More Photos from the last couple of days serving!

 

Sorting donated medical supplies at Project Cure, an organization that ships medical supplies all over the world.

The team working together to determine which bin to sort the many different medical supplies into at Project Cure.

Andrew playing pool at their service site, a day camp for kids. Since the site was full of kids, they were unable to take many photographs...

At Thrift Smart, sorting donations!

Church Group time after worship...tonight Morgan led the discussion.

Working in the gardens!

Enjoying a scavenger hunt along Broadway in Downtown Nashville for our evening activity (we were only in the road for a moment...)

Our "Dolly Parton" crew (GS & a church from NC) repackaged diapers to be distributed at Nashville Diaper Connection...we were productive but had a lot of fun in the process, as you can see below. Since their creation in 2013, they have distributed over 13 MILLION diapers in the Nashville area to needy families.

A quick break between service sites

Spotted at an LCMS church in Downtown Nashville

Exploring part of Opryland tonight...

Our nightly worship/gathering was displaced from the basement to the sanctuary tonight. We sang worship songs, shared our God sightings and heard staff stories relating to our theme of "Dust"

More blog posts to come. Thanks for following along with us!

Childlike Wonder - Morgan

    This is my 4th mission trip and it has definitely been an experience so far. Between the humid heat, unexpected uncertainty of bathrooms, and lack of rocks and clocks; there have been multiple positive aspects regarding the people in the community and the knowledgeable strength I’ve gained through service. 

    One gleeful moment from one of the sites is the kids camp at Shelby Park, a local community center by the church we are staying at. They have activities all day from 10-4 and have over 150 kids they take in daily ranging from ages 6-14. June even told me today that there are community members and parents who stand outside the center starting at 4 am to get their kids in this free, interactive program — and there is a reason why. The kids we served today ended up reversing roles and serving us in the best way possible. They served us by having us participate in games, showing us their personal qualities of competition and support, as well as constructive criticism when it comes to tie dye and telling you “you missed a spot” as you get more dye on your hands than their shirts. 

    These kids brought back an aspect of childhood spirit that I had lost and pushed away as I have grown up. Through their kindness and cooperation to share fun I learned more about how God can inspire others through facets they may not think about and find redeeming qualities through all different sorts of people. They made me feel a lost joy that I want to be able to bring to others the way they did to me. 

Photos from our travel days and our first full day at YouthWorks!

Heading out from PDX!

A group at Dollywood riding one of the more intense rollercoasters - top speed of 73 mph.

Getting acquainted at our housing site

Circling up that evening for a quick briefing on the week

Getting ready to serve at the men's Rescue Mission

Thomas putting in work at the Parthenon

The Good Shepherd crew in front of the Parthenon replica at our Monday night evening outing

Church group time outside on the church steps tonight

More photos to come later! Thanks for your patience with us!

Working on my Goals - Riley H

On the first day of service I didn’t feel the same as I did last year. I was more energetic than I thought I would be. I’ve already re-connected with some people I was not as close with before and made new friends, all the people here so far have been so friendly and open including the people that are working with us. I am very happy with the service group I’m in and I’m happy with the service project we did today, I enjoyed cutting the pineapple-not so much shredding the turkey though, lol. During the showers mid-day it was a very fun church with ping pong and foosball tables and I had fun playing the games with some of my new friends and ones I’ve already been friends with. I had a goal to make friends and get along with people and so far I feel like I have accomplished that and also been so energetic. I also had a goal to be closer with Jesus, I haven’t accomplished that goal yet but I hope I can because I really connected with him last year on my first trip so I hope to do the same this trip, Thank you.

First Day for a Former Afro Man - Isaiah

Today Isaiah, the once cool afro man, went on the first day of service and it was so fun! We went to an all homeless male food distribution center, my job today was to SHRED TURKEY we had to separate pounds of turkey from bones and put it into bins to be shredded and turned into a turkey salad dish. After that was done, I got put into the watermelon section, it’s a really easy job everyone just went into a food assembly line and put out designated foods onto the trays to give to the incoming lower class and homeless people of Nashville TN.

Mid-day every day we have to shower, but the problem is the shower times are only 3-5 minutes long so we have to choose what part of you to wash because there’s simply not enough time to clean everything.

Overall, I think this trip is really fun and challenging from quick stops to get slushies to cool off from the intense humidity or full church devos where we play fun games and spread our experiences of God.

First Day in Nashville - Rikki

 Today was unlike any service project I’ve ever done in Church, like 30 mile mission or other acts of serving. Today, my group and I went to a men’s rescue mission. The reason why it felt so much more different than before was because of the impact I felt like I made. As we distributed food to all the homeless men, I could feel their thankfulness through how they acted and the smiles I saw them have. Also I could feel the people in our group feeling the power of serving through us and our work.

Later tonight we also had a church gathering. We started off with worship, which was really fun. All of us came together and we swayed together and also danced. During the worship, I felt really empowered and overwhelmed almost by Jesus. After worship we split off into our churches and talked about the day and certain questions related to what we were doing. A lot of people talked, and personally I felt like I was getting closer to God through responding to the questions.

“Make New Friends Everyday” - Sara

 The end of the Harrisburg mission trip marks my twelfth time taking students to serve with YouthWorks. Each mission trip is the same in that we go to a new community, follow relatively the same schedule, and end up learning a lot about ourselves, God and what it means to follow Him and love others. Each trip though is also very unique. No two sites are the same and each trip seems to have its own unique theme that develops as the week progresses. For the Harrisburg trip one of those themes that makes it unique from the other 11 is the theme of friendship. On past trips we were never the church to branch out and make friends. We usually stuck to ourselves. Sure we were friendly to the other churches, but it didn’t feel like we made real connections with them. That is until this trip.  

 We were teased with a glimpse of what waited for us,  before we ever left Good Shepherd. A lady from church told me she had decided to make something for each of us. She left a bag on my desk with a note saying that she hoped we would be able to make friends on our mission adventure and there was a Clifford pillowcase for each of us. Around the big red dog it said make new friends everyday. I chuckled knowing that the group we were  taking were mainly introverts, and  that making new friends would be a challenge not just for them but for me. Before the trip Tim had said, “I sure hope you don’t get combined with another church. No offense, but you usually don’t end up enjoying the other adult leaders.” Thanks Tim, but there was in fact a lot of truth to his statement. 

We kicked off our trip with site seeing in Philadelphia fondly known as the city of brotherly love- its name taken from the Greek word philos- meaning the love  that is expressed between friends and then off to Harrisburg. Literally the minute we walked in the door we were greeted by Maci the site director and honestly the friendliest YouthWorks staff person I have ever met. She immediately asked me to assign our students and leaders to service groups and every group was a combo of two churches- she had done this on purpose. Everyone from Good Shepherd would have to work with students and leaders from other churches. 

In the past this has been hit and miss— but not this year. My group was combined with the church from Minnesota and we were tasked with planning a 45 minutes chapel for kids at a Christian theater camp. The group melded seamlessly, we collaborated and planned together as if we had know each other for years, by the end of the first service day our groups had clicked. During down time you would see Good Shepherd students playing cards with other church’s, and practicing the church clap dance.

One student said he had made more friends on this trip in four days, than he had in the past 6 months at school. Students spent time in the evenings running through the hallway laughing and pranking  people by knocking on their door and running away. Maci, the site director, went out of her way to spend time talking with students and connecting with them. Andrew got several notes from the Wisconsin kids he served with saying he was the best youth leader they had ever had. Students made friends with kids who weren’t even in their service groups. There was laughter and jokes, and hugs and sad goodbyes as we said farewell to the YouthWorks staff, and the new friends we had made. 

One of my favorite parts of these trips is seeing the way God shows up for us. One day our devo was about how trees depend on each other for stability and strength— their roots interconnect and help hold each other together. This week was a truly beautiful picture of God’s church. Yes we were there to serve the community, and to work, but God also gave us a gift. He deepened our relationships with each other, but He also gave us new friends to help make the journey more joyful and fun. There was so much laughter on this trip and students just being free to be kids. We were each rooted in Christ, but we were also rooted together. The cherry on top of this God sighting on friendship woven throughout the trip was that our shower site was at the Friendship YMCA. Just another subtle nod and reminder to the blessing that new and old friends bring into our lives. Stay rooted in Him, stay rooted together.