FYI

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Day 6: Palmer Waystation & Houston Food Bank

Our last day of mission work started EARLY and our group did a great job of getting out of bed and out the door...in the van by 6:30AM! We arrived at Palmer Episcopal Church across the street from Rice University. This church has been serving breakfast to the working poor and homeless for the last 17 years. They have a beautiful outdoor courtyard where they serve the breakfast and the guests can sit and experience "sanctuary" in this space. We got to be there on a special day as Fridays are PANCAKE DAY! Our group served pancakes to probably 200-300 people......then we got to have some! Quote of the day: Briana, "I wish this wasn't just a week, but a month long trip."

At 10:30 we arrived back at housing.....having already served for 4 hours! So....we got a much earned nap until lunch! I am pretty sure that all 14 of us got a bit of a nap...the girls all slept until lunch at 12:15!

After refueling with lunch at housing, we headed out to the Houston Food Bank where we sorted a room full of donated items from, I think, CVS. I have to brag on the group a little because it's the end of the week, the last mission site, and it's a place where we are working with things and not people......so I thought we might lose some focus .....I was wrong! This group works hard---and works to the end!

Dinner was at my favorite place....the Reggae Hut...EVERYONE (including Stephanie) pretty much cleared their plate of their jamaican food!


We did our debriefing of the day/week at a new downtown park called Discovery Green. It's an environmentally friendly park in the heart of downtown. It was great to get to hear everyone share their memories of the week, reminisce on the funny moments (and there were SO MANY!) and affirm one another in the work they did throughout the week.


Get ready, church family....this group is ready to lead the congregation in getting out in the community more and serving more in the Waco area.....we love that all of you have gotten to "be here" with us this week and look forward to continuing the story TOGETHER.

Day 5: Kids Meals & William Booth Garden Apartments

Rain, rain and more rain!

Today we went to Kids Meals which is the only meals on wheels program for children in the country. We first packed sack lunches with pre-made sandwiches, juice and a snack. They feed about 1200 children each day. After packing lunches, a few of the youth went along the delivery route while the rest of us helped to make sandwiches.....we made sandwiches until we ran out of meat....1039 sandwiches....apparantly that's a record for the other CSM groups who have been there during the month of July......woohoo for that!

After lunch, we went to the William Booth Garden Apartments where we played bingo with the residents who live in this assistant living community. The youth took turns spinning the bingo number wheel and calling out the numbers.

We ate Guatamalan food for dinner and everyone really liked it since most everyone likes Mexican food and there were some similarities. Even Briana ate all of her dinner tonight!

During our debriefing of the day, each of us wrote out our answers to the scenario: "If someone comes up to you at church this Sunday to ask you about your week, what will you tell them?" So...church family, make sure to ask the trip members this question and don't let them just say it was great......they have some incredible answers to share with you!

We have to be out of the building at 6:30 AM tomorrow morning (Friday).....to serve breakfast, so we are relieved to be back at our housing a little earlier this evening.

Day 4: The READ Commission & Clayton Homes Boys/Girls Club

Today was a bit about flexibility. We arrived at the Bread of Life Center that serves breakfast daily where we were going to unload the weekly produce truck to give to the clients only to find out that the produce truck had been cancelled so there was no work for us at that site. With a few phone calls, our host, Kelli, got us redirected to work with the Houston READ Commission. We were divided up into various classrooms to serve as tutors for the adult students in each class: GED preparation classes, Math, ESL, and Basic Learning Skills. It was an eye opening experience for many in the group to be tutoring someone twice their age. We then returned to our housing site for lunch and after a brief break, headed to the Clayton Homes Branch of the Houston Boys & Girls Club. This branch is located on the corner of a huge "projects" neighborhood called Clayton Homes. Ask a youth on the trip about the story behind Clayton Homes getting renovated when the city built the new stadium for the Houston Astros a few years ago. At Clayton Homes, we were simply to play with the children. Easy....and crazy all at the same time. We brought some of the crafts from our VBS to do with the children (the sunglasses & sand art crosses), played games, and just loved on the kids....

The pictures say it all....

We ate Indian food for dinner and this was the only place that I was nervous about......I have never really liked Indian food....however, I really enjoyed the buffet tonight....AND everyone seemed to REALLY enjoy it! We had a great dinner together and then headed to the Houston Water Wall to debrief where I managed to surprise the group when Ryan Hambley showed up! It was good to see him for a few moments and hear about the ministry that he is beginning with Teach for America.

Then (as if the day wasn't complete already....) we got to go to the Salvation Army Harbor Light Center and hear their AMAZING Choir.....all of us at different points got to join them on stage as they sang great, energizing, spirit-filled gospel music. THIS was an incredible night....definitely filled with God's Spirit! (Photos are in the mission trip photo album, here's a video...)

We received quite the thunderstorm in the middle of the night last night and it's been lightly raining on and off all day. I think it might be raining some as I type this.....we have had the children of Brownsville on our minds and in our prayers today......wondering how all of our little VBS friends are doing through this storm. Keep them in your prayers (and my parents who are in Port Aransas).The group is really building as a community, too. It's great to see how you'd never know that some of these youth have only been hanging out together for a few weeks....."we are family....."

God is good....all the time.
All the time....God is good.

Oh....don't forget to check out the link to the upper right for even MORE photos! Keep the comments coming...we're loving "hearing" from friends and family!

COMMENTS WELCOME

Friends and family of the CCC Mission Trip....Please feel free to leave us comments on each posts.....I will share them with the youth! We love feedback! Just click on the comment link below each post to leave a comment...

YAY!

Day 3: Urban Plunge, Salvation Army Family Residence, & Prayer Tour

Another packed day! We started the day by being dropped off in downtown Houston with a set of cards that had various tasks we were to complete. We worked in groups (each with an adult) and learned more about the people, attitudes and places in downtown. We got to see the good and the bad, ride the light rail, go to city hall and view the city from the 60th floor of a high rise building. We then met up with our host (which is great, because she's been sick and we hadn't actually met her yet)..Kelli. She guided us to Zydeco---a GREAT cajun food place that I am pretty sure EVERYONE loved! (Even our picky eater girls liked the food today!)

After lunch, we headed to a park for a few minutes since we had some time before having to be at our next site. This park was filled with great "climbing trees" and it was fun to watch the youth revert back to their younger childhood as they climbed and explored in the trees. After coaxing Dylan out of the tree (ask him about that story),

we headed to the Salvation Army Family Residence. We got to play with the preschool children in the water park/playground they have on the campus. Again, our youth jumped right in and made friends with these little ones (and managed to have a blast while they were doing it! After water play, we changed clothes and helped with some inside tasks before serving the women and children their dinner. After dinner we took a driving prayer tour of the city....driving around the inner city learning about the different areas, seeing the vast contrast in rich/poor and it really opened our eyes. We debriefed our day at another beautiful local park and then came back to housing.

Day 2: The Beacon and Open Door Mission

"Is it really still only Monday?" ---Bob's quote of the day.....again and again.



Today was our first full day of service and ministry in the Houston community and it was amazing! We atarted bright and early by going downtown to a new mission and outreach center called The Beacon. We divided into groups and did many different things while clients came into the center (that's just over 1 year old) to wait for their lunch. While waiting, they can receive laundry services, some social services, take a shower and sit and have coffee and tea. Many of us got to talk with some of the clients during our time there.

Tyler and Gatlyn in the pantry.

Jennifer, Dylan and Lyndon at the sugar cart.

Maddy and Carlie doin' laundry for the clients.

Making personal hygene kits for the clients.

Shane makin' coffee!
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After lunch, we went to the Open Door Mission which is a men's mission center which focuses on a Christian based recovery program. After taking a tour given by the Director of the entire Mission, we helped out in the kitchen to prepare for dinner. David said the most rewarding part of his day today was helping to clean out the refridgerator. Lyndon and others shared about how they really were touched by getting to sit and talk with many of the clients in the program...hearing their stories and learning about their lives. Katherine and Maddy especially loved having to wear a hair net.....oh wait.....not!

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We ate Vietnamese food for dinner....pretty much everyone loved it, but Gatlyn, we think....loved it the most! As everyone was leaving, we turned to see him at our table, eating leftover food from his friends dishes because his was all gone!
Another highlight of the meal was seeing Tyler learn how to use his chopsticks. Jennifer also brought a few little gifts for Dylan to open since today is his 16th birthday!
After dinner as a special treat, Kristin took the group to Amy's Ice Cream...