Big A: Day 2

The morning started off like the others. We woke up early, had breakfast, the norm. My team then worked alongside another as we were both doing serving evangelism today. Once together, we loaded up and headed over to the new police precinct not too far away from home base. When we got there we all pitched in on working in a courtyard that was in the middle of the building, yet not very well taken care of; so it wasn’t very easy on the eyes. We were only there for about an hour and a half, but in that time we made such a huge difference. Whether it was the weeding in the sidewalks or the flowerbeds, trimming some of the few hedges or mowing the lawn (with clippers or the real lawn mower).  Seeing the mood change among the police officers from when we got there to when we left was unreal. It left me with such an unbelievable feeling that I couldn’t honestly explain. Later in the day then, we were preparing and going to Big A. The preschool had a couple less children today than yesterday, but it actually worked out really well for us because then it ended up with a 1:1 – student to leader ratio. Today Ben and I taught the lesson on God’s Promise to Abram about his family, and the kids actually seemed pretty entertained in it, which was cool to see. The night ended with getting to hang out with some Detroit youth and have a meal, then some quality team + friends bonding time.

Signing off

Kenna

I began today by waking up at 6:30, eating breakfast, participating in devotionals, and preparing for prayer walking the area surrounding our inner-city head quarters.  When the various groups of team members prayer walk, we have the opportunity to pray for everything and anything that we feel God calling us to pray for while we’re walking the streets of Detroit.  Today, there wasn’t really anyone around in the area that we were traveling, so we decided to pray for the local businesses and recreational areas of the city.  These two things have a very large impact on the people of Detroit, so believe me when I say that our prayers did not go to waste.  After my team and I prayer walked we headed back to Detroit Love headquarters to have lunch.  When we got back to the building, we found that our other team members were still on their other assignments.  This allowed us an opening, so that we could do the chores necessary to maintain the inside of the building while at the same time creating a surprise for our other team members.  Fortunately the team work really paid off and the chores were completed in a very short time.   After lunch and some free time, we headed out to prepare our VBS or “Big A” program as the locals call it.  I am currently working with the pre-school section of our group after a last minute decision changed the previous plan of me working with the older kids.  However, after experiencing the first two days of VBS I can say that I have had a ton of fun.  The opportunity of working with these three to six years olds is better than I could have ever imagined.  There are few things that are as much fun as playing and spending time with these kids as you get to know them and they get to know you.  One of the most fun parts of the program that I have experienced is having a little three year old boy look up at me with this huge smile, all while clamoring for me to “help him dunk the basket ball hoop.  I have also had the opportunity of playing ultimate frisbee and basket ball with some of the other kids who are in the older levels of the VBS program.  Basically, God has changed my heart from thinking that something that I thought would be a hard task is actually a huge growing experience for myself.  It is amazing how God can use children to teach us how to truly conform our lives to His plan for us.  As for the other three days of VBS, I can hardly wait to see what God will do next.  Please continue to pray for all of the team as we do our best to be Jesus in these kids’ lives.  God bless.        Samuel Hardy