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Thursday
Thursday was filled with bonding with our buddies. We meet up with them to start the day at 9am and stayed with them all the way until around 7pm. It was a day that required a lot of patience and emotional strength. Since we spent so much time with our friends this week by Thursday we felt like we really got to know them and started to understand them better. After working a full day each member of the team went home with their buddy and ate dinner with them. This was a very special time because our friends were able to share their “Shepherds Family” with us and show us where they sleep at night and live. All the residents of Shepherds have shared with us that they are very sad that we have to leave tomorrow.
We thank you for your prayers thus far as our sicknesses are starting to feel better. On Thursday night we had a blast sharing our highlights of the week, along with what we learned. Some of the things that we learned and will take with us are that the people at Shepherds love us so much from the minute that they met us and that people with mental disabilities still have a great capacity to learn and to live. Some of the residents may have a hard time saying what they want but they still can remember and interact and worship God. They are so strong in their face that they ministered to us as much or more than we did to them.
Although it has been a great week for us we are all ready to head back home. Tomorrow we will clean up the Franke house, say goodbye to our friends, and then head to the airport after lunch. As of right now our official landing time in Phoenix is 8:05pm. Don’t forget to pick us up!!! Thank you to everyone that read our blog and prayed for us during week. We are forever grateful.
In Christ,
The Union Grove Team
Day 3
Wednesday
Traditionally, Wednesday and Thursday are the toughest days for us here at Shepherds. We spend a lot of time with our friends and it takes a lot of patience as the hours roll on. A lot of growth has been occurring as we find out about ourselves and some of our own strengths and weaknesses. We have also noticed that our friends have both bad and good days, just like us, and that its nice just to have a friend at some of those times.
We started Wednesday by leading a chapel service for the residents. They were so excited that we were putting on the chapel and it really made us feel like we were truly serving them. After chapel we had the opportunity to talk to with Ruth, who has been working at Shepherds for 31 years. She had lots of stories to tell us about our friends, as well as giving us advice on how to communicate with our friends and so things that we can help them with. After speaking with Ruth, we headed to Shepherds table where we ate lunch and met up with our friends so that we could join them in the afternoon. The afternoon was spent with our buddies wherever they were. Our group helped stuff bags with electric razors and all of their accessories, attended a party for an elderly lady that was leaving Shepherds, and so of our groups buddies are retired and so they sat and talked and watched tv. Some popular tv shows here at Shepherds are The Waltons and of course the Price is Right. After spending the afternoon with our friends we headed to Milwaukee where we ate burgers and custard.
It had been a long and tiring day and some of our group is battling sickness and so we ask for your prayers for our health and also for emotional strength and Thursday we are with our friends from 9 am until 6 pm. Our group has really grown and matured during the week thus far and we are excited to see how God uses us as we finish our time at Shepherds.
In Christ,
The Union Grove Team
Day 2
Tuesday at Shepherds was the first day that we actually got to meet with our friends and spend some time with them. The residents of Shepherds have been excited for quite some time about our arrival and finally we able to meet all of us. In the morning we still had more training to go through and we learned about communication, being a friend, and appropriate independence. One of the keys that we learned in training was that just being next to our friends and maybe not even talking was being a ministry to them. When we accept them for how they are and that God made each one of them just like he made us, it gives them a chance to see the love of God come out through us. After training we went to eat at Shepherds table, which is their dining hall, and started meeting the residents. They were excited to meet and talk with us about where we were from and share themselves with us as well. Once lunch was over it was time to get paired up with our buddies for the week. Whatever job our friend was doing we came along aside and worked with them. Many of us had different jobs, some more exciting than others. Some of us were placed in Shepherds Enterprise where we greased giant ball bearings for large tractors and other large equipment. Other members of the group had older friends who have “retired” and so they sang songs and found out the “The Price Is Right” is one of the biggest excitements of the day. Still others were working in Domestics cleaning and vacuuming hallways and other parts of Shepherds. At 4:00 our day ended and the group had to split up. Three members of the group helped chaperone a group of 13 to “Mary Poppins” in Milwaukee and the others had a party with their friends. Anything that is not part of the residents at Shepherds is a special event and so both of these events were a neat experience for both our group and our new friends.
On Wednesday we look forward to leading a chapel service for all of Shepherds and then spending the rest of the morning and afternoon with our friends. We ask for you to pray for us as the next two days can get mentally tiring and that we would have strength to have a great attitudes that we have so far exhibited.
In Christ,
The Union Grove Team
Day 1 Hi all, Some of these posts will have to be made in the morning due to a lack of internet at our actually residence here at Shepherds. Our day started by gathering at the airport and getting checked in and through security. While in the airport we had many opportunities to tell others about SCA and what we were all about. At least 3 different people stopped to ask our group about the missions shirts that we were wearing and it gave us the opportunity to tell them where we were going and why. We arrived at the Milwaukee airport right on schedule and our host, Becci, was there to meet us as we left our terminal. While the rental car was being picked up, Becci was able to share with us information about our friends that we will be paired with throughout the week. After getting everyone and their luggage loaded we headed to Union Grove, which was only about at 30 minute drive, and get settled in at the Franke Hospitality Center. The Franke Hospitality Center is a house that Shepherds has renovated to accommodate volunteer groups such as ours and is named for the couple co-chaired the committee that founded Shepherds. After settling in, we headed off for dinner and our first training session. During our training we learned about how we communicate and effective ways to communicate with our friends. At the end of the training session we were able to meet two residents of shepherds that shared about themselves and even gave us a special presentation of “This Little Light of Mine.” As we wound down the day most of the group had similar highs and lows of the day. The overwhelming low was about the travel and the long day filled with airports and vans. The high of the day was meeting Sheri and Karen at the end of our training session. Sheri immediately entered the room and introduced and shook hands with everyone in the group and Karen sang to us. Within 5 minutes these ladies were sharing their lives and sharing their love for Christ with us. This is something that stuck with our group as we often shy away from sharing the gospel with others we have first met. The other high that we experienced was the general love and kindness of everyone at Shepherds. They really have a love of people and a special place in their heart for cultivating a community of service. Thank you for praying for us and we will try to update the blog when time and internet allow.
We have all arrived in Union Grove safe and sound. We do not have wi-fi in the house we are staying at and so most updates will have to come in the mornings when we can get internet access. It's been a young day with our travel but the group has had a lot of time to bond and devolop unity. More updates on the details of day one will be posted later and in the morning. Union Grove team.
Hi all. We will be off on our missions trip before you know it. We have had a great time prepping for this trip. Very soon you will recieve an email with a link to this blog as well as some attachments about our trip. We are arriving at the airport 2 hours before our flight leaves on Monday morning. We leave on Southwest airlines at 9:40 so we are meeting at 7:40 near the Southwest check-in counter. Any questions can be directed at jdeters@scottsdalechristian.org. Thanks.
Jim Deters
I am so excited God has laid this trip on your heart! It is a special trip that touched many lives last year and I am sure will again this year!
For some of you this is your first mission trip with SCA or maybe second or third. We will all learn from each other, new and old and grow in Christ together!
Remember to be doing your "homework" along the way! It is important to us being a unified team and will definitely teach us many things God wants us to know before we even go. It's important that you are talking and listening to God about our trip. He will work in each of your lives in a different way!
PRAY! Pray for each other, our team, and the “Friend” that you will be paired up with on the trip. Your “Friend” will Love you unconditionally, and show you Joy in a new way! They are incredible people with a deep Love for the Lord!
Until next time,
Mrs. N