mission Trip 2010: Pontiac, Michigan-DAY 5

It's fun day up here in Detroit, Michigan! This is once again Abbey Horne, Megan Freeman, and Cameron Williams blogging to you about our day!
Our day started off by a lovely breakfast made by Mid Dover, George Freeman, and David Whiteside. We had bacon, eggs, cereal, and biscuits! Although we call it our fun day, we still remain serious and take the day to rest and refuel. The group took advantage of this opportunity to bond and get to know everybody better. We arrived at the Henry Ford Museum by charter bus, given free time to walk around and explore in groups. After seeing most of the exhibits, everyone joined in to go see the movie Inception in the IMAX movie theatre. It was a great movie that kept everybody on the tips of their seats anticipating what will happen next. The next stop on our trip brought us to Ann arbor, Michigan for the art fair. Our group greatly enjoyed the atmosphere surrounding the fair and even found several souvenirs to bring back home. Dinner time arrived around 6 p.m at a local restaurant called The Cottage Inn. After dinner, we shopped a little bit longer, but then it was time to regroup on the charter bus and start our journey back to the church. Once we arrived back at the church, Becky led the devotion based on the one given to us this morning by Hannah Oneil and Sarah Whiteside. During the devotion we were given the time to reflect on how we have influenced the christian community around us. As we wrote in our journals and held our prayer beads, we considered what in the community has influenced ourselves and how important it truly is to surround ourselves with christian friends. The scripture given to us tonight taught us that it is easier and wiser to live our faith out loud by surrounding ourselves with strong christian influences and friends.

Mission Trip 2010: Pontiac, Michigan-DAY 4

Greetings from Cameron Williams, Abbey Horne and Megan Freeman.
To start off our day the ladies had a very unexpected wake up call around 7 am. The garbage trucks came for its routine pick up and noisily disposed of the trash right outside of their window. Even though it wasn't the average wake up call, it managed to get all of them up at once in a very swift manner. Our morning glow was presented by Brittany Helm and Chandler Caldwell. They incorporated the lyrics of the song World-5 for Fighting with the idea that life is what it is because of what you make it. With that concept in mind, they then asked " What kind of world would you want or make using a blank canvas?" Even though we are at different places in our lives, we have all gotten there from our own decisions, and the way we live out our lives. Our Canvas is painted with the choices and decisions we have made throughout our lives and will always represent what type of world we want.
The playground team " gold diggers" got down and dirty with the continuing demolition of yesterdays work. The morning dew made it extra muddy but that didn't stop them from working hard and getting the job done. After numerous attempts at getting the cement out of the ground, the gold diggers were losing steam and finally took matters into their own hands. An equipment upgrade was made and the bobcat was introduced to the team. It soon brought back the spirit to the playground and it is now left standing with four poles to go.
The fence group preceded to go on and work on the progress of removing and digging holes. They started the fence building by digging 10 holes 3 feet deep. This will be the foundation of the new fence that will soon be put in.
The day camp group awaited for all the kids to arrive. Breakfast started around 8 :45 and the day quickly moved on from there. The camp councilors and the kids joined in on several group activities consisting of : hula hooping, side walk chalk math, sing and dance alongs, and several crafts.
The garage group was put together by Becky and our new friend Darrell. Their task was to take a cluttered garage filled with home depot donations and transform it into a properly organized shed. The team worked together by moving all the objects out of the garage and with Becky's wonderful organizational skills, sorted everything inside. With everything in catatorgies, the garage team quickly, but efficiently, put everything back into the garage.
The Demolition team removed a kitchen sink and cabinets and a wall bookcase unit. They then finished by putting down a wooden floor to allow the secretary to rearrange her office space.
The Wall Paper Group continued to strip the wallpaper inside of a house. They made great progress and have now just about finished stripping the entire downstairs. A lot of work is still to be done but with the work ethic we have maintained we will knock it out in no time!
After a long hard day of work, we got the pleasure of being able to go to the Detroit Tigers Major League Baseball Game against the Texas Rangers. It was a very exciting game despite the loss from the Tigers. We stayed until the top of the 8Th inning but our game was quickly cut short due to an unexpected rain storm. Everyone enjoyed the game and the bonding time it presented to the group.
For evening devotions each group was given a blank canvas to draw a picture of their days work and then shared their days experiences with the entire youth group reflecting on what they desired their worlds to look like. As a part of the devotions today everyone was asked to journal about what kind of world they wanted and then closed the evening again using their prayer beads thanking God for using them to create the world they wanted.

Mission Trip 2010: Pontiac, Michigan-DAY 3

Our "wake-up" time was an hour earlier today; which most of us felt as we slowly made our way downstairs. Since today was to be our first work day, we had additional preparations to add to our morning. We had to pack our lunches and our bags with clothes to wear following our showers.
Morning Glow was led by Clay and Erin. Their devotion was all about relationships; sustaining them to make an impact on our lives 52 weeks a year instead of just this one. They encouraged us to think about how we work as a group to sustain each other. This week we will strive not to "Catch and Release" our friendships, but to show the love of Christ year round.
We boarded the buses and made our way to The Baldwin Center to divide into our work groups for the day.

We were welcomed by the Resource Developer, Jason Gordon. Jason gave us an orientation and a short tour of the center. Meanwhile, the Day Care Center group, "Team CHABELA" had to go right to work, welcoming children and preparing breakfast. Twelve children attended "Camp Sunshine" Detroit-style. Our theme was "Have you filled your bucket today?" We taught the children that you can fill one another's buckets by doing kind things for each other. You are a "bucket dipper" if you take something out of someone's bucket by being unkind. All of our activities centered around this theme and included language arts, math, crafts, music, and outdoor time. We had lunch with them and began to develop close connections with these special children. We sang songs from a recent Vacation Bible School and closed with a relaxing quiet reflection time.

The children ate a lunch that was also served by some of our group in the Soup Kitchen at the Center. The guests of the Soup Kitchen were served Beans and Franks AKA "Beanie Weenies". Little did we realize that McKenzie would be surrounded by beans-her most-unusual phobia. She survived and helped others in the process.
One of our smaller projects was to unload two boxes of clothing that were donated to the Baldwin Center Clothes Closet.

"Team Cakesters" (named from the car construction game from last night) cleared a lot; removing broken fences and a roof and started post-holes for a new fence. Their favorite part was the removal of SEVEN nasty toilets filled with brown water, mosquito babies and tadpoles. On a lighter note, they scraped paint and applied the first coat of paint on a tool shed.

The "Gold Diggers" aptly named had a main goal to dig and take apart a playground that was not up to code and was more costly to repair than replace. The went through several layers, beginning with mulch and dirt. Next came a very strong layer of weed barrier similar to a burlap sack that had to be cut with scissors. Once they tore through that, they met the clay, which was very thick. In total, the Gold Diggers had to go through 36 inches of mulch, dirt, weed barrier, and clay only to meet up with the unbreakable reinforced concrete base. This seemed like a good time to break for lunch. A trip to the hardware store was needed to purchase the correct tools to take the playground itself apart. The highlight of the day happened within the last five minutes of their workday was when Cameron and Chandler finally pulled out a metal piece with concrete attached that they had been working on all day!

The "Dream Team" began renovations on a house that had been uninhabited for quite a while. They moved furniture, tore out carpet and tore down wallpaper. The house was less than "dreamy"-they found hair on the wall after they peeled the wallpaper and they had to use toilets that had not been cleaned in 12 years-literally. The carpet smelled of animals; some even said the animals may not have been living when they were last in the house.
Skittles AKA "Mark Skillestad" kindly recommended that his group take a break. He then laid down and never came back. While the group wondered where their leader was, he was being transported to the hospital with severe lower back pain and nausea. As it turns out, Skittles, was suffering from a kidney stone. As we write this, Mrs. Skittles is at the hospital with her husband hoping that he can pass the stone and rejoin the group. We ask you to join us in keeping him in your prayers.

After the girls had to limit their showers to 3 minutes or less, we miraculously left the high school in time to go out to eat at the World Famous Big Boy Restaurant. Although some of us had to wait quite a while for our food, the service was friendly and the food was satisfying. Chandler had the most food ever without paying for it. Mid called him a "Moocher" and nothing but it!

Devotions began with a debriefing of the day and what our strengths and weaknesses of the day. We were asked to choose our "Catch of the Day"--the person who overcame the obstacles and was basically the MVP of the day. We ended with our Bible verse and journaling about what we were prayerful, thankful, and joyful about.

Overall, the first day was exhausting, but progress was made and relationships were formed and strengthened.

MORE PICTURES

Here are several more pictures from today that wouldn't fit on our last blog. We're still working on how to provide captions with these photos!!

Mission Trip 2010: Pontiac, Michigan-DAY 2

GOOD EVENING! This blog is brought to you by FIVE FAITHFUL FEMALES (a name that originally had some interesting suggestions due to exhaustion and heat!): Erin Ingle, Hannah Williams, Parrisha Barnes, Meredith Love and Catherine Greene!!

We enjoyed a restful night and awoke with more energy. We started off the morning with Sunday School at 9:00 a.m. at Community Presbyterian Church of Waterford. We attended Sunday School in the sanctuary for one class, young and OLD! They normally all meet in the room the girls took over with all their air mattresses. We learned that we should all be "little Jesus'" and the hands and feet of God.

As church began at 10:00 a.m., the crowd grew larger. During the service we felt so included because the minister continued to mention the North Carolina youth group. We even had the opportunity to share in communion with them, although they are of a different denomination, they too, like us, have an open table for community. What an awesome experience!

Another warm hospitable act was shown to us after church by the gracious Missions Committee at the church. They served us an AMAAAAZING lunch, which rivaled OUR Southern Hospitality! We're definitely enjoyed being spoiled!!

Next we found a high school that paled in comparison to our local high schools. Their amenities and accommodations were superb, and something we're not accustomed to on most Mission Trips! We had relaxing swims and competitive games of water basketball. These FUN activities were followed by the FIRST shower of the week, and desperately needed after the 14 hour ride yesterday.

We experienced a little free time next as we arrived back at the church. This time including a Wal Mart run for stuff we left back in the South (ah hmm...BECKY!) or FOOD.

Our annual pizza party, provided by Sherry McKenzie, was awaiting us! We want to thank her for satisfying our pizza craving and showing her love and support through a distance! We would also like to thank Amanda Cole for the wonderful poundcake, topped with strawberries (thanks Becks!).

Devotions and team building activities concluded our Sunday night. Some of the activities included "People Mission Finder," in which we went around getting signatures of people who could meet different requirements. We then got in our work groups for Monday and made a car out of random things (oreo cakesters, crackers, stirrers, tape and playing cards). The car had to represent our group, which we made a name for. As "The Dream Team," "Chabrela," "Progresso" and "Gold Digger" made their debuts to the entire group, they served as a reminder that we must work together in our groups this week to be successful in the Motor City. We finished the evening with journaling and prayer time. Our journal topic came from scripture first heard this morning during Sunday School, 2 Thessalonians 2:13. This scripture explained why God chose us to do what we do. We wrote about why we felt God CHOSE US to be apart of this trip and experience this week. Why were we called to Detroit? After our jounaling time, we received our prayer beads provided by the Embrace Group of FUMC, Gastonia. The group lovingly and prayerfully crafted the beads for each individual person in our group and enclosed a personalized letter. We are very grateful for these loving gifts we each received. We will use them throughout the week, and continue to cherish and utilize them upon our return.

We thank each and every one of you for your prayers and thoughts for this Mission Trip. Continue to pray that our hands and feet are extensions of God! Also, don't forget to follow our blog daily to keep up with the exciting events happening in our life.

P.S. We would like to mention our dear friend Fran Anderson, who is the Mrs. Caldwell of Waterford, Michigan. She continues to welcome and excite us with her exuberant attitude and smile, in her rockin' heels! Don't worry, we will receive plenty of hugs this week.

We are getting VERY sleepy and MUST get some rest for our first day of work tomorrow. Goodnight from the 5 faithful females!

Mission Trip 2010: Pontiac, Michigan-DAY 1

WE ARRIVED SAFELY IN PONTIAC, MICHIGAN! Please check back daily for updates from our group. Each night a new group of youth will be sharing our experiences through this blog. Tonight, wearily, Ben, Megan M., Mary S., Clay, Chandler, Sam and Catherine try to recount our mundane travel day.

FROM C. Caldwell the Might:

Dawn arose in a quick, but exciting flash. Soon, once all arrived, and with a motivational spiritual preparation from Tripp Hord, we were off on our 14 hour (yes, you read that right!) drive. After several pit stops, numerous munching sessions and the creation of "Fort Helen's Playpin," we arrived around 8:30 p.m. and were welcomed by a plethora of Community Presbyterian Church of Waterford, Michigan (our living corridors for the next week) members. We enjoyed a surprise banana split snack provided by this very gracious church. We mingled and interacted with their youth and adult leaders. Despite our exhaustion, we were extremely grateful by this warm welcome and immediately felt right at home. This is the first time we've experienced such a friendly welcome. After an hour (which felt like FOREVER) of unpacking, unloading and blowing up air mattresses (and trying to cram all the girls and their STUFF into a small Sunday School classroom) we enjoyed an always delicious $5 foot long from Subway. We sure shocked the two girls as we arrived shortly before they closed, but thankfully they filled our hungry bellies! Upon arrival back at the church we had a quick meeting and preparation before settling for bed.

Tomorrow we look forward to worshipping with this church during Sunday School and 10 o'clock church! Following the service, we will have an orientation for The Baldwin Center, which is where we will be working this coming week. After we are oriented, we will enjoy a home cooked meal from our generous church hosts. Then we will anxiously await a pool and SHOWER!!

We are extremely excited about the opportunities that await us this week! We look forward to serving the community of Pontiac, while also growing closer and building our own community in our group, all while strengthening our personal relationship with God.

Remember to check back daily for updates from our trip!

Daily Prayer Guide for Motor City Mission Trip

Saturday, July 17
The team departs this morning for Michigan.
Please pray for: ...all the final preparations to be made smoothly.
...safe traveling and health for team.
...unity and bonding while traveling.
Scripture to pray: “Spread your protection over them, that those
who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O Lord, you bless
the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.”
Psalm 5:11-12

Sunday, July 18
After sharing in a local church service, the team
will spend the day in orientation. They will be establishing basic
logistics and connecting with one another.
Please pray for: ...flexibility to circumstances they encounter.
...God’s plans for each participant to be accomplished.
Scripture to pray: “Let the peace of Christ dwell in your hearts,
since as members of the body you were called to peace, and be
thankful.” Colossians 3:15

Monday, July 19
The team starts the bulk of their work schedule
today. For the next several days, they will be building, painting, serving
in a soup kitchen, in a clothes closet and a daycare center.
Please pray for: ...discernment as the team interacts with others.
...team to assimilate all information they need today.
...patience.
Scripture to pray: “Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in
all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

Tuesday, July 20
The team follows a “typical” daily schedule.
Please pray for: ...openness among the recipients.
...just the right things they will need at each site.
...unity of the team.
Scripture to pray: “May our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father
who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good
hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and
word.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Wednesday, July 21
The team has a day off. This is a fun
day, but also designed to pace the amount of information the team is
processing.
Please pray for: ...refreshing from God to cover the weariness.
...team’s hearts to be filled with gratitude.
...the students would live out community.
Scripture to pray: “Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Thursday, July 22
The team ramps up for more ministry.
Please pray for: ...continued strength and energy to minister.
...that God would deepen the lessons that He has taught.
...each team member’s life to be changed by this trip.
Scripture to pray: “Come and see what God has done, how awesome
his works in man’s behalf! Praise our God, o peoples, let the sound of
his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet
from slipping.” Psalm 66:5, 8-9

Friday, July 23
The team concludes their week’s labor of love.
Please pray for: ...the team to be encouragers of one another as
well as the local people.
...spiritual conversations to occur in relationships built,
...seeds that have been planted to bear much fruit.
Scripture to pray: “If you don’t know what you are doing, pray to
the Father. He loves to help.” James 1:5

Saturday, July 24
The team leaves for home today.
Please pray for: ...God to speak to each participant today as they
reflect on what has taken place.
...others at home to be blessed by the reports from this trip.
...team’s acclimation back to a normal routine.
Scripture to pray: “The prayer of a person living right with God is
something powerful to be reckoned with.” James 5:16