DETROIT 2015

Hey all, The EDGE youth group is getting ready for another mission trip adventure...this time we are heading to Detroit MI. Sixty of us will be heading out on Sunday morning (6-7-15) and will spend the week doing construction projects and service ministry projects. Plus we will have a little bit of fun while we are there as well! Follow the blog for updates and a few pictures throughout the week! Steve

Friday

Everyone had a fun time on our day off!  Some went to a ropes course and zip line park, some went to a water park, and others went sightseeing. Everyone came back with some great stories!

The best part of the day came after we all got back to the church though. First we loaded in the vans and went to all of the construction sites to check out the finished product and to pray a blessing for the house and family. All of the homeowners joined us and we're very thankful and blessed by our work and the time that we spent with them. 

Then after a dinner of awesome leftovers and chicken quesadillas, we shared our thoughts about the entire week. Beautiful words were spoken and a few tears were shed. We have completed another incredible mission trip. We have once again showed what the EDGE and their awesome "chaperones" are capable of. I am proud of our group and blessed to be a part of them. I really enjoy being included in their lives. Whether I am watching them playing sports or music or even graduate, and especially working on a mission trip, I am incredibly proud and impressed by what they are capable of doing. 

PARENTS: THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR KIDS WITH ME!!

I only have pics of the sightseeing group today, so you will have to wait for the video to see more pics and video. 

Last work day

I stopped saying things like "wow, these kids really surprised me this week" or "I can't believe how hard everybody worked" because after 11 summers of mission trips with The EDGE, I expect it!  However....Wow, these kids really surprised me!  And, man did they all work hard!!!

Jobs completed, memories have been made, relationships have been formed, and people have been blessed!

After our final workday we celebrated by heading downtown to the Riverfront Park and listened to some music, had some food truck cuisine and checked out Broadway St.  It sure is nice having such great adults to help corral all the teens!

Everyone should plan on joining us on our mission trip Sunday to hear some reports and watch the video - Sunday, June 29th at 9:30 am. 

Happy birthday Ali!  I only made it known to a few hundred people on Broadway street that it was Ali's 16th Birthday! 

Hump Daaayyy

After 3 full days of ministry projects, and construction projects (actually, it's all ministry projects!) we still love each other!  Cause that's what families do!

All construction projects will be completed tomorrow...that's awesome!  God directed us to Shirley's house yesterday and that massive yard project continued today....and will continue tomorrow as well. A big group of us went to the Second Harvest Food Bank today and scooped, bagged (bags that we labeled), weighed (better be EXACTLY 2 1/2lbs if you are at Heather Halverson's scale), boxed (into boxes we put together) and stacked  over 1500 bags of pasta in just a couple of hours. 

Anyway.....our scripture (Colossians 3:12-17) is really hitting home this week. Tonight we talked about verse 16. What are we teaching?  What are we learning?  How are we teaching and learning?  We heard some great examples tonight!  

Just a pic or two for your viewing pleasure:

One big box of noodles!

Shirley's back yard...part of it anyway-after some extensive clean up

Hard at work

Tuesday

It's lights out time in Nashville and it's the first chance I had to share anything about the day. I guess I would rather sit around and talk or play cards than type on my phone or laptop.... But here is the recap of Tuesday:  lots of awesome stories from the teens and adults about us intersecting with God and our Scripture (Colossians 3:12-17) nuff said! Yeah, yeah, the projects are all going well and the construction will all be completed... but that isn't the only reason we go on these trips. We go on these trips to see God in us,  in others, in our circumstances, etc. and we are seeing Him work in many different ways. 

Hopefully a couple of the teens will share a blog post tomorrow night!

Here are a few pics from a few of our projects today. 

Leonard...

Sammie S.  Lexi B. (Marrita "spotting") &  Ali D. 

Shirley with the girls. 

Devotions

Nashville - Monday

We all made it safe and sound yesterday afternoon. Some of the men went yo check out the construction jobs and the rest of us got the sleeping rooms figured out and set up. Pizza, devotions, bed 

The morning routine included packing up all of our stuff (mattresses, luggage, etc) and storing them in a Uhaul truck all day. 

The gym and classrooms we are in is host to about 80 low income kids for a day camp program. Several of our kids and adults served the program by playing with the kids and shopping for & cooking them an awesome lunch. For the kids this is their main (possibly only) meal of the day.  Others from our group helped in their food pantry and also in the pre-school program. 

The construction crews were extremely busy today. We are in charge of shopping for all of the materials needed on the job. We have some pretty involved construction jobs this year: total bathroom gut (floor & joists included); another bathroom & kitchen floor repair; a wheelchair ramp; a carport thingamabob; & some painting starting tomorrow. 

Hey, guess who showed up today?  Keith and Marrita!!!!  They couldn't stay away!  (That and I begged them to come!). Keith's knowledge has already saved one job and he will be looking at a different one in the morning. 

God is definitely here and active with our group! We are studying Colossians 3:12-17 and talking about how those words are applying to our lives this week. 

No, not everything has gone exactly according to my plan or what I thought we would be doing, etc....but it sure is a good thing that it's going according to Gods plan!  It's through adversity that we grow, and just like any mission trip...we seem to grow a lot!

We'll I'm sure I will grow a little more tomorrow!  But in the meantime here are a couple of pics for ya

Is Bob really working?  We'll, you decide!

Possibly faking it!

Jessica Wohlwend: birthday girl!

NASHVILLE

61 teens and adults will be heading out Sunday morning for our EDGE mission trip to Nashville, TN. We will be working in food pantry's, Meals on Wheels, kids program, and various construction projects. Please keep us in your prayers. We will try to keep the blog updated throughout the week so you can track our progress. So sign on each day to see what we did! Steve

On our way home

Time sure slips by quickly!  I had hoped to provide some in depth insight about our trip every day...obviously that didn't happen. So.....sorry bout that!  

I sat down last night ready to write and then got pulled aside to do something else then I sat down with a few teens and talked for a while (that will always win out!) then before I knew it it was almost 1:00am. But now I am sitting in a van of very quiet girls and Bob is driving so I will catch you up a little. 

The 3 service ministries we worked at this week were absolutely wonderful. Each one touched our hearts in different ways. We had our kids and adults preparing and handing out food to homeless people at Clyde's Kitchen (Clyde is an amazing man with a heart for what he does). We delivered healthy meals to senior citizens and packaged and bagged up meals at Open Hand ministries. And the one that probably touched us the most was 7 Bridges To Recovery. We made sack lunches and delivered them to homeless people, we talked with them, we prayed with them, and we hugged them!  Quite an experience!  

The roofing crews were amazing!  They worked very hard in extreme heat!  One roof got finished completely and the other got very very close (they made arrangements for a small group of volunteers to finish it on Monday). 

We met some great people!  One of which was Ms D, who I am sure you will hear more a out at the mission trip service. 

We fished out the week with a group of 48 going to six flags and the smaller group sightseeing. 

Now we are heading home!  Once again I am proud of our kids! They proved that they are capable of doing some amazing things. We have some new leaders emerging!  Yes, some still have a lot of growing up to do....but, don't we all?!

1Corinthians 12:12-27 has been interpreted 59 different ways and we heard them all ... And we did our best to live it out. 

Our mission trip service will be Sunday, June 23rd at 9:30am. You will not want to miss it!

Steve

Wednesday

Hard to find time to sit down and really describe our days... We are at 5 sites each day and all 5 have been a great experience. Both roofing crews  got off to a very slow start due to rain on Monday and have been trying to catch up since, but they will get pretty close to bring done tomorrow and there will be another group that can finish next week if necessary. Each of the service ministry sites have been great experiences. Good and necessary work not just busy work. Handing out food to the homeless has been very touching...but talking with, praying with and hugging the homeless has been even more touching. 

Check out the pics from yesterday's blog and you will see crystal and a homeless lady (Sonia) GOOD NEWS: today she decided she wanted off the streets and 7 Bridges to Recovery made that happen today. Our group had shown her a lot of love the past couple of days and I would like to think we played a part in her decision!  We never know who's life could be changed forever, just because we showed Gods love! 

A few more random pics from today:

Bagging over 1500 meals at Open Hand

The Varsity (great Frosty Orange; chili dogs, onion rings......)

Working hard!

Ms D  from Ms D's Pralines had a great message to share and loved our group so much she came and ate with us tonight and went to the Varsity with us

Tuesday

Here are a few pics of our group who served at 7 Bridges To Recovery. We fixed and packed about 500 sack lunches and then our group delivered 100 of them to homeless people living under the Atlanta Interstate bridges and on the streets 

Steve

Monday when it all changed :)

Hello, there, It's Emily Monier! :) Today, I went to Open Hands, an out reach where there are people who don't have many meals to eat or enough food to last a few days. The homeless get food delivered to them. We arrived, then went to a meeting room to talk with Rabecca Fox, one of the many ladies in charge. She talked about what we were going to go do. At first, I was nervous ever since I read about how high the crime rate was in Atlanta. Later though, that didn't stop me from coming out of my shell and showing the world what I could do. My group and I went to an apartment building to deliver meals. A funny moment was when Matt and Will went to the first door and Matt knocked. Will heard the lady coming to the door and said "We're here!" The lady, half way to the door, said "Who?! What?!" because she didn't understand. But still, the kind lady came the door happy as she could be, thanked us, and laughed about how funny Will was. I was blessed enough to be with one great group who came out of the comfort zone, didn't complain, and gave food to the people with Open Hands and a loving heart. It really touched my heart the whole day with what we did in the kitchen. We put foods in trays at Open Hands and delivered food to the people who, without us, wouldn't have had food. I'm truly blessed to be with a great group of people who I would call my church family. I have been with the Edge for 2 years now. I don't know how I could stay so strong in my faith without them. I will always be with god and he with me through all the ups and downs. I can always count on him , he's amazing :) I would like to pray for all of the people out there needing hope. God is with you and always will be! Amen! Lots of love from me and everyone on this great trip so far,      God Bless :)

Atlanta pics

Just a couple of the groups: