We slept in a little later this morning and then packed the vans, said our good-byes to all our new friends and good-bye to Nashville. It was an incredible week of service, fun, adventures and love for all of the Zion youth and the lucky adults that spent the week with them. We could not of been more proud of all these kids and the incredible service projects they did for the city of Nashville. We can leave the state of Tennessee knowing that we made a difference.... God's Work Our Hands.
Our trip to Peoria went by very fast and we arrived this evening at St. Paul Lutheran church. We were greeted at the church by their youth director Amy, who provided us with lots of treats, an air conditioned youth room complete with foosball, a pool table, basketball, full kitchen and a large movie screen and incredibly comfortable couches and chairs for us to spend the evening, all of which are filled with our youth. We ordered some food from a couple of restaurants and when the food arrives, we will enjoy a great meal watch a movie, and then head for bed. We are going to rise early tomorrow to head home.
This may be my final blog (Dan) about this trip....but I may add lots of pictures when I get home. I want to thank Anna for the incredible job she did planning the trip, thank Jodi for being such a fantastic co-pilot, thank the youth from Zion for including this guy in everything they did and for the great example they were for all of Nashville, thank God's Work Our Hands for providing an incredible week, thank all of Zion's parents for sending your youth to Nashville to serve....and most of all ... I want to thank our amazing God for being there with us through it all! We will be back in Stewie tomorrow...time for a little bit of food and rest to prepare for our final day of travel. Have a good night everyone, See ya tomorrow!
- Dan
Friday, June 27, 2014
Our Final Day Of Service In Nashville
Our final day of service for Dan's group (Mr and Mrs Smith) was a fantastic finish to a fantastic week. We spent the day at 2nd Harvest Food Bank inspecting and sorting over 7500 pounds of frozen meat, pizzas, desserts, entrees, and just about any kind of frozen food you can imagine. The kids from Zion shined like every other day showing the people of Nashville the love of God in all the work they did... with smiles on their faces and love in their hearts. We sorted all the food in the warehouse, finished early, and headed off to see the American Pickers warehouse...lots of interesting items there!
Our evening event was suppose to be pizza at the lake, swimming, tossing frisbees, bocce ball, etc...followed by a worship service watching the sunset. Buttttttttt.... the pizza wasn't ready which delayed our trip, the traffic was fairly heavy, and when we arrived at the lake...it closed in just 25 minutes. Whoops... alternate plans had to be made. After some discussion we headed to Bicentennial Park (where we were suppose to go on Tuesday). Pizza under the railroad bridge by the colored fountains, running through the colored water, and just hanging out ... this evening may have been the best evening event we did.
We finished the evening with our final worship service, not at the lake, but at the church. As I listened to the group sing the songs and everyone sharing their stories from the week, it was obvious that the face of God was present everywhere we were. The new friendships made may cause a few tears to be shed as we say good-bye and head out this morning, for sure there will be lots of real hugs...not just side ones. We are heading to Peoria Illinois...about 6 or 7 hours...it kinda sad that our service is done...but I still get to have fun with the youth from Zion for one more night and 2 more days of travel.
God's Work Our Hands.... what an incredible week.....without a doubt....
- Dan
Our evening event was suppose to be pizza at the lake, swimming, tossing frisbees, bocce ball, etc...followed by a worship service watching the sunset. Buttttttttt.... the pizza wasn't ready which delayed our trip, the traffic was fairly heavy, and when we arrived at the lake...it closed in just 25 minutes. Whoops... alternate plans had to be made. After some discussion we headed to Bicentennial Park (where we were suppose to go on Tuesday). Pizza under the railroad bridge by the colored fountains, running through the colored water, and just hanging out ... this evening may have been the best evening event we did.
We finished the evening with our final worship service, not at the lake, but at the church. As I listened to the group sing the songs and everyone sharing their stories from the week, it was obvious that the face of God was present everywhere we were. The new friendships made may cause a few tears to be shed as we say good-bye and head out this morning, for sure there will be lots of real hugs...not just side ones. We are heading to Peoria Illinois...about 6 or 7 hours...it kinda sad that our service is done...but I still get to have fun with the youth from Zion for one more night and 2 more days of travel.
God's Work Our Hands.... what an incredible week.....without a doubt....
- Dan
Thursday, June 26, 2014
A Word from Olivia & Kallie
How would you describe today?
K: We went to the McNielly Center. The kids were so fun to play with. It was awesome watching them learn and develop.
O: A great end to Nashville.. We went to play with the kids and then helped clean up the parking lot with rocks and trimming the fence. We also colored on rocks together.
How do you see God at work?
K: I see God at work when someone that I don't know does something very kind for me.
O: The joy and innocence in the children's eyes.
What's one word you would use to describe the trip thus far?
Eye opening
K: We went to the McNielly Center. The kids were so fun to play with. It was awesome watching them learn and develop.
O: A great end to Nashville.. We went to play with the kids and then helped clean up the parking lot with rocks and trimming the fence. We also colored on rocks together.
How do you see God at work?
K: I see God at work when someone that I don't know does something very kind for me.
O: The joy and innocence in the children's eyes.
What's one word you would use to describe the trip thus far?
Eye opening
A Word from Marie & Chrissy
Marie & Chrissy have an update from Wednesday!
How would you describe today?
M: Today we went to the McNeilly Center. I met a ton of awesome 3-year-olds They were so sweet and melted my heart. We played with them and helped clean up the center in the afternoon.
How do you see God at work?
C: I saw God in all of the people I have worked with these past few days. I saw God in the caring hearts of the people volunteering and I saw God in the faces of the kids I've worked with this week.
How would you describe today?
M: Today we went to the McNeilly Center. I met a ton of awesome 3-year-olds They were so sweet and melted my heart. We played with them and helped clean up the center in the afternoon.
How do you see God at work?
C: I saw God in all of the people I have worked with these past few days. I saw God in the caring hearts of the people volunteering and I saw God in the faces of the kids I've worked with this week.
A Word from Rachel & Mikya
We're a little behind but here's an update from our kids that we asked them to write throughout the week.
Rachel and Mikya have an update from Tuesday!
How would you describe today?
We spent the day at Second Harvest in a freezer. It was a fast-paced day looking through and sorting food.
How do you see God at work?
In the friends we've made and the work we've been doing.
What's one word you would use to describe the trip thus far?
Sweaty and fun!
Anything else?
SONIC NEEDS TO FIX THEIR SLUSHIE MACHINES! (Ask your kids about this one, folks)
Rachel and Mikya have an update from Tuesday!
How would you describe today?
We spent the day at Second Harvest in a freezer. It was a fast-paced day looking through and sorting food.
How do you see God at work?
In the friends we've made and the work we've been doing.
What's one word you would use to describe the trip thus far?
Sweaty and fun!
Anything else?
SONIC NEEDS TO FIX THEIR SLUSHIE MACHINES! (Ask your kids about this one, folks)
Day 4 Recap!
Yesterday the Dan Goodew group (Mr and Mrs Smith) headed to 2nd
Harvest Food Bank for our day of service.
It was quite a change from our previous two days as we spent the entire
day in a freezer inspecting food, sorting the food into all their categories,
and packing/weighing/stacking the sorted items.
It was a very productive day for us as we packed over 8500 pounds of
food which equated to over 6600 meals.
Our evening event was an incredible church service after a
very good spaghetti supper which included homemade, hot chocolate chip cookies.
The pastor came and gave us communion.
We have never seen such incredible “communion prep” words ever. He said it all from memory and it was
unbelievable. The message from Travis
was very good and then we talked about our faith stories and Ron shared his
faith story, with all his struggles in life and poor choices he had made. He had the entire group mesmerized and I
think his message really touched us all.
I know that I got “Jesus Bumps” tonight…the real presence of God was
really felt.
Tomorrow we have our final day of service in Nashville….the
week has gone by very fast. We will be
having our closing worship service at the lake with pizzas being
delivered. I can’t imagine what we will
feel as we sing praises to our God and watch the sunset over the lake. I know it will be amazing.
-
Dan
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