On Saturday, July 3rd me and my youth group from church left for what would be a week long trip in Indianapolis, Indiana to do service inner city. I have pictures and will try to explain as much as possible of how it went and what we did.
Saturday:
On Saturday we left around 8AMish for what would be a 9 hour trip in Indy. We occupied ourselves with games, listening to music, talking, laughing, and listened to Max for updates from the Argentina vs. Germany game. (Max's mom texted him the highlights from the game) We arrived at First Mennonite Church around 6:30PM where we would be staying the rest of the week. Rene (the associate pastor of the church and also a previous member of our church) gave us a tour of the church. We had supper and then played volleyball for a bit. By then we were all tired so we went to bed.
Sunday:
The day started off with church @ First Mennonite where we were staying. It was a good service and I really enjoyed the sermon topic. It was about torture and terrorism and how God calls us to live in peace with one another no matter what the circumstances. After the church service we had pizza with some of FMC's youth and played four square afterwords. We then left for our first service project of the week--feeding and interacting with the homeless. The organization we worked with was called Meet Me Under the Bridge, an organization that serve food to the homeless and do other things to help out. But today our job was serving food.
It was a very eye-opening experience for all of us. Some of the people that went through the line you would've never guessed to be homeless. It really changed my impression of homeless people, they aren't always the grubby and scraggly looking people that we seem to picture. They are people just like me and you but instead of having a home to go to they have nothing. After working at the soup kitchen we went downtown to watch fireworks and walked along the canal.
I have never seen that amazing of fireworks before, they were awesome! The one thing I took away from Sunday was a clearer picture of hope. Even homeless people have hope in God even in the most dire of situations. And sometimes we think we have it really tough, imagine not even having a home.
Monday:
Today was a fun day! We had our service project @ a homeless shelter. We transformed the courtyard. Before it started out as a jungle with weeds everywhere. After it was done we put mulch down and planted flowers.
Then after lunch we took the kids who were at the homeless shelter and walked to a local park and played with them. Here are Kate and I with our buddies:
It was a lot of fun to hang out with them and seeing their beautiful faces just brightened my day.
That evening we went to a Indianapolis Indians baseball game.
It was a lot of fun because one of the players (Erik Kratz, the catcher) on the team played for EMU when he was in college here in Harrisonburg. We cheered so much for him and I even got his autograph! :)
Tuesday:
Today was a tiring, hot, and draining day. The first place we worked at was an elderly women's house. We did things like weeding, cleaning the gutters, washing windows and floors, and mowing. At the beginning she was a little hard to work with just because of here particular attitude. But by the end of our time there we learned that the previous groups who had come to help out didn' t do very well. She didn't have much trust in us at the beginning but by the end she was very appreciative and even shed some tears. In the afternoon we worked at a deceased member of the church we were staying at house. We did some of the same things we did at Gail's house. It was a long and hard day but we all learned a lot. In the evening we went over to a couples house from First Mennonite and went on a boat ride. It was really nice.
Wednesday:
Today was our fun day. We went to King's Island which is an amusement park. It is pretty much like King's Dominion. Since I L-O-V-E roller coasters this was a highlight of my week. My favorite ride called Firehawk, a ride where you are lying down the whole ride. It was SOOO much fun! We spent pretty much the whole day there. It was a lot of fun, and we were all really tired after a long and hot day.
This picture is of the roller coaster the Diamondback. The drop you see here was amazing!
Thursday:
Today we worked with an organization called Rebuilding the Wall. What they do is build houses for low-income families in the community. We did different things like cleaning out the space between the joists, getting the mortar of the bricks so that they could be reused, hauling wood, and digging holes. Breanna and I worked with Jeffery on cleaning out between the joists. We got SOOOOO dirty it wasn't even funny! :) Black soot EVERYWHERE!! We ate lunch with Chris the leader of the organization who shared his testimony and what Rebuilding the Wall is and what it does. His talk was incredibly powerful and a highlight for all of us. After lunch we finished up what we were doing and then went to a homeless shelter and helped there. In the evening we had fun going to arcade place where they had Go-Karts and other games. It was fun!
Friday:
Today we were working at Wheeler's Mission Center for Women and Children. It was a homeless shelter where homeless women and children can come and stay. Kailyn, me, Rene, and Breanna cleaned one of the bathrooms. We got to use some awesome sucker uppers and sprayers. It was a dirty but fun job. After lunch we went back to the center and sorted clothes and disinfected toys. Friday evening we went over the Rene's apartment and swam in the pool and ate food. When we got back to the church we played sardines. I was tired!
Saturday:
And finally Saturday came.....The trip back was long but to make it a little funner we stopped at this castle that one guy made all by himself. It was pretty impressive.
We arrived home around 10:30PM.
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It was an amazing trip with so many highlights. I grew a lot in my faith and will really cherish the memories that were made. I learned a lot to, and am challenged to now see what I can do to help the homeless here in Harrisonburg. Hope you enjoyed hearing about my week!
Take Care,
