BSM

today is the last full day.  i write to you from the deck overlooking the pool at the Morrison’s.  they were awesome enough to let us come over, eat their hot dogs, and swim in their refreshing pool.

we started out by going to a house to paint it for a lady.  at first we were really worried about getting it done, but everyone worked really hard and we were able to finish after staying a little longer than planned.  the house really did need a paint job badly and it was an awesome project and everyone worked hard and seemed to have a lot of fun.

from there, my group left and went to King’s Harvest.  there we served around 170 people.  it was really cool.  we interacted a lot more with this crowd than we were able to at the Salvation Army.  it seems that a lot of our students liked serving at King’s Harvest and it’s something that they seem to want to do on their own now.  while there, we met a guy named Russell.  he was alright.  i was kinda freaked out because after we were done serving, i saw him talking to the girls in our group.  so i got over there real quick because i didn’t know what was going on.  we actually had a really gooddiscussion with him.  he made a pretty bold challenge to our students.  in a nutshell… he asked “what are you willing to do to make a difference?  how far are you really willing to go?  yea… it’s nice that you came down here and put some food on my plate, but how is that going to change my circumstances?”  his challenge was clear.  while our sacrifice was nice and somewhat helpful, is it enough?  as we were having this conversation, my thoughts revolved around the guy that comes to Jesus asking how to inherit eternal live.  he tells Jesus that he’s kept the commandments since he was a child.  so Jesus responds by telling him to sell everything he has and give the sales money to the needy.  he walked away said because he had many things and didn’t want to give them up.  it is so easy to be selfish and horde our ‘things,’ but what are we willing to give up for Jesus.  this interaction impacted a lot of our students.

after serving and cleaning up, our crew went back to the house where we helped finish the paint job.  1 group then went out and bought more meals for people at fast food joints and the other 2 groups went to Aldi’s and bought some gatorade type drink, threw them in a cooler, and headed back to the skate park.  we spent the next hour handing out drinks and hanging with kids at the skatepark.  we ran into a guy out there that is friends with someone in our ministry.  it was cool for him to see us out there and to see what we are doing.  the guy we saw out there is actually going to Summer In The Son with us because his friend invited him.  so that’s cool.

we then headed to the church and grabbed some swim gear to head to the Morrison’s.  they opened their pool for us and heated up the grill.  it was a fun and relaxing evening.  we then showered and came back to the church where we debriefed from the day and then spent some time hanging out.  we spontaneously started to praise God for awhile, which was really cool, then we watched a couple of funny Benny Hinn videos on youtube that led to some cool discussion.

tomorrow is our last day, but it’s been an awesome week.  it’s opened our eyes to the needs in the Quad Cities.  hopefully we can now become a city within the city, that lives to reach out to the city.

day 3 is nearly over.  i’m trying to get this done earlier tonight to try and get into bed a lil earlier.  i’m starting to get tired and i especially struggle in the mornings.  usually i depend on a morning shower to get me goin, but the ymca wants us to shower during their ‘weakest’ hours which is 7-8 at night.  so in the mornings i’m depending on a pot of coffee to get me goin.

this morning was especially hard.  myself, jacob, and hannah, decided to be nice and sacrificial and we woke up early to make eggs, bacon, and pancakes for everyone.  i was really close to deciding that everyone didn’t need that nice of a breakfast, but… i arose, after 2 snooze button hits, but i still got up.  the church smelled amazing.  the aroma of bacon and pancake batter, with slight hint of fresh coffee in the background.  it was nice and everyone enjoyed a breakfast away from the norm of pop tarts and mini donuts.  jacob and i cranked out the eggs and pancakes.  my hannah did the bacon, and hannah t did the pancake batter.  it was delicious and well worth it.

after breakfast, we loaded up and went to a nursing home in bettendorf, on crow creek.  the residents were so excited as soon as we walked in the door.  we took a crew of them outside and we all planted some plants in little pots.  i think they were planting herbs such as parsley and things of that sort.  during that time, jacob busted out his guitar and started strumming.  once the planting was done, we started singing as jacob played and their faces lit up.  it was awesome.  one guy there named Guss was hilarious.  he laughed at everything and had a great personality.  mitch seemed to bond with a lady that he spent most of the time with.  guss’ friend dickey really got into singing with us.  that was a good start to the day.  the residents there just love the company and it was cool to see the joy on their faces as we spent that time with them.

after that we went to The Center on Brady over in Davenport.  The Center is a ministry that was birthed out of St. John’s Methodist Church across the alley from The Center.  it used to be a carpet or furniture store and is now a building that has an inside skate park (this is where Skate Church takes place), a cafe that serves food and coffee drinks, and a education program for teenagers.  they also host a lot of different events put on by the Quad City Prayer Center.  originally while with The Center, we were going to take a grill and some hot dogs to a corner in downtown (supposedly the corner with the most police calls in the last year) and hand out food.  evidently they had some drama last week with the people there and decided to put that on hold for a couple of weeks to let things cool down.  so instead we walked the area and picked up trash and prayed for the community.  one of the things we continue to pray regularly for is the Aug 8th event ‘Rock the River.’

after The Center, our groups disbanded again.  one went to ‘Hand in Hand’, one went to get started on the house we’ll hopefully finish painting tomorrow, and my group went to the Salvation Army shelter to serve meals.  that was awkward at times.  at first, it seemed like we were more of a complication to their process than a help.  we got there to setup and then had 2 hours to blow before serving the meal.  so we went to the outdoor skate park in davenport (i’ll come back to that experience in a sec).  once we returned to the Salvation Army, we did the final prep and set the food out.  we then prayed and then served the food to the families staying there.  it wasn’t quite what we expected.  we served about 15-20 people.  they were nice and polite and somewhat thankful, but it was really hard to have a conversation with them.  they just kept to a distance.  but it was ok.  we then cleaned up, did some dishes, took out the trash, and headed back to the church to eat and finish out the night.

now back to our skate park experience… we went to the skatepark in downtown davenport during some of our free time.  immediately we ran into a couple who does homeless ministry in davenport.  they were there handing out gatorades to the kids there.  they invited us to take some of their gatorades and hand them out with them.  if i knew we were going to have that much time, i would have loaded a cooler with gatorades and waters, but i’ll use that idea next time.  so we just walked around with these gatorades and talked to kids we handed them out to.  at the time there were about 50 or so people at the park.  some were elementary age, junior high, or high school, or older.  but it was really cool to just hang out with them and talk.  these kids were so ready for someone to just hang out with them and ask them questions that showed that someone else cared about them.  it was a cool experience and i’m definitely looking forward to going back with a cooler of drinks and just hanging out with them.  these kids at the skatepark are so open and easy to engage.  what they need is someone to come along side of them, show them they care.  these kids would definitely be open to Jesus… someone’s just got to tell them about him.

talk to you tomorrow.