line trench, and attaching all the pipes together.  It was truly special to see the God-given joy on everyones faces as we threw the last shovel of dirt on to the trenches.  We wholeheartedly realized that only God could have inspired and strengthened our group to dig for 4 days!

While the digging was being finished up, some of our team continued to paint Miriam's house.  All of the trim needed to be painted beige and all of the siding needed to be painted blue.  Some of our team was on ladders to reach the higher spots, some of our team was walking around the bottom making sure every spot was covered with blue paint, and some of our team was painting the shutters.  At the end of the week we were able to not only finish priming her house, but also finish putting a first coat of colored paint on her entire house.  Miriam's neighbors and family were all astonished by the transformation, which was great to see how God used our team to impact an entire neighborhood.

After all of our work, Miriam and her daughter-in-law came out to thank all of us.  In addition to some very heartfelt words of gratitude they gave us a laminated piece of paper that has notes from all the family members and pictures of everyone in the family.  Here is what the family wrote to our team:

       We are overwhelmed at the outpouring of love and generosity you have given to our family.  Just               when you reach the very end and doubt if God even hears your prayers, 70 people show up at your home with their arms stretched open wide.  Thank you for bringing Romans 8:28 to life for us because it is clear that ALL things work together for good...even a broken down septic tank!
                  Forever your friends in Christ,
                    The Porter Family

It has been a blessing for our team to be able to serve and share Christ's love with the Porter family!

The team headed back to our housing site after finishing up our work project.  We cleaned up, ate dinner and then joined the ReCreation staff for some evening worship music and a highlight video from the week.  We enjoyed getting to see pictures from all the work we did and remembering all that God had done throughout the week.

Finally, our team gathered out back around a fire pit for our final porch time together.  We sang some more worship songs and then Luke closed out our time by re-visiting the story of Moses that we studied in our pre-trip training meetings.  He reminded us of the excuses that Moses made for why God shouldn't use him to free the Israelites from slavery in Exodus 4.  Then he transitioned that into reminding the team that we need to stop making excuses in our own lives for why we aren't willing to follow what God is asking us to do.  Then he closed by reminding the team that God is with us and will provide for us whenever He asks us to do something.  After Luke's talk everyone was given the opportunity to burn up the excuses they had written down on their card at the missions overnight and they were given a holding cross with Exodus 4:2 engraved on one side and the phrase No Excuses engraved on the other.  The hope is that we will all return to Williamsburg with these lessons in our minds and a cross to remind us whenever we begin to make excuses for not following God.

The evening ended with a final time in small groups to finish processing the trip.  It truly has been an extraordinary week where God did great things in and through everyone on the trip.  Thank you for all your prayers and don't forget to join us on August 2nd at 6:30pm at the Chapel to hear more stories and see a highlight video of the trip.

Nashville Team Update – Thursday, July 9, 2015

Today was incredible! While each serving group had an awesome day of service, God truly showed up the most powerfully tonight at Porch Time. As a result, we will give brief descriptions of each serving group’s activities, but our blog post tonight will specifically highlight our time of worship and processing this evening.

Serving Group 1:

Serving Group 1 spent their morning serving alongside Serving Group 4 at Isaiah 58, a ministry run out of a local church which serves community meals several days a week to the needy. After mingling, serving, and eating with the guests, the group helped clean the fellowship hall before heading to their next assignment for the day. In the afternoon, Serving Group 1 spent time back at the Andrew Jackson Boys & Girls Club, continuing to build relationships with the kids there. After saying goodbye to the kids, the team headed to dinner at Istanbul Turkish restaurant, which was absolutely delicious.

Serving Group 2:

Once again, Serving Group 2 headed straight to Y-CAP to love on the children there. While their mornings have started pretty early, the group has been happy to give up a few extra minutes of sleep to develop friendships and serve these kids.  After lunch, Serving Group 2 spent time at Second Harvest where they helped sort and pack food that will be distributed to many different ministry sites throughout middle-Tennessee. The team packed over 10,000 pounds of food in just three hours, an incredible feat considering Second Harvest normally packs only 40,000 pounds in an entire week! For dinner, Serving Group 2 enjoyed a well-deserved meal at the Thai Kitchen.

Serving Group 3:

Serving Group 3 returned to Family Affairs Ministry today to put on their “Sidewalk Sunday School,” an event they had been preparing for all week which included games as well as a skit/lesson about the story of Queen Esther. The gathering was a huge success, and all the kids (and team members) felt encouraged by the program and getting to be a part of it. After eating with the kids from FAM, Group 3 headed to Project C.U.R.E., an organization that ships medical supplies all over the world to countries who desperately need them. The team was blow away by the organization involved at Project C.U.R.E., and felt privileged to be a part of what they are doing. For dinner, Serving Group 3 enjoyed a delicious Southern-style meal at Swett’s, which has become a trip favorite.

Serving Group 4:

Group 4 joined Group 1 to begin their day together at Isaiah 58, preparing and serving lunch to needy men, women, and children in the community surrounding the church. It was fun for the two groups to not only serve, but to be able to do it with another part of the Nashville team. After eating lunch at the ministry site, the group spent the afternoon at N.I.C.E., where they have been serving all week, continuing to love the refugee children and families in that community. For dinner, Group 4 went to Sitar Indian Restaurant before returning to the housing site for Porch Time.

Serving Group 5:

Today, Group 5 began their morning at Project Transformation, where they’ve been serving all week by reading to the children to help them stay at grade level. The team has absolutely loved getting to know the children and getting to serve them in such a tangible way. Eating lunch in the van, the team next went to End Slavery, a group focused on creating slave-free communities through prevention, education, and community engagement. After getting more information on the program and on sex-trafficking, the team served the organization by handing out education pamphlets at homes in East Nashville to increase the community awareness. Serving Group 5 finished their day by joining Serving Group 1 for dinner at Istanbul Turkish Restaurant.

Once all groups had gathered back at the housing site and cleaned up, it was time to begin our final Porch Time of the trip. The night began with a hilarious round of “Remember That Time,” following by a moving segment of where we saw Jesus throughout the day. Next, Andrew led the group in an extended worship set. It was incredible to hear the children singing so passionately with praises to God. After worship, Lex gave our final message of the trip, returning to the story of Moses that we began during our pre-trip training meetings. Lex pulled 5 principles from Moses’ life, the 5^th of which was the fact that God used what Moses had in his hand (his staff). She reminded us that sometimes we are unable to follow God’s will for our lives because we are too busy holding on to our excuses. In order to symbolize our desire to give up those excuses, each team member was given back a card that they had been given at our overnight training. On the cards, each person had written an excuse that had been holding them back from living out God’s call. As a group, everyone burned their cards in a fire outside the housing site. After our hands were now free to take hold of what God has in store for us, the leaders gave each student a holding cross, on which was written “No Excuses” and Exodus 4:2, to serve as a reminder of God’s presence and power in our lives. After singing one final song, the team went to their individual small groups in silence, and God continued to show up in huge ways, helping group members get vulnerable and truly love and affirm each other. It really was a night where you could feel God’s Spirit at work!

After such a great evening, the team is excited for our final day of service in Nashville. Thank you so much for all your prayers for the evening . . . they truly did make an impact on our night. Please continue to pray for our final day in the city and for our lives to really be transformed as a result of our encounters with God.

NC Team - Day 4 - 7.9.15

The NC team was excited to get back to work at Miriam's house today.  However, the 7th grade boys began the day by going to the local Manna Food Bank.  Manna is a national organization that seeks to give hunger relief to the surrounding areas wherever they are located.  The local branch here in Asheville, NC serves all of Western North Carolina by collecting, packaging, and distributing food to counties throughout western North Carolina.  The 7th grade boys packaged over 3000 meals for people that will be distributed to families in need.  They returned to our work site with great stories of all they had accomplished and all the fun they had doing it.  It was great to see God give them a grander vision of what hunger relief looks like and how God can use them to be a part of it.

The rest of the NC team went straight to our work site where they continued digging septic pipe trenches and painting Miriam's house.  We have now finished 3 out of the 4 main pipelines and the fourth one should be done early tomorrow morning.  The end is in sight and God has used this fact as motivation to help the team finish the project with the same eagerness that they began with on Monday.  Along with finishing the three trenches, we were able to begin digging the supply line that will run from the existing septic tank to the new set of pipelines.  Tomorrow we should be able to finish the supply line, dig connecting trenches between the four main pipelines, and celebrate a new septic system with Miriam.

Along with digging, we continued to paint Miriam's house.  We have finished priming the entire house, trim, and front deck.  Also, about half the house has already been given a first coat of the new blue color that Miriam chose for her house.  We ran out of blue paint partway through our day which halted some of the painting progress, but we will have fresh paint tomorrow so that we will be able to hopefully at least finish the first coat of blue paint on the entire house.

All in all, the team has become a team of expert painters and diggers that have not only touched the lives of Miriam, but have also been an inspiration to many other people that have seen us working.  Today, our site engineer, named Seth, was so moved by all our hard work that he surprised us with ice cream sandwiches and ice pops for the entire team.  It was a genuine act of appreciative for the love of Christ being expressed through our team to Miriam's family and the  surrounding houses that have had to deal with the leaking sewage in part of Miriam's yard.

After finishing our day at the work site, the team headed back to our housing site for dinner, free time, and our porch time gathering.  Tonight, Luke talked about the motivating attitude behind a team of 13 and 14 year olds that can't stand the idea of cleaning their own room at home, but are enjoying spending four days digging.  He used Matthew 9:35-38 to show that compassion is the motivating attitude that Jesus has towards other people.  He challenged the group to not just try on compassion for a week, but to become compassionate people that show everyday compassion like Jesus.  Following Luke's talk everyone split up into small groups to discuss the concept of compassion and how they can continue to be compassionate once they get back to Williamsburg.

Tomorrow is our final day here in Weaverville, so please pray for continued eagerness to finish our project and for the lessons learned down here to be sealed in our hearts.

Nashville Team Update – Wednesday, July 8, 2015

The mid-way point in the week definitely brought many highlights for each of the Serving Groups today.

Serving Group 1:

Today was Serving Group 1’s first day at their “anchor site,” the Andrew Jackson Boys & Girls Club. For the next two days, the group will be returning to the Boys & Girls Club to continue developing relationships with the kids they met this morning. Although it took a little while to warm up to each other because of our different backgrounds, after a few games and some fun conversations, the group and the children were playing together like old friends. For lunch, Serving Group 1 embarked on their Urban Exposure project, an activity designed to help the team learn more about homelessness in the city. With guidance/supervision from their leaders, the group explored downtown Nashville in an attempt to find a needy person to eat lunch with. The team was also asked to interview different types of people, such as tourists and locals, to ask them about their views on the city and the issues its people face. Many students from Serving Group 1 said that the Urban Exposure was their favorite activity so far on the trip because it really helped them put faces and stories behind the statistics we have encountered. After the Urban Exposure, Group 1 celebrated Jackie’s birthday with a stop at a local ice cream shop before returning to the housing site for dinner, which was a catered Mexican buffet.

Serving Group 2:

Serving Group 2 returned to Y-CAP, their “anchor site,” for another morning of serving with the children.

Today, the group felt like they made huge strides in bonding and getting to know the kids. They were able to play a big game of dodge ball, but also had more opportunities to talk to kids and really get to hear about their lives. Like Group 1, Serving Group 2 also spent their lunch and afternoon participating in their own Urban Exposure project. The group split into three, and each of the smaller groups were amazed at the people that they met. They said it was an honor to get to spend time speaking with people who were so openly vulnerable and kind, despite their challenging circumstances.

Serving Group 3:

Like the first two groups, Serving Group 3 returned to their “anchor site” – Family Affairs Ministry.

They continued to build relationships with the students attending the camp while also assisting the teachers with providing educational and spiritual lessons. The group is super excited to put on their Sidewalk Sunday School tomorrow, an opportunity they’ve been preparing for throughout the week. The Urban Exposure was the afternoon assignment for Serving Group 3, as well. They had the privilege of sharing lunch with two men who were homeless who openly told their stories. The kids had an eye-opening experience talking with the men, saying that it shattered their pre-conceived notions of homelessness.

Serving Group 4:

Serving Group 4 actually began their day by diving into the Urban Exposure project. The kids were really grateful to be able to share in that time with different homeless people, getting to hear about their varying experiences that led them to the city. The entire team was really engaged in the conversations, and many said that it gave them a different perspective on the homeless population. In the afternoon, Group 4 returned to N.I.C.E to continue tutoring and building relationships with the refugee children there.

Serving Group 5:

Serving Group 5 also spent their morning at their anchor site, Project Transformation, continuing to build bonds with the kids. Already the group is wondering how they’ll be able to leave their new friends at the end of the week?! After a fun morning, Serving Group 5 continued to the Urban Exposure project. The group was amazed at how their hearts broke for the people whom they had the opportunity to talk to. The team started to ask great questions about what it would really take to end homelessness, and the entire experience was really impactful for everyone.

By 5:30pm, each group had returned to the housing site for their Mexican buffet dinner. After eating and cleaning up, the entire Nashville team headed back out to have Porch Time at Nashville’s Bicentennial Park. After sharing stories from the day and worshipping together, Lex spoke on Faithfulness and Fruitfulness, encouraging the team to focus on areas where God is calling them to be faithful, and trusting the Lord to produce fruit in His timing. After the message, the team spent some intentional time in small groups, and each leader reported having “breakthrough” nights with their kids!

We are so encouraged and blessed by what God has already done in and through this team, and we can’t wait to see Jesus continue to show up during our last two days in Nashville. Tomorrow (Thursday) night will be our final Porch Time for the trip. Please pray for our last two serving days, and especially for our last Porch Time and Small Groups, that God would really seal these lessons into our hearts to help us live transformed lives back at home.

NC Team - Day 3 - 7.8.15

 Today the North Carolina team had breakfast at our housing site before heading out to the Brian Center Health/ Rehabilitation Center to begin our day off.  At the Brian Center our team split up into smaller groups to perform various tasks around the facility including washing windows, painting the back fence, cleaning the outdoor patio, and organizing files for the staff.  All of these chores were completed alongside having the opportunity to sing songs to some of the patients in the dementia ward and visiting with many of the patients at the Center.  This is always a favorite activity for our team, as we had the opportunity to talk with elderly patients who have great perspectives on life and are very willing to talk with middle school students.  The Brian Center was very generous as they provided us lunch as a "thank you" for our help throughout the morning.  For the afternoon we split up and half of the team went to Sliding Rock, a natural rock water slide, while the other half went to Looking Glass Falls, a water fall with a swimming hole nearby.  After switching locations so that each half of the team got to experience both locations, everyone came back together to head to dinner and porch time. Tonight we had both at Megan May's farm. Megan was a summer intern two years ago and she and her family graciously allowed us to have porch time at the farm on our day off.  Nick gave the porch time talk tonight on why our faith makes sense while we are down here in North Carolina.  After porch time, we headed back to the housing site. While it was great to have a day off for some fun, the team is excited to get back to work tomorrow as we get closer to finishing up our projects and continue to be amazed at what God is doing in and through our team here in North Carolina. 

Nashville Team Update – Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Each serving group was super excited to enter into their second day of serving the organizations where they started making relationships the day before.

Serving Group 1:

Serving Group 1 had the opportunity to make new friends at a ministry site called Fifty Forward this morning. Fifty Forward is a senior citizens day care center based out of a local church. The group was able to mingle with the attendees and build relationships with them by talking about their families and playing games together. The team also played a few songs for their new friends, and these efforts were met with lots of appreciation and applause. After serving lunch to the seniors and eating with them, the team transitioned to Operation Stand Down, a nonprofit resource for veterans providing services such as housing, employment readiness training, and coordination between other service agencies. Serving Group 1 helped with a lot of different tasks, such as cleaning different parts of the building and organizing both the donations and the housing supplies. The team was encouraged to hear that our veterans had such a great resource available to them in an effort to end veteran homelessness in Nashville. The group finished their time at this site by walking through the Thrift Store attached to the ministry (which provides revenue for Operation Stand Down) before taking advantage of some free time by enjoying some local gourmet popsicles. After wandering briefly through a local farmer’s market, Serving Group 5 enjoyed dinner at International Market Thai restaurant before heading back to the housing site.

Serving Group 2:

For the second day, Serving Group 2 headed straight to Y-CAP to hang out with lower-income children in the area. The team got to work with their middle school group, playing games with the kids and building relationships with them. While at Y-CAP, they had to opportunity to serve in a community garden called “crop city” where they got to learn about the food desert, the lack of grocery stores and fresh, healthy food resources, that exists in East Nashville. After eating lunch in a local park, the team went to Nashville CARES, an AIDS prevention and educational ministry. Here the group learned statistics and facts about AIDS and ways to prevent it. Following working with their ministries, the group partook in some team bonding in the form of going to get popsicles and playing in some local water fountains. The group has already developed such strong bonds with the people at their serving sites, and everyone is excited to continue to strengthen the bonds during the rest of the week. They finished up their day by eating some Turkish food, a food genre that no one in the group had ever experienced before. Even though it was really different for a lot of them, they loved getting to experience a new culture.

Serving Group 3:

Serving Group 3 started off their second morning again at Family Affairs Ministry, a community center focused on restoring families through programming and social services. The team began their day by serving breakfast to the kids and had their second day of “Sidewalk Sunday School,” singing songs with the children and helping engage the students in a fun biblical teaching. Once the large group lesson had been taught, the children were divided into age groups, and several team members helped each group with different educational activities, from math lessons to bible verse memorization. The group then left for a local park where they had lunch and started a spirited game of football with local children hanging out at the park. After lunch, the group headed over to another ministry called End Slavery, a ministry looking to raise awareness and ultimately put an end to sex slavery. After getting acclimated with the ministry and what slavery looks like here in the United States, the group headed out to pass out door hangers, educating the public on the common traps for slavery. Group 3 enjoyed some Thai food for dinner which their leader Maggie described as “super yummy.” They are pumped to go into their third day of serving tomorrow and to continue to build relationships with the children and staff at FAM.

Serving Group 4:

Samaritan Ministries, a local soup kitchen, was the first stop for Serving Group 4 today. The team was able to serve a large group of people and mingle with the guests there. It was a cool experience for the team to be able to put faces to the statistics we have been hearing about all week. After lunch, the team spent part of their afternoon back at N.I.C.E.  The group continued to help the children at N.I.C.E. by teaching them English and math lessons. Serving Group 4 is so excited that N.I.C.E. is the ministry that they will be going back to everyday. The relationships they are building with the children are so joyful and they love getting to know all about the everyday and personal life of the kids from these refugee families. Once their time at N.I.C.E. was done for the day, Serving Group 4 went to Swett’s for dinner, a crowd favorite here in Nashville, where they experienced some good Southern cooking!

Serving Group 5:

Today was Hunter, one of our members, birthday! Serving Group 5 was really excited to start their day off with a fun activity most of the kids participated in...stopping by the most hipster coffee shop in Nashville, only a few blocks away from where we are staying. After the group got some much-appreciated caffeine, they headed back to Project Transformation for another day of reading with the children from under privileged neighborhoods around Nashville. It’s crazy to see the amount of joy that comes from a simple task like reading! After leaving Project Transformation, the group headed to Siloam, a clinic that serves refugees in the area. The group prayed over the facility and the refugees before beginning to unpack and organize donations. Although this was a little task, the kids were really motivated and excited to see the task get done. To celebrate Hunter, we followed serving by getting popsicles and exploring the downtown Nashville scene. Serving Group 5 ended their night by experiencing some Indian food and, although apprehensive at first, it was one of the favorite food places they have experienced so far.

Upon return from all the ministries, the groups gathered back at the housing site and had their second porch time. After sharing funny “Remember That Time” stories and some touching moments where the kids saw Jesus today, the group heard a great message from Philippe about the things we often have to give up in order to have a real encounter with God.

We are super excited to see what the rest of the week has in store for us and to continue to build relationships with the people we are working during our time in the city. Please continue to pray that God would show up in big ways in the lives of the kids and that they would really lean on each other and love each other well. Pray that their dependency this week would be on God rather than the comforts we indulge in during our daily life.

NC Team Day 2 - 7.7.15

We began our day with some worship music and a devotional thought by the Director of ReCreation Experiences.  The early morning music has become a big hit with the group as they have fun singing and dancing along to the music.  Also, the music has been a great tool to wake everyone up in the morning before we head to our work site.

Even though we had a full day of digging and painting yesterday, it was great to see the entire group rally together and start the day as excited as yesterday.  One of the great benefits to physical projects is that the signs of change are immediately obvious, which has been very motivating for us.  We were able to completely finish one of the trenches today and get half-way through another one.  In addition to the trenches, we have finished priming the entire outside of the house and have begun our first coat of the deep blue color that we are painting the exterior of the house.  In just two days, the transformation of Miriam's house has already been amazing.  

After finishing up the day at the work site, we headed back to our housing site where we showered and ate a delicious dinner.  Then everyone had some great moments of fellowship during free time.  Some people played soccer, others played frisbee, and some just sat and talked, but it was great to see the team bonding together.  We have a lot of different schools represented on the trip which makes it really special to watch everyone grow together around their common bond in Christ.

At porch time, Gena Hernandez spoke on the concept of incarnational ministry.  She used John 1:14 & John 16:7 to talk about the idea that we are not only simply serving Miriam and each other on this trip, but we have the opportunity to be Jesus to those around us.  It was a great challenge to think about the importance of every interaction we have with people because those interactions are places for us to represent Jesus to them.  

We ended the night with small groups where everyone was given the opportunity to think through what opportunities we have to be Jesus to other people on this trip.  

Tomorrow is our day-off from our normal work project, so we look forward to sharing about our day-off with you all tomorrow.  Thanks for all of your prayers for us.

Nashville Team Update – Monday, July 6, 2015

Each serving group began the morning eager to make an impact on the city.

Serving Group 1:

Serving Group 1 started their day at Loaves and Fishes, a soup kitchen for men, women, and children. The group was able to serve in both relational and practical ways by not only visiting with the guests, but also by cleaning and helping in the kitchen. The group was able to eat the same meal as the guests and then donated the bagged lunches they had prepared earlier at the housing site. After lunch, Group 1 hopped into the van and began their Prayer Tour through the city. The Prayer Tour is a great way for the team to really encounter different parts of the city and to start engaging with the issues that exist in Nashville. After the tour, the group had a much better understanding of how they can impact the community here and how we can start to see the city through God’s eyes. For dinner, Serving Group 1 went to Sitar, an Indian restaurant, where they enjoyed several authentic dishes, especially the naan bread! It was exciting to experience a different culture and step outside of our comfort zones for at least one meal.

Serving Group 2:

Rising early, Serving Group 2 headed straight to Y-CAP, which stands for YMCA – Community Action Project. Essentially, Y-CAP is a summer camp for lower-income children in the area. The team got to work with their middle school group, playing games with the kids and building relationships with them. Mid-way through the morning, the kids went to their individual breakout sessions and got to choose between several options such as dancing, basketball, or running. After lunch, Serving Group 2 drove around the city participating in the Prayer Tour. The tour ended with dinner at Swett’s, a restaurant specializing in southern soul food. Everyone loved their meals and used the fuel for their final serving opportunity of the day at People Loving Nashville, an organization that provides clothes and food for homeless people near the downtown War Memorial. The group members were so engaged in their service that they didn’t want to leave at the end of the day, wishing that they had even more time to talk to the guests they had met.

Serving Group 3:

Serving Group 3 spent their morning at Family Affairs Ministry, a community center focused on restoring families through programming and social services. The team briefly helped serve breakfast to the kids before heading to orientation, where they learned the history of Family Affairs Ministry and met the team that makes the organization run. After orientation, the group participated in “Sidewalk Sunday School,” singing songs with the children and helping engage the students in a fun biblical teaching. Once the large group lesson had been taught, the children were divided into age groups, and several team members helped each group with different educational activities, from math lessons to bible verse memorization. While those lessons were taking place, other members of Serving Group 3 contributed to the community center by touching up the paint in order to transform the space for a new day-care component. After eating lunch in a nearby park, Serving Group 3 spent their afternoon participating in their own prayer tour of Nashville. To end their afternoon, the team met up with Serving Group 4 at Istanbul, a Turkish/Mediterranean restaurant.

Serving Group 4:

Lexington Gardens Apartments was the first stop for Serving Group 4 today. This complex offers housing to people without a background check, allowing people who are either recovering from homelessness or who are about to become homeless to find an apartment and keep them (and their families) off the streets. The group played with the children from this community, engaging them in both large and small groups. After lunch, the team spent part of their afternoon at N.I.C.E., a community-based organization dedicated to empowering refugees and immigrants in middle Tennessee through direct social services and educational programs. Serving Group 4 helped the children at N.I.C.E. by teaching them English and math lessons. The group is excited to continue working with the children here throughout the week. Once their time at N.I.C.E. was done for the day, Serving Group 4 met up with Group 3 to experience authentic Turkish cuisine. After dinner, the team embarked upon their own Prayer Tour before heading back to the housing site.

Serving Group 5:

Serving Group 5 was excited to start assisting at Project Transformation this morning, a program to help kids keep their reading levels on track over the summer. One big challenge for kids in this area is maintaining their skills during the summer months when they’re out of school. The team broke up into two groups, some members helping kids with crafts while the rest of the group played games with the children in the gym. One of the highlights for this group was when the kids at Project Transformation taught members of Serving Group 5 a few new dance moves, after which everyone demonstrated their new skills together in a really fun bonding experience with the kids. In the afternoon, Group 5 also did a Prayer Tour before heading to Swett’s to enjoy soul food for dinner.

When each group’s serving activities were done for the day, they all headed back to the housing site to get cleaned up and ready for Porch Time. After sharing some fun memories from the trip so far, as well as identifying places where team members had seen Jesus, the group sang a few worship songs together before Lex gave the evening’s message. Lex encouraged the group to embrace Jesus’ strategy of having compassion and loving recklessly by “getting dirty” as we serve this week (and at home).

Please continue to pray for safety and for God to reveal Himself to us in new ways. Also, as many groups will be returning to some of their serving sites, please pray for relationships to grow and develop throughout the week. 

NC Team Day 1 - 7.6.15

After our arrival last night, the team awoke eager to find out what our work project would be and who we would be serving.  After breakfast, we enjoyed some morning worship that the ReCreation Experience staff led.  This is ReCreation's 25th year of service in the Asheville area and so it is special for our team to celebrate this year with them.  Following our morning worship the team loaded up the vans and drove to our work site.

This year we have the privilege to serve a woman named Miriam that has been living in the same house for 26 years.  She has a small 3 bedroom ranch-style home that she shares with 8 other family members.  They have recently had issues with their current septic system, which has led to them needing a completely new set of pipelines in order for them to stay in their home.  The county was on the verge of evicting them from their home because Miriam and her family are financially unable to repair the septic system on their own.

This sad situation has given us a wonderful opportunity to step in and be the hands and feet of God to help this family.  It was exciting to watch the entire team at the work site excited and ready to help Miriam and her family.  We were able to make some great progress on all of the new trenches that we are digging as well as beginning to prime the outside of their entire house.  It has been an inspiring day as sixty five 13 and 14 year olds used their energy to serve Miriam, serve each other, and serve God.

After a full day at the work site, we drove back to our housing site to clean-up and eat dinner.  Following dinner and some free time, we gathered for our first "porch time" of the trip.  Porch time is what we call our evening gathering that we hold each night to share memories from the day, sing worship songs, and hear a talk that is geared directly towards processing all that God is doing and going to do on this trip.  Tonight, Luke spoke from Luke 10 where Jesus sends 72 of his followers on their own mission trips.  He talked about Jesus's command in Luke 10:4 to leave behind certain things and focus on the task God has set before us.  He challenged the team to take advantage of the opportunities that each of us will be given this week to talk to a leader or friend about their faith and to look forward to the God-given joy that can be experienced through loving others the way God intended for us too as we live out our faith.

The night ended by having the entire team split into small groups where they continued the conversation Luke began during porch time.  It is always amazing to watch God begin to break down the walls of fear and insecurities through relationships in small groups.

We look forward to another day on the job site tomorrow and thank you for your continued prayers.

Nashville Team Has Arrived Safely

After a long day on the road, and lots of bonding time in the vans, the Nashville team arrived safely at our housing site. We are excited to begin our week of service in the Music City.

Just a brief heads up on how we will be serving this week. The entire team has been divided into 5 serving groups. Each group will go to a couple different serving sites each day (typically one site in the morning and one in the afternoon). Each evening, we will recap each group's activities here on the blog. So that families back at home can be excited for ALL of our team's activities, we will not disclose which children are in which groups. We hope that you will be praying for each member of the mission team - for strength, energy, and the ability to see God at work here in Nashville. Thanks again for all your prayers already.

NC Team has arrived!

We have arrived safely at ReCreation Experience headquarters.  All of the kids were great on the vans and it is great to see God beginning to work through the relationships between the kids and leaders.  We begin our first day at our work site tomorrow morning and then we will update this blog every evening with details from the day.

Final Reminders for the North Carolina Mission Trip

Just a reminder that we are leaving around 1pm at the Chapel this Sunday.  The easiest thing is for everyone to just come to our 11am student service and then just stick around afterwards until we leave.  Parents are welcome to come to our student service as well if you would like.  We will check everyone in after the service, pack, clean-up, and leave as soon as we can.  Our service is held in the SM Worship Room which is on the North Side of the building.

Below is the link to our packing list if you don't have one.  A couple key reminders from the list are to pack a lunch to eat for this Sunday and then have money for one meal on the way down and one meal on the way back.

Packing List

Feel free to email Luke at lkincaid@wcchapel.org or text him at 757-570-0292 with any questions.