Norfolk Day #2 - 7.20.18

This morning, the Norfolk team woke up after a great night's sleep here at Spring Branch and ate breakfast. After breakfast, we headed down the road to Union Mission Ministries. Union Mission is a Christian based homeless shelter that serves the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. We dropped off the donations that our team had brought for Union, and then got to work in their warehouse. We split into teams in different sections of their main warehouse sorting area and spent the morning sorting, organizing, and packing food boxes that Union will hand out to families in need in the neighboring community. When we had finished with our assigned food packing duties, we went to a meeting room and got to talk with a staff member about what homelessness looks like in the Hampton Roads area and how the donations we brought and the food donations that we had just organized are going to help the over 300 men and women that spend the night in the shelter each night. We left Union and headed to a park nearby to have some lunch as well as some team bonding time where the kids (and leaders!) enjoyed the park! Our lunch spot was conveniently located near our afternoon site, Consulate Health Care. Consulate is an elderly healthcare facility with many residents who have either outlived their family or are not visited very often. Albeit a somewhat sad reality, they absolutely love when they get to have visitors and were elated to spend their afternoon with our team talking about their lives and asking about ours. We socialized with some of the residents and also settled in for what has become our annual Consulate bingo battle and as usual, our team could not hang with these seasoned veterans. We left Consulate in great spirits and headed to the beach for an hour or two of fun in the sun. We left the beach and came back to Spring Branch where we ate dinner and then gathered together for Porch Time. The team shared fun stories from the day during "Remember That Time" and we also had great participation during "I Saw Jesus!" It was exciting and encouraging to see so many members of our team share where they had seen Jesus at work in the places and people we encountered today. After singing a few worship songs, Nick gave the second talk of the trip which focused on our encounters with God or "Mountain Top Experiences" and how we should revel in them while on these trips and seek to create ways to remember and carry them with us as we head back into our everyday lives. After porch time, we split into small groups to discuss this further and then began to wind down for bed time. We had a great day and are excited to finish well tomorrow as we clean up here at Spring Branch and head to Park Place Child Life Center to spend our remaining time on the trip with the kids there before heading home. Your prayers are appreciated and we are excited to continue to see God at work here in Norfolk!

Norfolk Day #1 - 7.19.18

This won't be too long of a post, as today was mainly a travel/set up day for us. The Norfolk team left the Chapel and traveled (slower than hoped) down I64, making it to Spring Branch Community Church. Spring Branch has graciously allowed us to stay in their Student Ministry Area for our time down here. When we arrived, we unloaded the vans and settled down for some dinner. We ate and had an opportunity to explore and settle into our home for the next two nights. We then all came together for this class's very first Porch Time! Porch Time is a staple on all of our Student Ministry Mission Trips. Tonight we set up what the "Remember That Time" and "I Saw Jesus" portions of Porch Time are so that they would be prepared for tomorrow night. For those of you who don't know, each of these are opportunities to share with the whole team both funny moments from the day, as well as times where anyone had seen Jesus at work in the people we interact with, at the sites we work at, or in their fellow team members. We then were led in a time of worship, where we joined our voices together to sing praise to our God. When the singing had ended, Nick gave the first of three talks of the trip. Tonight we spoke about the idea of "opportunity."  Everyone on this trip had the opportunity to not come, to do something else with their time and yet here we all are. Just as God acted in Abram’s life in Genesis 12-15, that we studied in our pre-trip meetings. We looked at the idea that we are called to be "ambassadors of Christ" as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:20. Part of being an ambassador of Christ is doing the work that we are called to do, as well as reflecting Christ in all that we say and do. After the talk, the team split up into small groups to continue to discuss this further. As small groups wound down, so too did the night and the team got ready for a good night's sleep in preparation for a full day tomorrow. For those who want further updates throughout the day, please text "NORFOLKPARENT" to 41411 and as always, prayers for God to move on this trip are appreciated!

Norfolk Team Pre-Trip - 7.18.18

The Norfolk team leaves tomorrow! (Thursday, 7/19)

We will be meeting at 3 pm in Woodward Hall for Check-In and departure with the goal being to return around 4:30-5:00 pm on Saturday (depending on traffic).

Reminder to get on the text list by texting "Norfolkparent" to 41411. That's the best way we can mass communicate an accurate arrival time. The packing list is below and if you have any questions, please email Nick (nmercer@wcchapel.org).

We are ready for a fun trip this weekend!

Packing List 

NC Day #6 - 7.13.18

Our last full day here in North Carolina! We woke up early and had breakfast, but no morning worship today. Instead, we gathered with the other groups that are staying here with us and prayed for the clients who's houses we are working on, the staff here at ReCreation, and each of our respective teams. After our prayer, we headed to the work site and got after it! The team worked hard to finish up the projects that we had; digging the septic trenches and painting the house. Upon arrival we discovered that there had been some rain in the night and a few brave souls went into the our second, unfinished trench and bailed out the standing water so that we could get back to digging and leveling in preparation for the second line of piping to be laid. Because of the delay at the start the trench took longer than expected, but there was no discouragement from our team as they stepped up and worked hard for most of the morning and into the afternoon. Finally, after we had gotten the trench to the correct specifications, we began to lay in the piping.  Once that was set in place, we buried the pipes and leveled out the yard so that the homeowner can reseed the yard. The house was ready upon our arrival for a second coat of paint and the team divided and conquered to finish up all of the painting of the final coats before the work day was even officially finished! We cleaned up once everything was done and said our goodbyes to Ms. Sharon and her grandkids who we have gotten to know this past week. We headed back to ReCreation for some well earned free time before dinner. After dinner we joined together with the other groups here and all of the staff to worship together one last time. George encouraged us to not just enjoy serving this week, but to take the energy and servant hearts that we have seen on display this week back home with us. After this ReCreation end of the week worship time, our team convened for our final porch time. Rather than meet in the gym at ReCreation as we had all week, we met outside around a small fire so that we could admire God’s creation as we continued to worship Him. There was no ‘remember that time’ or ‘I saw Jesus’ tonight, we started straight in with continued worship, which was followed by Luke giving the final talk of the trip. Luke spoke about Abraham, who we had studied in our pre-trip training and we reviewed all that we had learned and how it applied to the week we had just had. Throughout our time studying Abraham we have seen him continue to build altars throughout his experiences: altars of appearance, calling, repentance, and assurance.  Luke used these as a guide for how we can structure our lives to be open to the leading of Jesus in Williamsburg like we have been here in North Carolina.  Then we looked at one final altar moment in Genesis 15 where God establishes a covenant with Abraham.  So we created a final altar of covenant moment for our team where we could put behind the things that are holding us back from fully committing to Jesus.  It was great to see our team take this moment of honesty to establish their own commitments with Jesus.  Finally, we closed our evening together in small groups as a team to discuss final commitments and realizations as we head back home. We will be leaving in the morning after breakfast and cleaning/packing up. If you aren't already, please sign up for our text list "NCPARENT" to 41411 to receive updates as we travel home!

Nashville Day 5 - 7.12.18

Hey Everyone!

We had a great day today. Students continued to work through our devotional booklets in the morning before heading out to their worksites to continue serving the organizations we’ve been building relationships with throughout the week.

In the afternoon, all of our groups participated in Urban Exposure where we split up into smaller groups of 3-4 and, loaded with sandwiches, water bottles and snacks, walked the streets of downtown Nashville seeking to meet people and have conversations with them. We learned a lot about what people facing homelessness deal with on a daily basis and met some incredible people who impacted us more than we impacted them.

In the evening, we bonded with other CSM church groups that are serving here this week as we played games and ate dinner together. We gathered our students for our second to last Porch Time of the trip and celebrated together all the moments where we have seen Jesus move today and passionately sang worship songs together. We had our very own Lauren Clark give the word tonight and students had awesome conversations in small groups as we processed our experience from the afternoon and thought through the two big choices we have as Christians everyday: Choosing Jesus or Choosing ourselves.

We are excited to give everything we have on our final full day tomorrow!

NC Day #5 - 7.12.18

The North Carolina Team woke up this morning for our routine of breakfast, worship, and a talk from ReCreation Director George. George continued to encourage the team to serve joyfully as we finish out our week here in Weaverville. After morning service, we headed out to our work site to continue the work set before us. The majority of the group returned back to work on the septic trench lines. It was great to see such a positive attitude from them as they worked hard throughout the morning and we themselves up to finish one of our two trenches by the end of the work day. Tomorrow we are set up well to finish the second trench line, with maybe some time to spare! The remaining members of th team got back to tackling the painting of the main house we have been focusing on this week. With two coats of primer having been done earlier in the week, our group got after it with the first coat of the house color. By the time we left the work site for the day, we had finished the first coat and are ready to finish the house tomorrow! After a great day at the work site, we headed back to ReCreation for a shower and some hang out time before dinner. Following dinner we had our second to last Porch Time of the trip. Nick spoke from John 11 and focused on what we should be thinking about as we begin to switch our mindsets back to heading home to Williamsburg. After porch time the team split into small groups and had great discussions about how to take our experiences here and translate them back into our lives at home. After Porch Time, our team went to bed excited to get some sleep for our final work day tomorrow!

Nashville Day 4 - 7.11.18

Hello again from Nashville!

Our Wednesday started with our usual personal quiet time to reflect and process the trip as well as read scriture and journal. Today our groups implemented reading through the Prayer of Saint Francis at the end of our quiet time as a way to get into the mindset of becoming and “instrument of peace” as we head out to serve. (See below for full prayer)

After quiet time groups went out to serve in their service projects, continuing to build relationships with kids at the Andrew Jackson Boys and Girls Club, Youth Life Learning Center and Project Transformation (a community-oriented summer day camp for children and youth from low-income neighborhoods).

One of our groups got to visit the Giving Garden and do some manual labor picking weeds and cleaning up the fields. The Giving Garden produces over forty-one thousand pounds of produce each year that is then distributed between 21 different local partners serving food to low-income families and people who are homeles.

Last night we had our night off where we went downtown to the famous Wild Horse Saloon which is a 3-story music restaurant and music venue in the heart of Nashville. Students got to bond with each other’s groups, enjoy food and try their luck at learning to line dance. Because we had a night off, we put a pause of Porch Time for the night so students could hang out and get some rest. Tomorrow (Thursday) will be a big day for us as we take part in Urban Exposure. More on that in our next blog update. Thanks to all the parents that were able to come to the prayer meeting Please continue to pray for us as we serve Nashville.

NC Day #4 - 7.11.18

Today we began our morning with our new normal routine of an early wake up call, breakfast and morning worship with our ReCreation team! Today we had the opportunity to hear from the Director of ReCreation’s wife, Donna. She shared her testimony as she encouraged us as we enter the halfway point of the week. On Wednesdays here at ReCreation we get the day off from our work project as a way to promote team unity and gear up for a strong finish to the week. After listening to Donna’s talk we headed to the Brian Center, which is a rehabilitation and nursing facility that we have been privileged to partner with in our years of coming down to Weaverville. Our team split into 3 different groups at the Brian Center, one helped with some maintenance projects around their campus. Another group split up and had the opportunity to get to meet with residents and also help with a Bible Study that the Brian Center does every Wednesday. The third group got to go and visit with some of the residents in the Alzheimer’s Unit. After a great morning of getting to relationally connect with the residents, our team ate lunch with some of the staff at ReCreation (who graciously provided food for us!) After lunch we headed up into the Pisgah National Forest and we spent the afternoon at Sliding Rock, a natural water slide where we got to enjoy our afternoon off.
After a fun time at Sliding Rock, we headed to the May Family Barn that is owned by the family of a former SM Summer Intern that has become our traditional Wednesday night home for dinner and Porch Time. As with all Porch Times, we began with “Remember That Time” and “I Saw Jesus” where we all got to reflect on the day and share all the funny moments and the times where we saw Jesus at work! Luke spoke tonight from Luke 10, the parable of the Good Samaritan. He urged our team to consider where we are approaching situations selfishly and how we should switch to a compassionate mindset, like the Good Samaritan. After Porch Time in the barn, we headed back to ReCreation and had a little bit of free time before heading to bed.
We had a great day off, but are excited and energized to get back to our work site tomorrow and to see how God will continue to work in and through our team!

Nashville Day 3 - 7.10.18

Another incredible and eventful day is coming to a close here in Nashville. As students wrap up their small group time. Here’s a little glimpse at what some of our groups did today.

This morning we kicked off the day with devotions and quiet time centered around compassion. Some groups spread out throughout the CSM space while a few other groups ventured out to local coffee shops with their leaders to fuel up and do quiet time in the community.

In the morning, some groups visited learning centers where students helped K-5 develop reading skills while some cleaned local parks and others visited Project C.U.R.E where they sorted and packed medical supplies that will be donated to hospitals and health organizations in developing countries.

We’ve had a couple of students with some minor stomach aches earlier today but those issues have been taken care of and students are feeling much better.

In the afternoon, some of our groups combined to do joint service projects. One of those projects involved helping at Second Harvest, one of the larger food banks in Tennessee. Students sorted and packed over 4,976 pounds of food that will go towards providing 4,147 meals that will be distributed to local non-profit organizations that feed people who are in need.

Tonight we had a very lively Porch Time. Students were energized and excited to share their experiences from the day and moments where they experienced Jesus. Small groups are deepening their bonds and having great conversations.

Good night from Nashville!

NC Day #3 - 7.10.18

Today, was our second full day with ReCreation Experiences and it began with our normal morning routine of wake-up, breakfast, and morning worship.  It has been fun to see our group lead the time of singing and dancing that ReCreation does to kick off their morning worship.  Not only does it wake them up, but it allows them to really just embrace singing worship songs to God without being self-conscious about what others think of them as they are doing it.  Following our time of singing Jorge gave a talk about the impact we can have on other people and challenged us to be a positive impact on those around us rather than a negative one.

After our morning routine we all loaded up in our vans to head over to our work site.  The kids were eager to jump back into the work that they had already begun yesterday.  So, we quickly split into the diggers and the painters as people grabbed shovels and paint brushes.  The trenches for the new septic system are looking great and by the end of the day were the correct length and width everywhere.  In the morning we finished all of the priming of the house and then in the afternoon we began the first coat of the final paint color for the house.  The team finished the day excited because they are able to see the path to finishing our projects for this family.  As we have been working we have been getting to know this family and their story.  It is a family of four that lives together here in the mountains. Their septic system had broken a few weeks ago, they had trash all over their yard, and the house just looked old and rundown.  So, our team has really embraced the opportunity to serve the needs of this family along with getting to know the mom and her two kids that have been there with us each day.

We finished our day of work well and then loaded up to head back to our housing site for dinner, some free time, and our evening porch time gathering.  We shared memories from the day together, sang some worship songs and then listened to a talk from Nick.  He used a couple passages from Colossians and 2 Corinthians to talk about the concept of incarnational ministry.  Incarnational ministry is the truth that Jesus can live in us and we have the opportunity to literally be Jesus to other people.  Nick talked about the importance of sacrificial love as we seek to represent Jesus to other people.  After his talk the team split up into their small groups to dig a little deeper into what it means to represent Jesus to others and how we can live out the call for sacrificial love.  It is so special to watch everyone start to really open up about their faith and where they are seeing God start to teach and show them things on this trip.  It has been a great day and we are excited to take our day off from the work site tomorrow to visit a local nursing home along with having some fun at sliding rock.

Nashville Day 2 - 7.9.18

Day 2 started off strong with our students having some personal quiet time to reflect, journal and dive into the devotionals we provided in their booklets.

Groups headed out to their serving sites after morning quiet time and got experience things like serving at a soup kitchen, running a day camp for kids at a boys and girls club, helping students at a learning center for low income families among other projects.

After lunch, all of our groups embarked on a prayer tour of Nashville. We visited historic sites and various neighborhood landmarks and prayed over schools, neighborhoods and ministry partner locations like “room at the inn” which uses rooms at a local boutique hotel as a day shelter for some of Nashville’s homeless population.

CSM staff led our groups in a neighborhood immersion project where students took on the identity of an average family from various different neighborhoods in town. Roles within the family were assigned to each students and collectively, they had to make decisions about how provide food for the family’s dinner while taking into account the limited resources they had and unexpected expenses like buying toilet paper and peanut butter for the home. We were then able to debrief the experience and discuss some of the causes and remedies of poverty in communities. One of the bigger takeaways for groups was realizing that poverty is not simply a lack of material resources but the result of broken relationships.

The night wrapped up with our first “Porch Time” of the trip where we gathered all of our groups and shared funny moments from the trip so far as well as moments where we saw Jesus move. We sang worship songs and had our first talk where we visited the Luke 10 passage where Jesus sent the 72 disciples and instructed them to “leave it all behind”. Small groups dove into the topic and discussed being fully present on the trip and putting aside things that would distract us and take away from our experience.

Nashville is off to a great start and we are excited for what tomorrow will hold for our students. 

NC Day #2 - 7.9.18

We had a great first day here in North Carolina! It began as all our mornings will from here on out, with an early wake-up call, breakfast, and morning worship. Worship is put on by the ReCreation staff and is a bit more up-tempo than we see at the Chapel, but the team embraced the difference and sang/danced the whole time! When worship ended we heard a brief message from Jorge Herrera, the director here at ReCreation, who spoke on "Standing on the Rock", their theme for the summer. We then set out for our work site, which is about 30 minutes from the ReCreation building. We are working at a home where the family has fallen on some hard times and a few work projects are needed to allow them to keep their home in a livable condition. We are putting on a new roof, painting, and digging a new septic line for them and well as doing a new roof and paint job on the grandmother of the family’s house which is right next door. While this sounds like a lot of work, our team was enthusiastic and accepted the challenge head on. We are also working on the same project with the other team that is here at ReCreation this week. Our team tore into the projects from the get-go and we finished the day at a great place to set us up for success to finish everything on schedule. After a great day of work, we headed back to ReCreation to clean up and have some dinner. The team got some down time after dinner and then we gathered together for Porch Time. Porch Time is a Chapel Mission Trip staple that consists of a few key elements. We start off with "Remember That Time" where students have the opportunity to share funny stories from the day that not everyone was likely a part of. This is followed by "I Saw Jesus" where the team shares stories of where they saw Jesus at work through the team and throughout the day. We were then led in a time of worship by Sam Otey and ended porch time with our first talk of the week. Nick spoke from Luke 10 and tied the story of the 72 being sent out by Jesus and the story of Abram being called by God in Genesis 12 with our team being sent here to Weaverville, NC. We studied Abram in our pre-trip meetings and throughout the week we will revisit Abram’s encounter with God as we work through our own. We discussed how in Luke 10, it does not say what happened when they were sent, just that they returned with joy and that as we work through this week, regardless of how well it goes "according to plan" God is behind it and God is with us! After Porch Time we split up into small groups to further discuss this idea and then began to wind down the night as we headed to bed to rest up for another great day! Thank you all for your continued prayers and we are so excited to continue to see and feel Jesus at work!

Nashville Day 1 - 7.8.18

Day 1 here in Nashville is coming to a close as the last couple of students are brushing their teeth and getting ready for bed while most others, exhausted from the long day of traveling, are already fast asleep.

As we left the Chapel this morning, we mixed up small groups into different vehicles so students would get to interact and get to know students who would be in other serving groups throughout the week. Van groups sang, played road trip games in the car and students began to get to know and bond with their leaders.

We drove a little over 12 hours today with a couple of gas, food and bathroom breaks built in. Halfway to Nashville we stopped at the Parkin’s Alpacca farm house in Rural Retreat VA where we got to stretch our legs, take in the the beautiful mountain view and load up on food before hitting the road.

One of our vans had to leave the pack and double back to the farm house to retrieve a retainer that was left behin which set that group back about 15 mins from the rest of the vans but ultimately we all made it to Nashville at roughly the same time. We are staying at CSM headquarters at the Eastland Baptist Church. It’s a big building with several floors of meeting space, sleeping areas and communal space perfect for hosting groups on mission trips. There are two other church groups here with us. One group is actually also known at “the chapel” from a church called Armstrong Chapel in Michigan. Both groups are a bit smaller than our but extremely kind and welcoming.

Once everyone brought their things to their rooms, we split up into our serving groups for the week and met the CSM hosts that will accompany each group to their different serving sites and headed out to dinner. Groups went to different ethnic restaurants around town including a Thai market restaurant where students got to learn a little bit about Thai culture and choose from various food options to try.

After dinner, all groups gathered in the sanctuary for a CSM official welcome and orientation of the week. We went over rules and expectations and well as had some time to reflect individually and in groups about why we are actually here, how we hope to grow this week and what we want to learn from the Lord.

Groups then had some free time to unpack, get settled and get ready for bed. We are so excited to be here and eager to start serving tomorrow.

NC Day #1 - 7.8.18

Our first day was mostly filled with travel as we left Williamsburg and headed to Weaverville, NC.  Our drive was smooth and filled with fun van games as kids and their leaders started to bond and build relationships.  We arrived at our housing site around 4:45pm and got settled in our rooms before dinner.  Our housing site is an old school building that ReCreation Experiences has turned into their headquarters for all the groups that come into work throughout the summer.  It is a great space with the old gymnasium serving as the dining hall and corporate gathering spot while the classrooms serve as the bedrooms for the groups.  It is a seven acre property that has a big open field for soccer, football, wiffleball, and frisbee as well as a full basketball court.  This gives everyone a great chance to play some games and have some fun during free time.  

Dinner was pizza, a full salad bar, and ice cream sandwiches for dessert.  Following our first meal of the trip we gathered along with the other two church groups for a time of corporate worship to kick-off our week with the ReCreation staff.  The music was high energy and the ReCreation director, Jorge, gave us an introduction to the work site where we will be all week along with a vision for what God has in store for us this week.  We will be serving a family that has two houses next to each other by digging them trenches for a new septic system, painting both houses, and repairing their roofs.  So, it is going to be a great week with a very purposeful and needed project.  

Our night ended with some free time to play games outside, showers, and then lights out for bedtime to get a good night’s sleep for our first day of work tomorrow.