The day started off strong with breakfast and devotions. Everyone was pretty excited to go to their respective work projects for the day. We had one group stay in Feltonville, another group go to South Philly to help Pastor Will with his church plant, and the rest of us went to West Philly to help MCIC clean up the streets. Unfortunately, due to my new-ness to the smart phone universe and GPS, we got to the mission about 20 minutes late. It was a good moment for me though, because I felt stupid that I was 21 and couldn't make a GPS work. But it was a real lesson in patience for me and trusting that the delay was somehow part of God's plan.
I'm still not sure how it was, by the way. I might never know. Good news though, everything carried on pretty normally.
We got to MCIC and Pastor John Davis, Pastor Andre and Ms. Jamilla. They split us up into five teams and gave us five streets to clean, up and down. We only had three leaders with us, so we had two teams step up, pick a leader, and work together to get the job done in the time allowed. I don't think any of us finished completely the assigned areas due to our lateness and running out of trash bags, but my group especially had some cool conversations as we went. We met one guy, Marcus, who asked what we were doing and why. We told him about Grace Church and MCIC, and he said he'd come down and volunteer with MCIC one day cause he really liked what we were doing. We also had a block captain and some guys chilling out on their stoop express their very deep (and lengthy...) appreciation. It felt great that we were making a genuine, noticed difference in the community.
Afterwards we all made it back (and no one got lost!) safe and sound. It was then, of course, that I figured out my GPS (had to have been a reason. Had to.) We went to a nearby pizza place, which gave a very unexpected discount because they asked about what a bunch of Hershey kids and an intern were up to in Philly. When I explained, they told us we were doing good work for a good cause and gave us a nice discount. Again, God was providing for us.
So then we got back to the Church (on perfect time. No issues like the morning. Still don't know why...) and got ready straight away for Day Camp in the nearby park. It was a bit discouraging off the bat because we had 10-15 kids in a huge park with about 30 BUMPers, which was obviously a bit intimidating for the kids. A few of us went to pass out some more fliers, and as we were getting back it started pouring rain almost out off nowhere. I was incredibly blessed to be working with such flexible BUMPers. Everyone broke down the camp incredibly quickly and we walked back down to the church to finish off day camp there, since we still had about half the time to go. We lost about half our kids, I think we brought 8 back with us.
Obviously, we hadn't prepared at all to hold Day Camp in the church. The sanctuary and the basement were both filled with the BUMPers sleeping things, the fellowship hall wasn't in very good order, and there was almost no time to give directions of where to set things up and how to continue the day. Everyone came back, carved out a spot (very creatively, I might add. The music people didn't bother the storytellers at all.) We had a couple quiet kids, but they stayed fairly engaged and some of them were. And almost everyone I talked to, even if they only had one kids in their group at a time, came back with a cool story about how the kids asked questions, had fun, and how some of them even did a lot to help us carry things back to the church.
The personal highlight of my day was a little girl who I'd walked back from the park with made me a craft and gave it to me at the end of the night. I don't know why necessarily, but it had been kind of a rough day with all the running around and planning and it really made me stop and realize how good God is. He used this little girl to brighten my day in a really great way. It just felt awesome to have that kind of impact on a child.
I'd prayed the night before and earlier in the day for God to give us the right amount of kids, and he did. The BUMPers got their kinks worked out, we were able to be really flexible, and it honestly might have been harder to manage if we had more kids or rowdier kids. They honestly did a great job, and after dinner I'm looking forward to hearing their stories about how they feel the day went. So far, so great.
Peace and Love,
Josh, the BUMP intern
Afterwards we all made it back (and no one got lost!) safe and sound. It was then, of course, that I figured out my GPS (had to have been a reason. Had to.) We went to a nearby pizza place, which gave a very unexpected discount because they asked about what a bunch of Hershey kids and an intern were up to in Philly. When I explained, they told us we were doing good work for a good cause and gave us a nice discount. Again, God was providing for us.
So then we got back to the Church (on perfect time. No issues like the morning. Still don't know why...) and got ready straight away for Day Camp in the nearby park. It was a bit discouraging off the bat because we had 10-15 kids in a huge park with about 30 BUMPers, which was obviously a bit intimidating for the kids. A few of us went to pass out some more fliers, and as we were getting back it started pouring rain almost out off nowhere. I was incredibly blessed to be working with such flexible BUMPers. Everyone broke down the camp incredibly quickly and we walked back down to the church to finish off day camp there, since we still had about half the time to go. We lost about half our kids, I think we brought 8 back with us.
Obviously, we hadn't prepared at all to hold Day Camp in the church. The sanctuary and the basement were both filled with the BUMPers sleeping things, the fellowship hall wasn't in very good order, and there was almost no time to give directions of where to set things up and how to continue the day. Everyone came back, carved out a spot (very creatively, I might add. The music people didn't bother the storytellers at all.) We had a couple quiet kids, but they stayed fairly engaged and some of them were. And almost everyone I talked to, even if they only had one kids in their group at a time, came back with a cool story about how the kids asked questions, had fun, and how some of them even did a lot to help us carry things back to the church.
The personal highlight of my day was a little girl who I'd walked back from the park with made me a craft and gave it to me at the end of the night. I don't know why necessarily, but it had been kind of a rough day with all the running around and planning and it really made me stop and realize how good God is. He used this little girl to brighten my day in a really great way. It just felt awesome to have that kind of impact on a child.
I'd prayed the night before and earlier in the day for God to give us the right amount of kids, and he did. The BUMPers got their kinks worked out, we were able to be really flexible, and it honestly might have been harder to manage if we had more kids or rowdier kids. They honestly did a great job, and after dinner I'm looking forward to hearing their stories about how they feel the day went. So far, so great.
Peace and Love,
Josh, the BUMP intern
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