Today was our last serving day in Philly, and we had an awesome end to our time in the City of Brotherly Love.
For today, all the groups got to stay together for one epic serving experience. We began the morning at an organization called Philabundance, which provides food access to about 6500 people a day and is the largest hunger relief organization in the Delaware Valley. Your children worked hard all morning, packing hundreds and hundreds of boxes of food (bread and non-perishables) to distribute to different ministries and food pantries throughout the area. Altogether the team packaged a total of almost 5000 pounds of food!
After leaving Philabundance, the team headed over to "center city" to participate in the City Search, an activity that resembles a scavenger hunt to help groups learn more about Philadelphia. Guided by their leaders, each small group walked around answering the questions provided by the CSM hosts, getting to see such landmarks as the Liberty Bell and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Thankfully the rain held off until the end of the activity when all the groups gathered for a final devotional thought.
At that time, Lex gave a brief talk on Luke 13:18-19 (where Jesus relates the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed), encouraging the team to find environments back home that will help the seeds that God has planted this week to grow. After a final time of small groups, the team jumped back into the vans and went to grab dinner in hopes that the rain would stop before the game. Although the weather did not improve and the game was cancelled, the team's spirits could not be dampened! Everyone headed back to the housing site where we enjoyed games and fellowship with each other on our final evening together. It has been amazing to see how quickly God has bonded our team and to realize all the awesome things he has done in and through each member of the group.
Tomorrow (Saturday, 7/13) we will head back to Williamsburg. We plan to leave the housing site between 9 and 10am. We will stop for lunch around 1pm and plan to arrive at the Chapel between 5 and 6pm. To receive text updates on our return trip, text the word PHILLYPARENT to the number 41411. Please pray for safe travels. We can't wait to get home to share more about our encounters with God in Philadelphia. See you all soon.
