In our full day on the Norfolk trip, the team ate breakfast at Spring Branch before heading out to Union Mission Ministry. Union Mission is a homeless shelter for men, women, and families who are on the streets or severely impoverished. We dropped off all the donations that the students had given to the shelter, and got to talk with Miss Linda who is the director of Mission. Miss Linda spoke with us about homelessness, teaching some of the causes of homelessness and sharing stories of people she has met in her years serving at Union Mission. The students asked her questions about where the donations we had brought were going and we got to walk the facility and see all the shelters and meet some of the people who will benefit from what we brought. When we were done in the donation center, the team loaded up and headed back to Spring Branch to stay out of the heat and get some lunch. After lunch, we headed to Consulate Health Center, a rehabilitation and nursing care facility where we were able to meet with many of the residents, hearing about their lives and the incredible stories they have to share! We joined them in an afternoon activity of bingo which as always was more intense than our students were ready for, but they learned quickly to take the game as seriously as the residents did and everyone had a blast! Sadly, as the residents had to move on to the next thing on their docket we had to say goodbye. Happily, we headed to the beach for a little fun in the sun and we ended up having dinner at the beach before coming back to Spring Branch for the night. After showers, we had Porch Time where we remembered those times and shared where we saw Jesus, worshiped through song and heard a good word from Tommy. We talked about the idea of being good soil from the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. The discussion continued into small groups about how we can be the path, the rocky soil, have thorns but regardless God continues to give us the opportunity to grow.
We wound down after a long day and are exited to finish well tomorrow when we go to Park Place Child Life Center, have our final porch time and head back up 64. We will keep you updated of our ETA back to the Chapel through the “NorfolkParent” (to 41411) text list. Thank you for your prayers and see you soon!
