Y.G.O.T.P.C.O.B.M.T.T.D.M.

9am EDT June 20, 2008

We made it past the middle of the week, and are in our home stretch. Our crews have the morning routine down, though the Work Crew got to leave a little earlier for some very special work.

Our Work Crew went to Fort Street Presbyterian Church in downtown Detroit, where we helped at a shelter. Some of us handed out clothing such as pants, shirts, socks, and underwear, as well as hygiene kits. Another part of our crew worked with serving dinner to nearly 500 people! The meal was well organized, with food for seconds, unlimited drinks, and LOTS of dessert. We even prepared for their next meal by rolling up plastic ware into serving sets with napkins. This is the largest full service shelter in Detroit, which also provides haircuts, has a Card Center where people can send mail to family, a doctor's clinic to take care of any ailments they may have, and an HIV testing center. There are over 8,000 homeless living in the city, with 50% of these being chronically homeless. There are only 2,000 spaces available for these individuals in shelters

The VBS team returned to our friends at Second Mile Center to continue building our relationships with the kids we serve. We did many of the activities the kids have come to enjoy over the week, and added a few new ones as well. Since we are learning about different parts of the world each day, a tour like this would not be complete without a visit to their own neighborhood. A craft they enjoyed today was a large 10 foot long mural of the place these families live. Everyone had a hand in painting and adding their own personal touches such as their own houses, the streets they walked to get there, the trees they sit under, and the sky which spreads over our world. Each day, as they learn to trust us more, we are seeing more about the people they are, and are learning to trust them by letting them into our hearts. We also returned for a couple hours' work at Arts and Scraps. We cleaned out their donation area and put in new shelving, which will make sorting the goods they receive a lot more efficient. We also took some time to choose gifts for tomorrow's VBS program – but you'll have to return to our blog again to hear how that goes.

Our evening returned to the routine we now know so well. The dinner crew did an excellent job of using up most of the remaining food from the week, too. Ask us about 'Barnacle Stew'! The time we spent in devotions was also richer, with many days of experiences adding to our discussion. We talked about the passages in James 3, and how our words and actions affect many others. We can see this in our daily work, and it was nice to talk about it with one another. This is a great trip, and what we are sharing is only a small part of what we feel about our work here. We are already beginning to talk about how we can share more with our families back home.

Y.G.O.T.P.C.O.B.M.T.T.D.M.

23:06 EDT

By our third working morning, things are starting to become routine. The work crew headed out to Park United Presbyterian Church, where we finished the floor we have been working on the since Monday. It was great to see the project completed, and to see the smiles of the people of the church who saw their new floor. We then headed out to the First Presbyterian Church of Detroit, also known as the Ecumenical Theological Seminary, where we began preparing to serve lunch to the homeless of the area. Some of our team loaded trays with food, while others served food and beverages to those seated at the tables. Most of the people we met were all smiles and very thankful for the services we provided. When we toured their beautiful church, we felt it was good day spent appreciating what we have and what we can give to others.

In VBS today, we continued to work with the same kids we've gotten to know all week. We played more parachute games, finished a gourd craft from the Amazon we started yesterday, and made God's Eye crafts from Mexico today. We enjoyed several games, as well as a Bible story and songs. All of these were fun ways to share how Jesus told us to live and treat each other. We are getting to know the kids better and they are learning to trust us. We are learning what they need to survive in their world as we talk about how Jesus wants us to live.

We spent our free afternoon in a local park where we got to play Frisbee on the beach, sand volleyball, and toss a football around. Some of us let loose on the swings and jungle gym, while others took advantage of the showers and snack shop. Our Grosse Pointe Memorial Church hosts held a pot luck dinner for us and another group from Sylvania, Ohio. Most of those serving had kids of their own on the mission team now serving in Marietta, Georgia. We ended the evening with devotions, where we had a chance to review the highlights (Yay God's) of our day, and talked about how we would see God in our work tomorrow.