Today I woke up feeling the past 6 days weighing down on me. I was tired. As we rode to the food bank I tried to be joyful about what I was doing. But I had a rough time getting through the morning. We were mostly working behind the scenes at the Free store once again…making personal hygiene bags, stocking a huge amount of Ice Cream Sunday flavored PopTarts and Hot Dill Pickle Potato Chips. (yum…?) In the afternoon a few of us rotated checking people in and out. If you read Alisa’s earlier post, you know that this basically means weighing their food and making sure they don’t have too much of any particular coveted items (ie: Pop Tarts…).
When I was working the check out, I noticed that a lot of people kept leaving with much less food than they could have had. I kept thinking, “Just take more food! You haven’t met your 75 or 50 pounds. You get it free, how can you not take it!?!” The most common reason was “I have to walk home and I can’t carry that much.” Looking at their weary faces and hearing their situations tore my heart. I began feel guilty for my earlier attitude. It made me realize how blessed I am. I’ve never had to wonder if I’m going to be able to eat or wash my hair when I woke up. Such simple daily tasks…I take a lot for granted.
We left the FreeStore and still had some time before we were going to meet our host families for dinner at Dewey’s Pizza. So…we went shopping. :)
At 5 we met for pizza. Very very good. Possibly the tastiest pizza I’ve ever had. By 6, we were headed back to the church for our final night with the Youth Group.
Game Plan:
7:00 – Hangout…play random card games etc., eat snacks (mainly Swedish Fish. yuuummm)
7:30 – Begin with our first game: The Stick-Disney-character-names-on-everyone’s-back-and-make-them-ask-yes-or-no-questions-to-figure-out-what-they-are-game! It probably has a name…I don’t know what it is.
Whenever that game ends – Begin Target Trappers! Which was pretty much a glorified version of Capture the Flag and Hide and Go Seek…combined. It was a lot of fun. We hid several different objects around the entire church. Each object had an assigned point value. The group was split into two different teams. They had to find objects and bring them back without getting caught by one of us. If we tagged them then we could make them give us an object or do something ridiculous. One of the middle schoolers had to do the army crawl down a very long hallway, a couple of boys learned how to play Patty Cake, and we heard the premiere of a rap about sunflowers. We played two rounds of that and then everyone cooled down by playing board games or watching a movie.
It was a very full but very good day. I learned that I have a lot to be thankful for. And some middle schoolers can run extremely fast.
I can't believe the week is over already! But I am looking foward to being home again soon.
Thanks for reading :)
Monica
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
"Ya'll are from Salem, where?"
Before going on to today, I have to tell you about the INCREDIBLE thunder storm last night. It literally shook the whole house. The lightning was so close that we could watch it move from one side of the house to over us to the other side of the house. I had never experienced anything like it, and was extremely pleased to be inside where it was warm and safe. I was totally in awe of the power and might of God, especially in those moments!
Today was fantastic! We went down to Over the Rhine to work at the Freestore Foodbank. We definitely prayed on our way in that God would keep us safe, because we had heard so many scary things about the area that it was a little intimidating. I was definitely a little intimidated because I realized the lack of male presence. Every time I have done any kind of homeless work before, I have always had that "protector" to be eyes for us. But, it was great. God was with us, and reminded me that He can protect us all the time.
When we first got there (15 minutes early even!), they gave us a little tour of the place and explained what the Freestore is. Basically, it is a more dignified food bank. That's how I would describe it. Each person is given a certain weight depending on the size of their family. For one person, it is 25 pounds, for two people, it's 50 pounds, for three people, it's 75 pounds, and for four or more, they are allowed 100 pounds. All of the food is stocked up on the shelves and they are able to go through and pick what they want for their family. The produce is not counted in the total weight, but each family is also given a bag of meat. It seems to be like a wonderful place. Anyways, after our tour, Dana worked at the computer checking people and their groceries out. Monica, Lindsay and I stocked shelves for a while, and then moved on to packing personal care/hygiene bags for women. That was great. After lunch, I worked the computer and the other girls did some other jobs, mostly stocking and making bags, I think. The people who are receiving the food are so incredibly grateful for what they are given. It is so neat to see. But, it's also hard to tell people that they have to take food out of their cart because they have too much in there. That was the hardest part I think.
Once we left the Food Store, we came back home to the Taylor's and just hung out with the kiddos until Jeremy got home. We helped April with supper, and were just able to hang out and relax as a team. After supper, we got to experience Graeter's for the first time. It was delicious. Just very filling. And creamy. Then we went to Costco and bought some supplies for tomorrow night's game night with the youth.
I can't believe that the trip is almost over! It seems like we were just trying to get all of the details worked out, but we are almost done. It's incredible how fast time flies. God has been doing such great work over here.
Please continue to pray as tomorrow we are going back to the Free Store. Pray especially for the people that we will be working with and meeting tomorrow.
Until the Whole World Hears,
Alisa
Today was fantastic! We went down to Over the Rhine to work at the Freestore Foodbank. We definitely prayed on our way in that God would keep us safe, because we had heard so many scary things about the area that it was a little intimidating. I was definitely a little intimidated because I realized the lack of male presence. Every time I have done any kind of homeless work before, I have always had that "protector" to be eyes for us. But, it was great. God was with us, and reminded me that He can protect us all the time.
When we first got there (15 minutes early even!), they gave us a little tour of the place and explained what the Freestore is. Basically, it is a more dignified food bank. That's how I would describe it. Each person is given a certain weight depending on the size of their family. For one person, it is 25 pounds, for two people, it's 50 pounds, for three people, it's 75 pounds, and for four or more, they are allowed 100 pounds. All of the food is stocked up on the shelves and they are able to go through and pick what they want for their family. The produce is not counted in the total weight, but each family is also given a bag of meat. It seems to be like a wonderful place. Anyways, after our tour, Dana worked at the computer checking people and their groceries out. Monica, Lindsay and I stocked shelves for a while, and then moved on to packing personal care/hygiene bags for women. That was great. After lunch, I worked the computer and the other girls did some other jobs, mostly stocking and making bags, I think. The people who are receiving the food are so incredibly grateful for what they are given. It is so neat to see. But, it's also hard to tell people that they have to take food out of their cart because they have too much in there. That was the hardest part I think.
Once we left the Food Store, we came back home to the Taylor's and just hung out with the kiddos until Jeremy got home. We helped April with supper, and were just able to hang out and relax as a team. After supper, we got to experience Graeter's for the first time. It was delicious. Just very filling. And creamy. Then we went to Costco and bought some supplies for tomorrow night's game night with the youth.
I can't believe that the trip is almost over! It seems like we were just trying to get all of the details worked out, but we are almost done. It's incredible how fast time flies. God has been doing such great work over here.
Please continue to pray as tomorrow we are going back to the Free Store. Pray especially for the people that we will be working with and meeting tomorrow.
Until the Whole World Hears,
Alisa
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
"If you don't like the weather here, just wait 30 minutes..."
Well… Our trip is already half way over, and I can’t believe it. I have loved Cincinnati so far – the homes here are to die for! So adorable, and they have way better food places than Oregon; I would totally live here except 1. It’s not Oregon, 2. It’s far from my family and 3. They live by “If you don’t like the weather here, just wait 30 minutes.” We have been in two thunderstorms already, and one was way too close for comfort! Oh, and coffeehouses are basically non-existent…no good.
Back track to yesterday… 1am-7am, Monica spends most of the evening throwing up. 6am, I started the same process until about 3pm. Both of us were sick all day long, spending the majority of the day in our beds, sleeping and making trips to the bathroom. By the end of the day my body was exhausted from throwing up, sleeping and just feeling crummy. Just making the trip to the bathroom took nearly all my energy. I was thinking over what yesterday taught me. One is that I am grateful for people that I’ve known for barely 5 days who are willing to go out of their way to take care of us, and that you don’t have to go to some slum, third-world area to get sick on a mission trip – it can happen anywhere! It was a bummer of a day, and I was sad to miss out on helping at Matthew 25 Ministries again, and we had to move our experience at Graeter’s Ice Cream to Thursday, so I am looking forward to that!
Today – Wednesday, Monica and I woke up feeling much better after a good night of rest. Today was our day off! First, we went to breakfast at Half Day Café, a small joint started by a family in the Taylor’s church that served delicious breakfast and lunch items! It was especially a blessing when the owner let us know his son would be picking up our bill for the day. We then headed to downtown Cincinnati where we went to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center – and that was really awesome. Alisa has pictures from it, which we will post soon. Then Jeremy gave us a tour of downtown, we saw a lot of cool buildings and spent a little time at a fresh produce and food place called Findlay Market, right in the middle of Over the Rhine, the poorest part of the city. We will be going there tomorrow and Friday to work at the Food Bank, distributing food to those who need it. After dinner at the church, we shopped at this place called charming Charlie (seriously, coolest girly store ever!) and a craft store called Archivers – believe it or not, it was even better than Craft Warehouse!
For now, that’s all. We are all thankful that Monica and I are feeling better and excited for the rest of the week! I can’t believe we head home in 3 days!
Thanks for keeping up on us!
-Dana
Back track to yesterday… 1am-7am, Monica spends most of the evening throwing up. 6am, I started the same process until about 3pm. Both of us were sick all day long, spending the majority of the day in our beds, sleeping and making trips to the bathroom. By the end of the day my body was exhausted from throwing up, sleeping and just feeling crummy. Just making the trip to the bathroom took nearly all my energy. I was thinking over what yesterday taught me. One is that I am grateful for people that I’ve known for barely 5 days who are willing to go out of their way to take care of us, and that you don’t have to go to some slum, third-world area to get sick on a mission trip – it can happen anywhere! It was a bummer of a day, and I was sad to miss out on helping at Matthew 25 Ministries again, and we had to move our experience at Graeter’s Ice Cream to Thursday, so I am looking forward to that!
Today – Wednesday, Monica and I woke up feeling much better after a good night of rest. Today was our day off! First, we went to breakfast at Half Day Café, a small joint started by a family in the Taylor’s church that served delicious breakfast and lunch items! It was especially a blessing when the owner let us know his son would be picking up our bill for the day. We then headed to downtown Cincinnati where we went to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center – and that was really awesome. Alisa has pictures from it, which we will post soon. Then Jeremy gave us a tour of downtown, we saw a lot of cool buildings and spent a little time at a fresh produce and food place called Findlay Market, right in the middle of Over the Rhine, the poorest part of the city. We will be going there tomorrow and Friday to work at the Food Bank, distributing food to those who need it. After dinner at the church, we shopped at this place called charming Charlie (seriously, coolest girly store ever!) and a craft store called Archivers – believe it or not, it was even better than Craft Warehouse!
For now, that’s all. We are all thankful that Monica and I are feeling better and excited for the rest of the week! I can’t believe we head home in 3 days!
Thanks for keeping up on us!
-Dana
Monday, March 21, 2011
Jesus is more dependable than squirrels...
So we forgot to write a blog last night! bah! Yesterday (Sunday) was scheduled as our "relax" day, well I'll tell you, it was quite the day! After quite the harrowing trip Saturday, and a late night for myself (Lindsay) and Alisa, we woke up at the Taylor's house (Monica and Dana at the Lane's) we met up at the church (Kenwood Baptist Church). We were blessed with an amazing sermon from a guest speaker who serves as president of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. We then had the opportunity to spend lunch at the church with a ministry called Teen Challenge, where we got to meet some amazing men in the program and talk to them. I talked with two guys at my table and they were both surprisingly open and honest about their current realities. It was such a blessing to meet them and have really amazing conversations with them. There were so many small blessings from meeting and sharing with the youth group to getting to know the Taylor family more, to just sharing in fellowship with one another as a team. It was simply fantastic. I for one felt a little of the jetlag that comes with traveling three time zones and was exhausted. In the afternoon, April took us to this pretty neat place called Chateau Laroche, a really cool castle built by one man. We got to spend the rest of the evening bonding as a team. We went on an adventure to go shopping after dinner and discovered that nothing is opened after 6 on a Sunday, so we just visited Whole Foods and then ventured to find Target. Well, whilst we were on the freeway looking for it we were honored to witness the most astonishing, breathtaking sunset I personally have ever seen. We all agreed that even if we never found Target that the trip would have been worth it just to see that glorious sun. The evening ended with a lovely movie and great fellowship. Thank you Jesus for blessing us with safe travels, building relationships and divine opportunities to have amazing kingdom conversations with your people! I can't wait to see what else is in store this week.
-Lindsay
Onto Monday...
Ahh, Monday. Today was Monday…and it feels like we have been here forever already. But we’re glad we still have almost the whole week ahead of us! We started our day at Matthew 25 Ministries. This is a disaster relief organization that sends out donations to places in need. -pause- Let me explain the title of today's entry. Our navigation for this trip is being run by a strange squirrel voice inside a GPS. Today we decided to follow the GPS (duh...) but it led us astray and we were about 30 minutes late to work. Okay -unpause- From 9(:30)-4 we were kept busy sorting clothes and linens. It was a great opportunity to serve. Sometime during our lunch break, we all went a little laugh-happy, which seemed to follow us for the rest of the day.
After working, we made our way to Skyline Chili for dinner with Jeremy. We can now all proudly (or…not) say that we have eaten real Cincinnati chili while wearing stylish white bibs (kindly provided by our waitress).
To conclude the night, we led the Youth Group at Kenwood. This included dancing to Pharaoh Pharaoh during worship, playing several rounds of movie psychiatrist, and then ending by discussing what it means to be a light to those around us.
Today was a great day. God has been blessing our team a lot. I am so thankful that he used this day to help us bond closer together as a team. I pray that we will continue to grow and that God will be able to use that growth for His purpose.
Monica
-Lindsay
Onto Monday...
Ahh, Monday. Today was Monday…and it feels like we have been here forever already. But we’re glad we still have almost the whole week ahead of us! We started our day at Matthew 25 Ministries. This is a disaster relief organization that sends out donations to places in need. -pause- Let me explain the title of today's entry. Our navigation for this trip is being run by a strange squirrel voice inside a GPS. Today we decided to follow the GPS (duh...) but it led us astray and we were about 30 minutes late to work. Okay -unpause- From 9(:30)-4 we were kept busy sorting clothes and linens. It was a great opportunity to serve. Sometime during our lunch break, we all went a little laugh-happy, which seemed to follow us for the rest of the day.
After working, we made our way to Skyline Chili for dinner with Jeremy. We can now all proudly (or…not) say that we have eaten real Cincinnati chili while wearing stylish white bibs (kindly provided by our waitress).
To conclude the night, we led the Youth Group at Kenwood. This included dancing to Pharaoh Pharaoh during worship, playing several rounds of movie psychiatrist, and then ending by discussing what it means to be a light to those around us.
Today was a great day. God has been blessing our team a lot. I am so thankful that he used this day to help us bond closer together as a team. I pray that we will continue to grow and that God will be able to use that growth for His purpose.
Monica
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Day 1: Delta dawn...literally, rough landings and Chick-fil-a
I have been humming “Delta Dawn” all day it seems, thanks to Alisa’s wonderful Auntie who sang it to us as we drove to the airport at around 5 am this morning, in preparation for our flight to Salt Lake City and then Cincinnati. (Yes, 5 am, and I was up at 3:50, followed shortly by the others!) We stayed with her uncle and aunt in Kent, along with their son Nolan and had a great time with them!
First of all, we made it! And it is so great so far! Just thought I’d get that out of the way.
We had a semi-long travel day, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I was surprised to see that many people are up bright and early, at 5:30 am on a Saturday to fly out of SEATAC… but we made it to our terminal with a few minutes to spare and boarded our plane to SLC. You may be wondering why I was selected to write this entry. Well. Let me tell you!
On our flight to SLC, we were all spread out because we pretty much got the last tickets for that flight. I happened to have seat 7F, strategically placed next to an attractive young man! Just my luck. Well, the whole flight went well, and in about the last 15 minutes, I fell asleep, which is really unusual for me. Before I knew it we had landed, but not so smoothly. As we basically “hit” the ground, I was startled awake and in the process grabbed the upper thigh of the poor, attractive guy sitting next to me. He jumped and gave me quite a look, and I apologized profusely and tried to cover up my embarrassment. Needless to say that seemed like the longest taxi to the terminal I have ever had ☺
Aside from that embarrassing episode, we had a good time getting here to Ohio!
Oh, and God takes care of everything ☺ For our second flight, Monica didn’t have an assigned seat and we were a little scared because they said there was no extra spots, “especially in row 25”; but the second time we went up there, they had a seat for her, 25F, just a couple away from us. God is good, even in the small things.
The beautiful Cincinnati skyline greeted us as April, the youth pastor’s wife, drove us to their home. I had Chick-fil-a for the first time (yum!), and saw many other places I want to try (like Panera Bread!). We are excited to hang out with the Taylor’s kids as well as Marley, the little girl of Ben and Joanna who are mine and Monica’s host family for the week. They are so sweet already, I feel very at home here.
Tomorrow we will be teaching Sunday school, each of us giving a testimony on either prayer – perseverance – praise – pain. I am excited to see what God has in store for us with these kids and for our hearts in general. Pray that the kids will be excited, have open ears, and that we will be excited to serve them and the community of Cincinnati! Thanks for reading!
In Him,
Dana
First of all, we made it! And it is so great so far! Just thought I’d get that out of the way.
We had a semi-long travel day, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I was surprised to see that many people are up bright and early, at 5:30 am on a Saturday to fly out of SEATAC… but we made it to our terminal with a few minutes to spare and boarded our plane to SLC. You may be wondering why I was selected to write this entry. Well. Let me tell you!
On our flight to SLC, we were all spread out because we pretty much got the last tickets for that flight. I happened to have seat 7F, strategically placed next to an attractive young man! Just my luck. Well, the whole flight went well, and in about the last 15 minutes, I fell asleep, which is really unusual for me. Before I knew it we had landed, but not so smoothly. As we basically “hit” the ground, I was startled awake and in the process grabbed the upper thigh of the poor, attractive guy sitting next to me. He jumped and gave me quite a look, and I apologized profusely and tried to cover up my embarrassment. Needless to say that seemed like the longest taxi to the terminal I have ever had ☺
Aside from that embarrassing episode, we had a good time getting here to Ohio!
Oh, and God takes care of everything ☺ For our second flight, Monica didn’t have an assigned seat and we were a little scared because they said there was no extra spots, “especially in row 25”; but the second time we went up there, they had a seat for her, 25F, just a couple away from us. God is good, even in the small things.
The beautiful Cincinnati skyline greeted us as April, the youth pastor’s wife, drove us to their home. I had Chick-fil-a for the first time (yum!), and saw many other places I want to try (like Panera Bread!). We are excited to hang out with the Taylor’s kids as well as Marley, the little girl of Ben and Joanna who are mine and Monica’s host family for the week. They are so sweet already, I feel very at home here.
Tomorrow we will be teaching Sunday school, each of us giving a testimony on either prayer – perseverance – praise – pain. I am excited to see what God has in store for us with these kids and for our hearts in general. Pray that the kids will be excited, have open ears, and that we will be excited to serve them and the community of Cincinnati! Thanks for reading!
In Him,
Dana
Friday, March 18, 2011
It's Here!!
Well, in about an hour we will be on our way to Seattle. We are staying with my aunt tonight, and she will take us to the airport tomorrow morning. We are so excited to serve the community in Cincinnati. We can't wait to see what God has in store for us while we're over there. THANK YOU for all of your prayers and support. God is definitely in this trip, and He will get the glory for it all! Please continue to pray for us this week. Especially tonight and tomorrow for safe travels.
To God be the Glory!
Alisa
To God be the Glory!
Alisa
Saturday, March 12, 2011
=)
After two and a half hours this morning, we have gotten our tickets! Woohoo! We are still praying that money will come in so that we have some money to play with over there, but we are booked and ready! I am so excited, and I totally feel like a HUGE burden has been lifted off my shoulder. Like a Mastiff. Or an elephant. Goodnight. Don't forget to turn your clocks back!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
WOW!
Wow, wow, wow. Can I just tell you how AWESOME God is? Sunday night, we were kind of freaking out because we didn't have enough money to go. We were pretty much in a horrible place, down about $1000 to even order the tickets. In the last two days, God has provided over $1200! Which means that we are going to place a check request in today, and hopefully be able to order the tickets by Thursday or Friday. That is HUGE! I know that God can do anything. But I think I still doubted a little bit because I was just so so worried that we weren't going to be able to go. Thank you for all of you who have been supporting us so far! We truly appreciate your generosity and prayers. We will try hard to keep this updated while we are over there. I think I'm going to bring my ipod, but I will probably leave my computer at home. We'll see :) One way or the other, we'll try and update this nightly!
Thank you again for your support. Please continue to pray for us as we plan this last week and a half. Please be praying that the ticket prices would go down, or at least stay the same! That's huge right now.
Until the Whole World Hears,
Alisa
Thank you again for your support. Please continue to pray for us as we plan this last week and a half. Please be praying that the ticket prices would go down, or at least stay the same! That's huge right now.
Until the Whole World Hears,
Alisa
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