The DC team had an extremely long, but wonderful day serving Jesus in our Nation's capital.
For Group 2 the day began with a wake up at 5:00am in order to leave at 5:30 to go make breakfast at a homeless shelter for men and women near downtown DC. The team was amazed to see how many people lined up for the meal they had prepared. They were also struck by the various reasons people become homeless. They learned that it is not simply a lack of will to work, but often times it has to do with mental illness or lack of education. Their interaction with these men and women forced them into action as they came back and reported to our team that the shelter's clothing closet desperately needed to be replenished. The team responded by giving some of their own clothes to provide for the homeless shelter. They truly lived out God's call in Isaiah 58 to "see the hungry and feed them and to see the naked and clothe them."
Group 1 also served at a homeless shelter. The listened to the testimonies of several of the homeless people who reside in the shelter and as a result came running up to me at our nightly Bible study desperate to share what they learned. The people's steadfast faith in God in the midst of difficult life circumstances impacted our students and challenged them to trust God with their lives.
Group 3 spent the morning cleaning the two the homes of two different elderly women. The women were amazed at how fast the kids went to work and how hard they were willing to work. At one of the houses we needed a step later to clean the tops of some kitchen cabinets. When we could not find a step ladder, one of the students immediately got down on all fours and volunteered to serve as a human ladder in order to get the job done. Our students really have been willing to do anything and everything to serve Jesus this week.
In the afternoon our three serving groups once again merged into two as we continued to serve at our two Vacation Bible School sites. We continued to teach on our theme verse of Luke 1:37 and our overall theme of "God always wins." Today's lesson was about Jonah and the idea that we must let God win over our desires and our emotions. Some of the students were impacted deeply by walking the kids back to their homes. When they saw the neighborhoods from which our VBS participants come, our team members were moved with compassion. Several were very emotional as they processed the eternally important question of why some people have so much and other people have so little.
At our porch time Bible study this evening, Alexis this touched on this idea of moving from why God? to What God and how God? Moving from why does this type of poverty exist, to what is God calling me to do in the midst of it and how is he asking me to change my life as a result of what I have seen.
All is well. We will be back in Williamsburg soon.
