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)

Serving Group#2 Thursday

Today our group went to We Care Soup Kitchen in Brooklyn at the Little Rock Baptist Church.  All of us were really blessed by the people that we met there and we were surprised to find out that sometimes when you think that you'll be a blessing to someone else the tables are turned and they're the ones that really are a testimony and a blessing to you.  The people that run the soup kitchen were so friendly and dedicated to their work and were really happy that we were there to help them out.  Their Christ-like attitudes really inspired us and fired us up for the last couple of days of our trip.  We will be working at a traveling soup kitchen tomorrow and we hope it will be another fun and eventful day.  Hope everyone reading has a great rest of the week and we can't wait to come home and see everybody again.  Thanks for reading and see you all soon!!!!!!!!!!! (Jessica Bosch)

Wednesday (Immersion Night)

Service Group 1:
 Today was a great day in the big apple. We started out in Brooklyn at a ministry called Agape Social Services. (Agape means "unconditional love" in Greek) Right as we walked in, we met a man named Jeff. He was always telling jokes.  Everybody wanted to work with Jeff. After cleaning up the building, we got ready to serve the meal to the people. People were streaming in, and food was brought to them, along with fellowship from everybody in our group. We left there with lessons learned, and friends made.

Service Group 2:
Well since you haven't heard what service group 2 (Jessica D, Jessica B, Hayley, Jamie, Ryan, Todd, Jeannette and MJ) has done the past 2 days we thought that we should let you know. Yesterday we started out the day by taking a tour/scavenger hunt through Grand Central Station. When we arrived there we were split up into 2 different groups and had places we had to find in Grand Central. We had to finding things like the Grand Central Market, and the Whispering Gallery, which was amazing. The Whispering Gallery is a place where you can stand in opposite corners with someone and just talk into the wall. When you talk the person diagonal from you can hear what you are saying. When we were done with our scavenger hunt we sat in the dining concourse and ate our lunch before heading to the soup kitchen we were going to work at that afternoon.

When we got to St. Lukes, the soup kitchen we worked at, we arrived too early and took a quick walk to Bryant Park to see what was going on, and then we walked back to start serving the people. When we got there we all grabbed gloves, aprons, and a hairnet. For the next hour we served meals to the homeless and got to say 'hi' to them. We only stayed for an hour, before heading to Times Square. At Times Square, Steve, our CSM host, informed us it was the start our immersion. He would be leaving us and we would have the next 4 hours to complete the ultimate task of using our $16 ($2/person in our group) to feed our group of 8 and at least one other person. Along the way we also had other tasks that we were to do. Once we navigated the subway to our destination, Aster Place, the immersion began. We started off by getting off the subway and sitting on the curb counting the numbers of taxi's we saw in a 15 minute time period, we saw 93 and checked one thing off our lists to do. As we walked around checking out the area of Manhattan we were in, we started to collect menus from 5 different restaurants who are from the 5 different continents (not including Antarctica). We went into a Korean restaurant and grabbed a menu. We would love to tell you more about the night but right now, we have to head to praise and worship.  Hopefully, we will be able to update again later on tonight.

Oh the Places You Go in New York City

All the places to go in NYC;
Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The day's journey began early in the morning.
7:30 the alarms called
All arose eagerly to seize the day.

Bagels, cereal, and fruit for breakfast.
Pack the bags and head out.
A few pics snapped here and there.
Down into the subway we traveled.

The green flag went up as our train arrived
We split into groups to stay alive.
The destination came and we all got out.
Walk a few blocks and talk a lot.

Arriving early gave us time to prepare
put on the hats, aprons and what not to wear.
Sister Washington gave us the scope,
how to serve, pray, and scoop soup.

Talking to Frank, Chris, Ms. Louis
and many more stories were told,
along with little things like strawberry jam at  Popeye's,
to dollar store jewelry.

Pork beans and smoked neck bones, turkey soup, and beef stew
Cleaned up fast
and out to roll ...
back on the subway;
Next stop 10 - 15 ish miles away.

Up the hills and down into the valleys
It's a journey through New York City.
The destination reached at last,
Stand on the corner and wait for instructions.

A call came and said the job was finished.
Back to the station to get on the train,
Can we all get through on the very first swipe?
Back to the church is the new direction.

At the church rest for 20.
Grab 10 Hygiene kits to go hand out in a park.
5 Male and 5 Females
All given for good use.

Off to supper... it's Dominican time!
Rice, plantains, chicken, salad, veggies, ham, pork, and beef.
Even a french fry surprise! :)
Filled to the brim we satisfyingly walked back to the church.

Debriefed, showered and had more good laughs...
Off to more adventures in the streets of New York tomorrow!
More stories to hear and people to meet.

Good Night and Good Luck Michigan!

Signing off for now your New York blogging host for this special edition ...
Beth, Paige, Kelsey, Katie, Matt, Jen, and John
(Serving Group 1 Rocks!)