The Norfolk team had their first full day of serving and encountering the needs of the world around us. The team began by visiting and touring a local homeless shelter in Norfolk called Union Mission Ministries. Our tour guide told us the history of the homeless shelter and all of the services offered at the facility. They have a men's shelter, a women's shelter, and a family shelter that provides three meals a day every day of the year to around 325 people. In addition to providing housing, Union Mission Ministries offers financial counseling, family counseling, job opportunities, and clothing. However, our tour guide stressed that the most important thing they offer at the shelter is the message of Jesus Christ. It is a faith based organization that runs solely on donations from churches and personal donors and the staff is unapologetic about basing their mission and vision off of the values of Jesus. The team was blown away by the faith represented in the staff and it challenged them to think about where they are serving God in their own lives. After the tour, the team headed to a local park for lunch and relaxation before heading to their afternoon ministry site.
After lunch, everyone loaded into the buses and headed down the road to a local nursing home called Consulate health care. Upon arrival, the activities director escorted everyone upstairs to the BINGO room where residents were already setup ready to play. The team split up among the residents to help them play and get to know them. The residents loved playing bingo and having people to cheer them on was a extra treat. It was beautiful to watch the residents smile as young kids came up to them ready to engage and get to know them. God worked through the team in a powerful way as they played bingo for 2 hours without complaining or leaving the residents. As the team left the Consulate staff expressed their gratitude and praise for how hard and long everyone was willing to sit with the residents. God used a group of pre-teens to touch not only the elderly but the staff of Consulate as well.
Following their time at the nursing home, the Norfolk team headed to the beach for a little fun together as a group. It was a gorgeous day with a light breeze for the team to enjoy God's creation at the beach. They ate dinner on the boardwalk and then headed back to the housing site for clean up and Porch Time. Since the trip was more than halfway over Luke began to transition the group into thinking about how they could apply the lessons they have been learning to their lives back in Williamsburg. He use the Parable of the Four Soils in Luke 8 to talk about how the environment we surround ourselves with directly effects our faith and relationship with God. It was helpful to learn about things that contaminate our lives and don't let the words of God take root and grown in our hearts. After Porch time the team split into small groups once again to discuss the day and process all that God is doing.
We have one more day here in Norfolk and then we will be heading back home tomorrow afternoon/early evening. We will text updates of our location and eta while traveling back. If you have not signed up to receive text updates then feel free to text the word "NORFOLKPARENT" to the number 41411 and you will receive our text updates.
