Day Four

Today was our final full day of work here in Philadelphia.  This morning we went back to Mantua and cleaned up again. We took two streets all the way from 31st to 40th.

We had devotions this afternoon with a pastor here at Grace church- his name was Pastor Theodore. He is from Cameroon but moved here to America several years ago with his wife. He ministers here at the church.  He shared his experience moving here and the difficulties he had moving in and finding a job.  Afterwards we had devotions and then started in on our final night of Vacation Bible School.

Thank you so much for your prayers here.  God has surprised us in many ways- especially with the children. Quite a few of them received Christ tonight which was encouraging for us to see.  We've been able to build some good relationships with the kids in our group.  It's been a blessing to talk to them and watch them open up as the week went on.  We're praying Christ will continue to work in their lives!

Day Three!

This morning we went back to SMRM and helped them clean up the streets around their building

After cleaning up and sorting through some clothes, we got a chance to actually talk to the men at the shelter.  Some of them were not very receptive, but most were open and wanting to talk. The stories they had to tell were amazing.  It's incredible how many of these men live lives like this because of jobs or bad circumstances.  Some, yes, have had messed up lives because of drugs and alcohol, but not every one.  We talked a lot about the Phillies :)  ...and gave them a little bit of a hard time by comparing the Cardinals to them.  It was cool, though, to get this chance to talk and to really listen.  (We also stayed for their chapel service). 

Please continue to pray for VBS!  As the nights go on, the kids get more and more comfortable with where they are at and who they are with.  This is a good thing-- in some ways.  We've had new kids coming in each night and that combined with the kids who feel very much at home, things are getting a little bit harder.  Several kids in particular are not listening and causing a lot of distractions for the other kids.  

Other than that, it is going well. We've had such a good time connecting with the kids- our relationships are getting stronger and this is encouraging and at the same time eye opening.  A lot of these kids have very hard lives at home and as they've been opening up to us, it's been hard to listen and not be able to do much about it.  We are trying to love them, though, with Christ's love.  

Thank you for your prayers! We appreciate them so much. 

Day Two!!

Day two with BUMP missions!  This morning we started with breakfast at Grace church, and then headed over to Mantua Community Improvement Committee.  This was an organization that kept the streets and lawns in the Mantua neighborhood clean.  Most of the streets in Philly are completely littered with trash- everywhere you walk you step into trash.  We walked up and down in this part of town sweeping up the trash, making sure the streets were clean. We prayed as we walked along, prayed for the people living in these neighborhoods and prayed for God's Word to be spread.

John 13:15 says "I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you."  This verse was in our devotion a couple days ago- and it is just a reminder that we are here to serve. To serve as Christ served.  He set an example for us and He has asked us to follow it.  

After we worked at MCIC, we came back to Grace church for lunch.  The church has several families staying here off and on. Last night there was family that recently moved form Africa to New York. This family primaraly speaks French, so connecting with them has been a little more difficult.  They are incredibly sweet children, though.  During lunch, several of us exchanged words- us learning French ones and the little kids learning English ones. 

This is Phanuelle and Andrew. Phanuelle is nine years old and Andrew is one.

Tonight we are going to be leading VBS again.  Please pray for a safe evening- for protection for the kids. Pray for all of the members in our group to be alert and to be able connect well with the kids :)  Thank you all!

Day One

Monday, July 9, 2012

Day One

Day one in Philly! Today has been full, very full, but extremely eye-opening.
Our first project today was at Sunday Breakfast Mission. This was a rescue mission for homeless guys- a place that offered shelter and food for men that were in need. We were given a tour of the building, shown where the men slept, ate, and showered. SBM offers two programs- one that provides shelter for men for 30 days, and one that offers an interenship, housing and intense Bible lessons for about a year.
These first pictures show where the men staying for 30 days sleep- about 200 men fit in this room.

Men who are entered into the interenship program (called Over-comers) get more private rooms- two men are in each room. This little cubicals were small and modest, but something that filled a need in these men's lives.

This shelter really works are getting men back on their feet, making sure they have a job, are saving money, but it zeros in on one key goal: to teach the men how to be leaders in their family. They are taught how to be good fathers to their children and how to provide for everyone in their family. We were put to work on cleaning out the "pantry" at this mission. This room, as you can see, was huge. It was packed full, from the floor to the ceiling, with crates and boxes full of canned goods. Our leader explained that they have problems with animals (mainly mice) and they need this room cleaned out on a regular basis. This job required: sweeping, cleaning off each shelf, hosing off the boxes and crates, and cleaning each can. That's right, individually wiping off every single can, sorting throw the rusted ones, and packing them neatly back in the boxes.

We worked here until 12:30pm and had cleaned out just about one fourth of the room.

Every evening we are helping out with Vacation Bible School here at Grace Church. The amount of varitey in cultures here is amazing. We have kids coming from everywhere (tonight we had around 40 kids). Each one of us is a "crew member" and is assigned between 3-5 kids. We are in charge of these kids every night. On the basic level, we are required to lead our kids from station to station, through Bible, crafts, games and snacks. On a deeper level, however, our responsibility is to create relationships with our kids. We are asked to connect with our group of kids, to talk to them, be available if they have any questions, to encourage them and to have fun!

We have each been given names and addresses for our kids, with the hope of keeping in contact with some of them after we come back to Hermann.

We've spent a lot of time praying for these kids, praying for unity in our group, but we would really appreciate your prayers too!! God is so present here. He has given us so much to work with. I just pray we have the ability to use what He has given us. Pray in specific for continued energy (the work jobs we are doing really are exhausting), for continued unity in our group (we need one mind and one goal in order to accomplish what God wants us to accomplish), and especially for the kids we are working with during VBS. We've had several opportunities to talk about more serious things with the kids, but please pray we will be attentive to what they need and able to help them if they have questions