Today our team woke up excited for another day to go out into the city and serve those who are in need here in Nashville. Everyone went through our morning routine of showers, making breakfast, packing a bagged lunch, and loading up the vans to head out to all of our ministry sites. It is exciting to watch a group of teenagers wake-up excited to go and sacrifice their days for others.
Serving group 1 started their day off by visiting a local soup kitchen for the homeless men and women of East Nashville. They helped prepare food, serve it to everyone in attendance, mingle with the homeless men and women, and then clean up everything. It is an eye-opening experience to see the lives of homeless people and hear their stories. The group realized how we take for granted something as simple as the choice to eat what we want on a daily basis because everyone that attends the soup kitchen only gets to eat whatever is prepared that day.
After eating their own packed lunches, group 1 headed back to the day camp called N.I.C.E. that they had participated in yesterday. It was fun to have kids excited to see them back after building relationships the previous day. The group continued to help them in their math, english, science, and art lessons throughout the afternoon. They have helped provide encouragement for these kids who struggle to find the motivation to work hard in school sometimes.
Serving group 2 headed to a brand new ministry site to start their day as they partnered with Warner Parks which is the organization that oversees the local park system. The group specifically went to Percy Warner park where they walked through 4 miles of horse and hiking trails to clear brush and debris off of the trails. It was a tiring project that pushed the team physically, but ended with a satisfying and beautiful overview of the city skyline once they made it to the top of the mountain. The gorgeous scenery reminded them of the gift that their effort to clear the trails will provide for countless people that hike the trails to enjoy the same natural view.
After finishing at the park and eating lunch, group 2 headed back to the Magnus Potter boys and girls club in the afternoon where they reconnected with the kids they had met yesterday. The entire group was excited to have another afternoon with all the precious kids they had gotten to know yesterday and the long morning hike didn't keep them from joyfully playing and other games or crafts with all of the kids. The group considered it a huge blessing to have the opportunity to continue building meaningful relationships with all of the kids at the program
Serving group 3 began their day by going back to the boys and girls club that they visited yesterday. Like some of the other groups, they felt a huge rush of excitement as the kids faces lit up in seeing them again. The group all had kids who they knew and were eager to talk to and play games with throughout the morning. The day camp that the boys and girls club runs throughout the summer provides great structure for these kids so that they are consistently in positive environments that promote healthy learning and safe fun. Group 3 felt privileged to help be a part of this great service to the community.
In the afternoon, serving group 3 ate their packed lunches and headed to a ministry called Project C.U.R.E. that helps supply medical supplies to lower income and homeless communities. After a morning filled with relationships the group was ready for a physical labor project. So they unloaded pallets and took inventory on all of the supplies so that the organization knew exactly how much they had to distribute. The team worked so well together that they were able to unload over 25 completely filled pallets of medical supplies, sort them, document them, and get them ready to be distributed. The group showed a great work ethic and desire to set this organization up for success so that the staff could just focus on getting the medical supplies to the places that really needed them.
Serving group 4 left the housing site and headed back to Project Transformation where they once again spent time helping develop the literacy skills of some local children by reading to them and helping the kids read on their own. Without this organization these kids would be falling behind in school and so the encouragement to improve their reading skills was a huge gift that will help these kids tremendously in the future.
In the afternoon serving group four went out to a local park to participate in an activity that CSM calls "Beat the Heat" where everyone take a water bottle to hand out to whomever needs one on the hot day. The team split up into small group and walked around a given area to handout the bottles and get to know the people they were helping. It was inspiring to see how something as simple as a water bottle can break down the barriers between the people living on the street and our group so that they could hear each other's stories and learn from each other.
Serving group 5 ended up going to the same site for the entire day with a lunch break in between the morning and afternoon. The group went to help at a local branch of the organization Catholic Charities. In Nashville, Catholic Charities provides a transition plan for refugees that need to get out of their country in Africa or the Middle East. They pick up the refugees from the airport and then drop them off at a fully furnished apartment so that they feel welcomed and cared for. It was sad to hear about how these individuals had to be displaced from their original homes, but hopeful to know that their are people in Nashville who have devoted their lives to serving this population. The group helped with the jobs of the refugees who were working in the building as well as any other odd jobs that the director needed help with. It was amazing to watch the group be willing to serve in the same jobs for five hours so that they could leave the warehouse in a much better situation than it began.
Everyone left their job sites in the afternoon, ate some dinner, and headed back to our housing site for Porch Time. Luke had everyone look at Matthew 25 and Colossians 1:27 to think through the idea of what it means to see and be Jesus. He talked about the fact that in Matthew 25 Jesus says that whenever we serve the "least of these" in our communities that we are actually serving Jesus who is present in those people. In addition, the Colossians verse tells us that Jesus is not only present in the least of these but Jesus can also be present in each of us as well. Representing Christ to others comes with a huge responsibility, but also can be filled with great satisfaction as we start to view the world through the lens of Christ in us rather than our own wants and desires. To close out the night everyone had some great small group discussions to continue processing the day and everything that Luke discussed in his talk.
