Our schedule consisted of:
Eating breakfast at 7
making lunch
devotions
going to our working sites - we were broken up into 6 teams and we all had different chores and then we would split up during the day to go to our different sites. My group did the same thing all week and it was INSIDE with air conditioning! I was super excited about that. We went to a place called the Frazier Center and it is a place where adults who can't take care of themselves go to live. They also have a daycare. We were the morning crew so we were able to go play with the kids every morning. I LOVED it! Then we would go eat lunch and head to a place called Open Hands. They serve meals to people. We were on a assembly line of food.
showering - some people took showers on site and some off site. My group was one of the ones that took the showers off site.
Free time - Maybe 15 min... Depending on how long showers took
leader meeting - really neat to be on the Leader side of a mission trip. I had always gone as a student and you do get some more perks when you are a leader ;)
Dinner - taco night was my favorite!
Evening Activity - We got there Sunday night, Monday night we went to Centennial Olympic Park (the fountains were turned off) so we played ultimate frisbee and ate ice cream. Tuesday night we went to Martin Luther King's Memorial (we were def the minority but was fun and interesting). Wednesday night we went to another local church that was super fun and the pastor was great! Thursday night we had a cook out for the community at the church.
Club - This was our time to worship God and give our "Hotlantas" and "Praise God" moments. We sang (the old school songs from when I was in youth group), played games, and had a lesson.
Church group time - This was a time for our church group to get together and talk about our days. We did High's and low's and it was awesome! It was so great to hear the student genuinely concerned and praying for each other.
BED - I think we were so worn out that the fact it was 85 in our room didn't bother us at all.
It is so hard to put everything that happened that week in one blog! When I was first going I really didn't know what to think. I wasn't a leader in high school, still not really a leader, and I was worried about having to get onto the kids. I show up and we have an amazing group of kids. I was so proud to be a leader that was able to just hang out with them and be one of them and I didn't have to tell them to stop or talk to any of them about what they were wearing. There were 3 church groups there together and we soon realized that some of the other people on the trip may have not known Jesus. So the first night we were all pretty discouraged about the other groups but we prayed about it. By the end of the week we figured we were there for the other church groups maybe more than we were for the Atlanta community!
The last night we were there Thursday night the youthworks staff wash the leaders feet and then the leaders wash the students feet. I was really uncomfortable with this idea at first. Then the lady comes and washes my feet first out of all the leaders and so I can't even watch how it is done before she does mine. I was really nervous and it was extremely hard to relax and enjoy the moment. Then after they washed the leader's feet I started going around the room to wash the girls feet. It was such an awesome experience. Everyone was in tears and it was just really sweet to be able to encourage all the girls.
It was an excellent week to see God work in my life and all the students. Here are a couple of pictures of the week.
The whole West Park group before we left!
This is a picture of my group at Open Hands!
Sherry and I!
All the church groups together!
Here is the link for some of the pictures that Derek put in a Picture Slideshow.
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