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Day four marked the end of our outreach in the poverty-stricken community and the beginning of our work with the middle school conference. What a change! Brian Aaby joined us Wednesday night. Thursday morning he took some time to train the kids on the break out game that they will be running at the Stuck in the Middle conference. He had them playing games that required team work and problem solving skills. I'll let the kids tell you more about it.
After a morning training session and lunch at the church, we headed to IHOP. No, not the famous pancake giant. We went to the International House of Prayer. For those who don't know, IHOP is a church here in Kansas City that has worship service 24/7. They are constantly worshiping God. Some were a little skeptical and some were totally excited as we walked in to the sanctuary. When we entered, there was a band playing the most soothing and peaceful worship music. It was such a welcome calm from the business of the week. The students were able to focus on the Lord and take a break to reflect on the week so far. One student said, "I loved it because it focused only on you and your relationship with Christ." The response from the kids was so positive. Those that entered skeptical left feeling refreshed and connected to the Lord. Next to the sanctuary they had a coffee shop that the kids were able to sit and hang out at, as well. It was truly a positive experience. I can't wait for your kids to tell you about it! For more information on IHOP visit www.ihop.org.
After visiting IHOP, we went to Indian Creek Community Church, the church where the Stuck in the Middle conference will take place. The kids unloaded the truck that was carrying the materials for the conference. As we began to hear about the schedule for the next few days, the chaperones and I decided that it would be more effecient to be staying right at Indian Creek rather than Northland Baptist, a 30 minute drive away. While reluctant to ask the Indian Creek youth pastor if we could stay there that night, especially with a 450-500 student youth conference starting the next day, we decided to bite the bullet and just ask. What was the worst that could happen? The youth pastor, Matt, made a couple phone calls and, within 20 minutes, we had a new home here in Kansas City. The church has showers and huge rooms that we were able to use. After that, it was all hands on deck with the move from Northland. They packed up their stuff and cleaned the church in no time. Pretty soon, we were back at Indian Creek to settle in for the night.
Brian ran an awesome debrief, or "family time" session. The kids recapped the events of the beginning of the week and then had a time to encourage others on the trip that they appreciate. It was definitely a great time for us all to come together!
One of my favorite things on this trip so far has been watching these kids connect with each other. I don't know that I've ever witnessed a group come together and encourage each other the way these 16 students have. Most of our students are in 9th and 10th grade. We have one junior and one senior. It's a very diverse group of students. They have bonded in every way. Students are working together, jumping in to help where needed, and having deep spiritual conversations with each other. As a teacher, this is one of the most wonderful things to see.
The Stuck in the Middle Conference begins tonight! Right now the students are setting up for the conference and getting excited to have the 12-14 year olds here. Pray for our kids to make connections with these kids who sometimes feel like they are "stuck in the middle." It will be difficult for some of them, as the freshmen are only a year older than some of the students who will be here. Pray that they can take on that leadership role that is necessary to speak into the lives of the kids that will be here this weekend.
Praise God for what He is doing! We have kids that have said, "I'm not ready to go home. I like it here. I want to stay." They're not saying this because of the weather and landscape! They genuinely love serving the people in this community. This is what missions is all about: serving our God through serving others.
Today we traveled back into the Northeast Downtown area to minister to help support a ministry there. We began at Living Faith Fellowship and did a prayer walk down Independence Avenue on the way to Eleos Coffee, a coffee shop that was started as an outreach by a member of Living Faith. At one point a few years ago, Independence Avenue was one of the most highly prostituted streets in the country. This should give you an idea of the part of town we were in. During the day, we all felt safe walking around the area. We definitely wouldn't want to be there at night, though.
Eleos Coffee was so great! The coffee was delicious. The owner, Dan, roasts his own coffee right in the shop. He sells it online, too, if you're looking for a great ministry to support...and you'll get some yummy coffee out of the deal! Check it out at www.eleoscoffee.com. During the week they hold Bible studies for the homeless people in the area. The kids enjoyed coffee and lunch from their shop and they were very appreciative of our business. They are looking to double their business to keep it up and running. Currently they rely on donations from people and churches to keep their doors open. Prayerfully consider helping them out by ordering some coffee online!
From there our group split into three smaller groups. The first group stayed at Eleos and helped clean up the area. They picked up trash on the streets surrounding the coffee shop to make it more inviting to the people in the area. They also packed bags, hygiene and food, for the homeless. The whole mission team had packed lunches in the morning to eat for lunch. When we all saw the menu at Eleos, we couldn't pass it up. This left lots of unwanted sandwiches in our van. The group that stayed to work at Eleos took the sandwiches down the street to Indian Hill, a place where the homeless like to gather. There were three men there who were happy to take the sandwiches off their hands and very thankful for the food! The group then took a driving tour of the area, noting the great differences in homes from one street to the next. Within a two mile radius there were homes ranging from $10,000 to $600,000. Quite a difference from what they are used to in Scottsdale!
The second group that went out helped Dan, the owner of the shop, move some things to his new house. A few of our young men helped to disassemble and reassemble a trampoline, while others painted rooms for him. The girls enjoyed singing Taylor Swift songs while they painted. They definitely made it fun!
The third group had the priviledge of going to the house of a manager at Eleos who has a heart for helping prostitutes. She has started a ministry geared at helping prostitutes. It is currently in the beginning stages. She recently received a home for her and her family to live in. The home is, basically, uninhabitable. The floor on the main level is rotted, the walls have holes, and the basement has become a dumping ground for all sorts of trash and debris. Raccoons had been living in the house before she and her family moved in. The walls and floors on the main floor and in the basement were covered with feces and other debris. When she got the house, she inherited all the problems of the house. Slowly she and her family had been cleaning out the house, but they had not touched the basement. A flood turned the basement into, basically, a sewage dump. Our small team was challenged with cleaning out this basement. Imagine an episode of Hoarders, but worse. They did it with smiles on their faces and a wonderful story to share at the end of the day. It was such a HUGE blessing to this woman and her family. The burden of the dirty basement was preventing them from doing the ministry work that they want to do. The plan is to turn the basement into a small apartment for people that are homeless and pregnant. This would have been impossible with the basement in the condition that it was. Praise God that the SCA team was able to make a difference in their lives!
Our last night of VBS was tonight. We had ten students on Monday, 20 on Tuesday, and over 60 tonight. What a blessing to us! The kids, high school and elementary, all had a blast. Our kids were able to make connections with the KC kids and they really enjoyed the night.
Perhaps one of the greatest parts of the day was when we had our debrief session after all the VBS kids had left. It's been amazing to watch the attitude of the SCA kids evolve in the last couple of days. The team is bonding at rapid speed and their hearts are on fire for ministry. Tonight they brainstormed ways that we can all continue to minister to people in the Phoenix area after we get back. I'm excited to watch them follow through on these ideas and even work along side them with some! I can't wait for them to share their stories with the families and friends. Be encouraged! The Lord is doing amazing things in the hearts of these young people!
Tomorrow starts the Stuck in the Middle Conference madness! Our focus shifts entirely from outreach ministry to staffing this Middle School conference. We will begin with training for the breakout sessions and then unload the trucks that are arriving with the "Stuck" materials. Also on tap for tomorrow is a visit to the International House of Prayer. Be in prayer for us as we all make the switch to Middle School student ministry and as we travel throughout the city tomorrow. We appreciate the prayers so far, but need them to continue!
Last night we were blessed with a wonderful thunderstorm! The kids loved hearing the thunder and rain outside the church. For us Phoenix people, this was a welcome storm!
Unfortunately, the storm brought with it some damage. At least one tornado touched down in the area, killing at least one person. Several more are injured. We wanted to update you all and let you know that we are safe! The Lord protected us and Northland Baptist, the church where we are staying. Keep the people of Branson and Buffalo in your prayers, as there was much damage to the area.
Alright...off to do ministry!
It's been another great day here in Kansas City! The Lord blessed us with a downpour while we were ministering, which was awesome! Being from Phoenix, any sign of rain is so fun!
We had the priviledge of partnering up with Central Baptist Church in downtown Kansas City. The church has partnered with the nearby organization Northeast H.E.L.P. in an effort to revitalize the area and bring hope to the people. Their mission is to "mobilize resources and support innovative solutions to improve the quality of life in Historic Northeast Kansas City, Missouri." The pastor of Central Baptist is interested in strengthening the relationship with H.E.L.P., so he connected us to the people there.
Several other organizations have partnered with H.E.L.P. One of them is Faith Hope Ministries. Several of our students had the opportunity to serve at this ministry today. Faith Hope Ministries helps the homeless and ex-offenders get back on their feet. Today, the students prepared food and served lunch to the homeless people from the area.
One of the other organizations that partners with H.E.L.P. is Don Bosco, an outreach that has been in the area for 75 years. Don Bosco has several different locations that focus on various needs in the community. One of the centers helps people find jobs and acts as a community center. A few of our students helped move furniture at this location. Another Don Bosco outreach is a Senior Community Center. Each day they bus in senior citizens from the area who cannot drive themselves. The people are fed lunch and often participate in activities. We were bummed to hear that their zumba class, normally held on Tuesdays, was cancelled today. That would have been fun! Thankfully, they still played BINGO. Many of our students helped call, while others helped decorate for St. Patrick's Day and cleaned the facility.
Tonight will be round two of VBS for the kids nearby. We are excited!
Tomorrow we will be back in the downtown Kansas City area participating in a prayer walk in the community where we were today. Please be in prayer for us as we embark on the journey. The area was described to us as being like a war torn country. The students are sure to have an unforgettable experience.
We arrived in Kansas City safely and were met by Rick, our Youthmark partner in crime. After renting our sweet rides (minivans) we made our way back to the church to drop off our stuff. We managed to sneak in a little Kansas City BBQ before returning to the church to prep for VBS. We are happy to say that God answers prayer! For a while, it looked as though we would only have one student. After circling up for prayer the Lord brought us nine more students! What a blessing! The students enjoyed a skit about Adam and Eve, music, crafts, games, snack, and a lesson on creation before returning to their homes for the night. Overall, it was a success!
Tomorrow we will be working with Central Baptist Church, about 20 minutes away from Northland Baptist Church, where we are staying. We will also be working at a Senior Citizen Center nearby. The kids are excited for the variety of our service projects! Tomorrow night we will hold another VBS for the students in the nearby community.
Pray for us in the coming days as we explore the city and minister to the people. We will keep you posted on our status!
In our last few meetings, we have done a few things. We first finalized work on our VBS, so that we are all prepared for what we need to do. We also met our prayer buddies that are in Mrs. Goss' class. They will be praying for us while we are on our trip and we plan to report back to them and tell them all about what we did in Kansas City. In our last meeting we went over some final details and preparations. This included getting our packing list and finalizing our VBS plans.
This past Thursday was commisioning chapel for the entire High School. It was great to pray for all the trips and get prayed over as we embark in this adventure.
Thank you for your continued prayers! We are going to definitely going to need them this coming week!
We hope to update this blog daily, so please check it accordingly to see what you can specifically pray for.
Thank you again for your support!
At our third meeting, we started to see our trip take shape. It is planned for us to hold a VBS on the first part of the week. It will be held at the church where we are staying. We were all divided into groups according to what our jobs will be for the VBS. It was great to see how well everyone is working together and starting to make a plan. Please continue to pray for our hearts and the hearts of those we will be mineristing to. Also, please pray for our saftey leading up to the trip and for us while we are on our trip. The Rummage sale this weekend was a great hit, so thank you for all who contributed.
We are all very excited to see what God has instore for us in Kansas City! Thank you for your continued prayer and support!
Thank you for visiting! We are getting closer to our departure date!
This week we covered a few new details in our meeting about the trip.
To start, our travel arrangements have now been arranged. We fly out on Monday, Februanry 27th, at 10:05 am from Sky Harbor. We need to arrive at the airport no later than 8 am. We are flying coach on US Airways. The flight to Kansas City is only 2 hours and 45 minutes. Our return is Saturday night the 3rd /early Sunday morning the 4th. We leave on Delta from Kansas City at 7:26 pm. We land in Minneapolis at 8:52 pm for a 50 minute layover, then proced to take off at 9:45 pm. This gets us back to Phoenix by 12:21 am early Sunday morning. Thank you in advance to all you amazing parents who will drop us off and be there to pick us up!
Another topic was our agenda while in Kansas City. Monday thru Wednesday, we wil be working with local ministries and churches. Thursday through Saturday (the work on Satuday is the cause of our late return) we will be serving at the 'Stuck in the Middle Conference' for Middle school students. We plan on being Christ's helping hands in all that we do.
We were also informed about the need of the Rummage Sale. From now till January 27th, drop off donations in Blue Zone are being accepted and encouraged. The actual sale is Saturday, January 28th, from 6am to 5pm. The sale needs workers of all ages. High school students can earn money to help pay for their missions trip and middle schoolers can earn ministry hours. If you don't fit those perameters, or would like to help a friend instead, you can designate what you earn to go toward the student of your choice. Please contact Mrs. Bonnie Heng (azhengs@cox.net) for work opportunities or Ms. Janet Levinson (desertwest1@cox.net) for questions about donations. Thank you in advance for your contribution to the missions department no matter how you choose to do your part.
To close, we have some prayer requests for our trip. We appreciate all prayer! To add to whatever the Lord puts on your heart for us, we ask for prayer concerning the unity of our team and the hearts of all the people we will encounter as well as our own. That the Lord would begin to work in each of us so that we will be prepared for all that we encounter.
Thank you for all your support and prayer and for visiting our blog. Please continue to do so!
Thank you for visiting our blog and for your interest in the Kansas City trip! We are all very excited to begin this adventure. It promises to be one that challenges us, both mentally and spiritually.
Kansas City is a trip new to SCA this year. Our team of 15 students, ranging from 9-12 grade, will be working in the Kansas City community during the week and with a Middle School outreach program, the Stuck in the Middle Conference, later in the week and over the weekend.
The trip is only 7 weeks away. Crazy! We can't believe that it's so close! As we rapidly approach Missions Week, we ask that you pray for unity on our team. Unity as we travel and work in the community is vital to our ability to witness to others and work as a team to accomplish tasks. We also ask that you pray for the spiritual health of the students. Pray that the Lord will give them a heart for the people of Kansas City and the Middle School students that we will be working with at the conference.
Keep your eyes open for more details. We'll post them as they become available and as the trip gets closer.