Hope, Restore, Renew

Well, I can hardly believe it but it is already Friday night which means today was our last full day in the beautiful city of New York.  I'm not sure I am able to summarize everything that we have done, experienced, and learned these past few days but hopefully you have been able to read some of our past blogs to get a brief glimpse into some of the things we have done.  Overall, this has been a great week.  All of us leaders have been so proud of our kids and the way that they have challenged themselves to step out of their comfort zones in order to serve and love people.  Just one example of this is We Care Soup Kitchen which Service Group 1 was at on Tuesday and Service Group 2 was at on Thursday.  The people who ran this soup kitchen really encourage us to sit down and get to know some of the clients that come in for food.  It was truly awesome to see our groups sit down at the different tables and have discussions with the men, women, and children who were eating.  Another example was during the poverty simulation exercise when our kids had to come up with different ideas on their own for not only feeding themselves but also someone else who needed food.  2 of the groups were able to buy some bread and peanut butter and jelly along with a few snacks and pass them out to people in a park while the other group was able to buy a piece of pizza for someone sitting on the street.  What great ideas and what great ways to show the love of Christ.  Personally, its been a challenging week but also a great week in many ways.  I have really enjoyed getting to know the kids better and having a chance to serve with them throughout the week.  I have also enjoyed getting a chance to meet the men and women who run some of the organizations that we served at throughout the week.  It was awesome to see the loving and humble hearts of these people.  I also was blessed by all of the people that I got a chance to sit down and talk with during this past week.  In many ways, I think they were more of a blessing to me than I was to them.  On Thursday night, we had a time of praise and worship where the leaders of CSM talked about the main theme for this week which was Hope, Restore, and Renew.  The main idea was that in order to restore and renew not only this city but also our cities back home and in order to have hope in this, we need to show the love of Christ.  Whether that's serving at a soup kitchen, packing food at a pantry, painting walls at a school, spending time with someone who is lonely, talking with your neighbor, helping out someone at church, or working hard at your job; showing the love of Christ is important and can make a difference for renewal and restoration.  Just wanted to say thanks again for all of your support and prayers throughout this week.  As of right now, we are planning to leave around 8:00 a.m. in the morning to head back home.  Please pray for safe travels and we can't wait to see everyone tomorrow night! (Matt)