My Day Helping Out At The Shelter

Today I helped out at the homeless shelter. It was an amazing experience. When we firdt pulled up I was unsure because it was very intimidating. All these people were standing outside and just sitting there. When we got inside we went upstairs to watch a movie about how the shelter came to be. After that Kyla, Billy, and J.Z. went out to work in the blanket shed since they had been there the day before and knew the routine and they had already seen the tour of the building. So one of the girls in charge Emily took us on a tour of the building and told us about the programs they offered. It as amazing how they helped people get off their feet and get control of thier lives. After the tour the rest of us went out to help out in the blanket shed which is just a huge shed that holds all of the bedding for the shelter. We had to organize it and get it back under control. Let me tell you it's harder then it sounds. When we first got out there and saw the shed it was so overwhelming. We worked on that for the rest of the moring. It got so HOT out there. About 45 min. before lunch we cleaned up and started a craft inside. The craft we did was we made flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners with a hershey kiss middle for all of the people in the day room in the shelter. After that we had lunch. We were so tired after lunch that we just stayed inside and made more flowers and decorated envelopes for the men in the Odyssey program that were going on a retreat. After that we wrote encouraging notes to them. After that we listened to a guy named John that told us his story and how he was doing now. He was interupted by a lady working there saying we needed to go to the back hallway because there was a tornado warning. So we went down there and while we were down there this guy started singing This Little Light of Mine. It was amazing. He was a great singer. After that we went in the day room and played some games. After that we left and came back to the church. The whole day at the shelter was amazing. I can't wait to go back tomorrow.

God Bless,
Anna Miller

Perseverence....It Happens All the Time

Perseverence is a strong word. It means to hold on and stay strong no matter what, to keep going. Today I went to vacation bible school for a group of African refugees. These kids were so happy and excited to have fun but more importantly to learn about God and his son, Jesus Christ. A "Lost Boy" came to VBS and explained what being a "Lost Boy" meant. His name is David Dau. He told us how there was a huge war in Sudan and it forced the children to just...run. In 1983, the "run" started. They ran for a total of 9 years and it was not just an everyonce and a while jog, it was every day. They needed to hold on just that much longer. These boys had and absolutely had to love each other and pick each other up. He told us about how tough the road was. These boys parents were mostly slaughtered and just taken away from the kids. Children were literally falling by the second at some times. When the group came to a river or even on land, they were eaten and torn apart by alligators and lions. David told us about hope and perseverence. He said hope is so so so needed to live. He explained that when you lost hope, you just gave up died. In this way he was conveying to us that without perseverence none of them would live. A lot of people were wondering...what about the girls? David answered that question and told us there was also a "Lost Girls". He did not go through with all the details but im sure it was just as bad or possibly worse. There are still people in refugee camps in Kenya that need to be taken to America or where ever they are headed to. So pretty much without perseverence and the support of each other, NO ONE would be able to endure.
-Ryan Crawford-

Love

During my experiences on this mission trip I have seen Love in many places. Whether it was from the hospitality of this church for letting us stay here to devotion before and after our mission work. Today I worked with the adults with special needs program. It was a great experience. Two of the people there are madly in Love and have been dating for almost three years. It was so cool to see how they interacted with each other. They always have a smile on their faces no matter what.
Josh Pennington

Love the Little Moments

Good morning to everyone -

This computer does not have a 'period' key - thus the reason for the fragments

Today is the second day of our work sites

Our theme word for today is "love" from our phrase, "My theme song is God's love and justice and I'm singing it back to you God"

Today our challenge is to love the little moments - but given our experience yesterday, that will not be hard

Some little moments we loved yesterday were:

Meeting refugees from Rwanda, Sudan and Somalia Seeing their joy Their spirit of forgiveness and God's grace was a blessing to all

The beauty of Nashville - magnolias, oleander, mimosa trees

Seeing two of our FriendsLife friends - Molly and Brian - and their love for each other Brian is a hugger and encouraged us all

Meeting Alan, from the Campus for Human Development, who is seven months into his recovery process He was an engineer with a master's degree who fell into the cycle of addiction He was so honest with us

Greeting Nick George who has biked through a couple of states already

Welcoming Pam McNeely and Carly - as Carly moves to Nashville

Having Henry Reed work along with us

Seeing a group of young college grads who had the vision for FriendsLife while serving at YoungLife Capernaum which is a summer camp for kids with disabilities

Those are some of the little moments!

Tonight we are looking forward to an 'entertainment' night - The Country Music Awards, here in Nashville, will be one ve

nue The other will be 'Walk the Line' - the story of Johnny Cash - whose sister we met at the Cowboy Church

Tonight Mark Dobish and his girlfriend Julia will join us for dinner

Last night there were tornado warnings through TN - here in Nashville we were fine

Thanks for your prayers I should have ended every sentence with an exclamation mark (since no periods are available) because we are having an exclamation mark kind of week

peace, Lisa

Cowboys Gone Christian

{We're excited to note that Nick George has made a stop to Nashville and will join us for breakfast in the morning! Were also really grateful that Henry Reed has been helping us on our worksites} Nothing seemed better than starting off our Sunday morning in Nashville with a visit to the Cowboy Church. Starring there were a few well-known country stars including Johnny Cash's youngest sister! After the country-gospel music, the church we almost recognized from home started. It was the kind of environment where "Amen" and "Hallelujah" were a natural shout from the crowd. Overall, the church was something different for all of us and hopefully something none of us will forget.


Posted By: Sarah Arena

Cowboy Church

This morning we went to church, which is probably expected on a mission trip but it was a Cowboy Church. Joanne Cash (Johnny Cash's sister) was the founder. What I liked about it was as the Pastor said there were so many denominations there but we managed to not fight.It was cool because we worshiped in a way which was different than normal but we learned that as long as you are worshiping it does not matter.

dinner

tonight i had dinner with William a man who works with refuges from Burundy a country in africa and he told stories of some of the people he helped and of their lifes in refugee camps and also how they got here to Nashville. one thing that i thought was amazing was that a family of 5 in a refugee camp would usually only get 1 gallon of water for a day witch just boggles my mind, i cant even think how many i use a day. he told many amazing stories.
with peace owen sherwod