Toronto Videos

Here are a couple of videos from the Toronto trip:

Rachel and Kylie enjoying 'Beat It' just a bit too much. Don't miss Sydney in the back.

The servers at Johnny Rockets dancing to 'RESPECT' by Aretha Franklin.

The glass elevator at the CN Tower. Don't watch if heights make you queasy.

Toronto Mission Trip: Final Post

I’m typing this last update from the airport in Buffalo, but I probably won’t be posting it until we are safely back at home. I wonder if anyone will read it now that we’re home. Hmmm…

Our trip ended well. Thursday evening was our free night. Everyone was ready for some good, American cooking so we ventured out to Johnny Rocket’s, a 50’s style diner – in the Times Square-esque area of Toronto. We brought our host Robin with us. The food wasn’t as good as I remember it being, but it was good to have a burger and fries after all the ethnic food we had been eating. And when ‘RESPECT’ buy Aretha Franklin played on the jukebox, all the waitresses – and Myles! – danced. Very fun!

After some Marble Slab ice cream, we dropped Robin off at the CTC station and we headed to the CN Tower, formerly the world’s tallest tower and the current holder of the highest observation deck in the world. It makes the Arch look puny. One part of the tower had a glass floor that we stood on that looked straight down over 1,100 feet in the air. I just looked up that the glass floor is only 2 ½" thick…and people were jumping on it!! Insane! When I pointed out that on one part of the observation deck there were windows that would be unlocked and pulled in to be cleaned, Sydney said that thinking about that “made her butt feel squinchy.” There was much laughing at that comment, as you can imagine. It was a very fun night that we had to blow off some steam.

Friday was our last day at ministry sites. In the morning we served at Booth Industries, a ministry of the Salvation Army. At this ministry, people with mental and developmental disabilities or illnesses are given employment to subsidize the government funds they receive. We served alongside these individuals doing such things as unpackaging and repackaging school paper, marking out bar codes on boxes of crackers, and making pallet dividers. Basically the work was really easy but it was a very inspiring thing to watch the employees find satisfaction and dignity from holding down an actual job. And we got to talk to and interact with many of them which was fun.

After lunch we had our last afternoon of tutoring. It was a bittersweet day. It was rewarding to be with our kids again, but it was sad when we were all done. I did like that we had this as an anchor site for the week because we really got to build relationships with the kids, but it just made Friday that much more difficult to say good-bye. My hope and prayer is not only that we were able to help our kids take one step forward in their education, but also that we moved them closer to meeting Jesus and following Him. I hope to run into Himanshu and Tej – David’s and my kids – again someday.

After a yummy Vietnamese dinner we had our final debrief. I think this week really made an impact in the lives of our students, as many of them expressed areas in their lives that they want to move closer to Jesus. I won’t go into details but know that they were all impacted in their own ways. My prayer for them is that this trip will be a significant mile marker in their lives of following hard after Jesus and that their lives will not be the same.

I am glad that our plans to go to Tijuana fell through because this Toronto trip was one of my top two favorite youth trips I have been on (the other being Chicago). Part of the positive feeling we all had about the trip was our host, Robin. She was outstanding and fit in well with our group. She was a lot of fun, seemed to enjoy our group, had a passion for her city and for helping the hurting, and knew what she was doing as far as her job was concerned. A host can make or break a trip, and she certainly helped make ours great!

On our way home, we had plenty of time to kill so we took in the Niagara Falls. WOW! What a site! It's amazing to see that kind of power. As we walked over a small bridge very close to the edge of the falls, I noticed how calm the river seemed. But then, just around the corner things changed as the water roared over the edge. God really knew what He was doing when He created that one!

In case you missed any pictures, you can see them on our Flickr site.

Thanks for praying for us last week! We certainly felt your prayers. Continue to pray for our students as they live out their commitments when they return home. Thanks for reading about our trip…

Toronto Mission Trip: Part 3

Today's blog entry is by guest blogger Hillary:

Quiet, lost, scared, and broke. We spent Tuesday night as homeless thirteen year olds on the streets of Toronto.  We were told a scenario plunge us into the mindset of an abused runaway. Our group was divided up amongst the CSM hosts. Each person in our group was given a toonie (Canadian two dollar coin) and a transit token to buy dinner and travel because in the story all of our money was stolen. We each had to answer five questions about eating for two dollars, sleeping arrangements, employment, entertainment, etc. This activity was similar to other mission trips. Believe me it is hard to eat for only two dollars. There are no dollar menus in Canada. I ended up eating at Mc Donald’s along with Kylie. That was probably the best cheeseburger of my life. By the end of the experience, many of us were coming to terms with the harsh options on the streets. Many in the group decided that they would turn themselves in and return to a group home. I decided that if the situation was bad enough I would give the streets a while longer. I came to the conclusion that I would probably steal a bike for transportation and entertainment. I would sleep in a park during the day and work for a drug dealer at night. It was an eye opening experience for all of us because we had to drop our morals for the night.

As we moved to Wednesday morning, things moved to a happier note. The group traveled to the St. Lawerence Market where we participated in a program called LIFE Skills. The program involved observing surroundings, praying, and finally living out our faith.  We divided into three groups and set off for our adventure. I was with Cori, Kim, and Kylie. We decided to stop in a local park. While we were there a VBS program was there playing in the fountain. The little kids were splish splashing around in the water and chasing the pigeons nonstop. By the way, pigeons in Canada are enormous. After seeing all the despair, the kids were very refreshing. We were able to pray for them and their families. We, then, moved back to the market. At the market, we held open doors for people as well as one of the other groups. Fitz’s group purchased poster board and markers. They made signs that said things like “Have a nice day” or “Jesus love you”. We got quite a few stares and some thank yous. I’d say we got people wondering.

In the afternoon, we all went to Somali Homework Club. By today, the kids were really starting to open up. At the home Sydney, Kara, and I went to, we got Disney Princess stickers. Can you say awesome? All of the kids have a deep passion for learning. They have even been able to teach us about certain things especially Canadian money.

For dinner, we went to a Somali restaurant. I believe that it is by far one of the best restaurants. Mom, my new favorite food is goat. At the restaurant, we tried watermelon juice and could only eat with our right hand. During dinner, Cori made the mistake of pouring salt in Fitz’s LeBron wound. That led to an NBA-style trade of the people in Fitz’s van. Barry wanted to trade David for me, but made the mistake of not waiting for Fitz to release me from my contract. After lots of banter, David and I switched vans and so did Myles. My reward for moving to Barry’s van was picking the radio station. We listened to hair bands all the way back to the church. Yay for Bon Jovi!

Cori says, “Hi, Mom and Dad.” 

I have a few minutes of down time before our evening activity, so I thought I would give y’all a quick update on Day Two.

We picked up David at the airport without any issues. One of our city directors, Josh, took me out there, and then dropped David and me off to join up with our group. They had done the sandwich run, handing out sack lunches to homeless people. When we got there, they were debriefing and a lady from Project 417 – a ministry to the homeless – was speaking with our group and two others. I didn't hear most of the talk because we got there late. However, she dropped a statistic that floored me: Teenagers often run away to Toronto because it’s the one big city in Canada, and within three weeks, 80% of those teen runaways are involved in prostitution. This is a huge problem in this city, obviously.

This morning we had a late start again. Thank goodness because we are wiped! This morning, we participated in Operation Hydration, where we went to a park with a high homeless concentration and handed out water bottles and struck up conversations with the homeless folk they encountered. I am so impressed by our group! When I was a teenager, if someone had asked me to do some of the things they are being asked to do, I would have said, “No thanks,” but our group does it without thinking twice about it. They have a much bigger heart for the world than I ever had at their age, and that will serve them well.

Lunch was fantastic! We ate at a Greek restaurant which was amazing! It turns out that the travel agent scenes from ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ were filed right across the street. Our big meal was at lunch today because tonight we are doing our Street Walk, which puts us in the shoes of a homeless person or runaway teen, and we will be eating with only $2.00. After lunch, we did our tutoring again. I’m so glad that we have these anchor sites because it is allowing us to really build relationships with the kids we are tutoring. One of our frustrations with the Houston trip was that we did so much bouncing around that we couldn’t build any relationships with anyone. Not so here. It's refreshing!

I need to wrap up to get ready tonight. I uploaded some pics last night, but have not had the chance to do so today. Actually, there won't be many pictures from today at all since we couldn't really take pictures at either our morning or evening activities. But check out what is there already by clicking here. Have a great night!

Toronto Mission Trip: Part 1

Sorry for the delay in getting an update posted. We had a pretty hectic day one, and the Wifi at the housing site is sporadic at best, so this is the first time I’ve been able to post. There may be fewer posts than you are used to reading during our youth mission trips, and for that I apologize, but I will do my best.

Our travel to Toronto went fine. We had to leave one youth behind due to some passport troubles, but I will be heading to the airport here in a little while to pick him up. Everyone got to the church plenty early so we could be on the road by 4:30am. Once at the airport, getting through check-in and security was a breeze. After a short hour and a half wait, we were in the air headed for Buffalo, after a brief stop in Chicago. We got our vans picked up at the airport, then off we headed for the border. This section of the trip lasted longer than expected due to traffic and a back-up at the border, but still no troubles…and we did get to see Niagara Falls as we crossed the Rainbow Bridge, so that was cool.

Once we arrived, we were ushered to our sleeping quarters. We are all sleeping on mattresses on the floors, and the poor ladies are bumper-to-bumper in their room (check out the pics). They will be close friends with people they never knew before coming to Toronto, whether they want to be or not. After our orientation with our other groups (from Canada, New Jersey, and Indiana), we headed out to dinner and our prayer tour. Dinner was an Indian buffet, which was absolutely delicious! And the Church could learn a lot from how Mr. Singh – the owner – showed hospitality. He was out on the floor filling our water glasses before they got too low, and with a huge smile on his face. Then some of our group experienced paan, which is a mix of herbs and spices, wrapped in a leaf, and placed between your cheek and gums to cleanse the palate. We got some good facial expressions out of this! (Again, see the pics)

Our prayer tour was so enlightening! We would drive for a short while through various neighborhoods, then pull into a parking lot where our host, Robin, would give us some details about the area we were in and the need for prayer in that particular area, and then have three or so people pray. It’s a different world than Cape Girardeau! We drove through Regent Park, which is a low-income neighborhood which had been known for its crime and drugs, but is now being renovated. This sounds good, but it is displacing lots of families, and because of its lack of a high school, and its reputation, there is no school busing, which means many of the kids are simply not going to school. We drove through areas known for its prostitution. We drove through the gay neighborhood. We drove through neighborhoods where some people are so desperate for a high they will chew on duct tape to get it. We heard stories that were not fun to hear, including one about a homeless man who died while sleeping on a grate next to Parliament, but no one realized for three days that he was dead – they simply walked on by. These are things we simply don’t see at home, and it really broke the hearts of many of our group to know that these problems exist.

But, there is good stuff going on. We stopped to pray in the driveway of a church called Sanctuary. It is a church, right around the corner from the gay community, that accepts any and all people. As a result, many homeless make that their church home. We heard a story about the huge condo building that was built next door that offered them a huge sum of money for their property. After much consideration and prayer, they rejected the offer knowing that they didn’t want the homeless to be displaced yet again. What a gutsy, God-focused move!

We also heard about and saw a bridge that was known for its suicides. Someone committed suicide every 22 days by jumping off that bridge. This was not OK for the city of Toronto, so they built a huge barrier on the sides of the bridge which makes it virtually impossible to jump off of it. So, like I said, it’s not all about despair. There is hope!

We got to have a late start today, but that didn’t mean we were any less wiped out. Being up for 21 hours yesterday I guess will do that to you. This morning we did our ethnic plunge. We basically walked through one of Toronto’s Chinatowns – they have five of them – with a list of questions and tasks. It was an experience in learning and observation. We had a lot of fun with it! One of the things we had to do was to try something that we’d never tried before. Kylie suggested that we try the sesame cookies, which I rejected because it was wimpy. So then she, Rachel and Hillary found a bag of various crackers, that also included dried anchovies, complete with tails and eyes. We tried it. Let’s just say it’s a taste experience that I hope to never repeat. I guess the taste wasn’t all that bad, but the mental part was gag-worthy!

After lunch we got to experience the Somali tutoring program. We were broken up into groups of 2 or 3 to go into homes to help tutor children. We will be doing this all week. As it turns out, it’s not just Somali children that we are working with. In fact, none of our group was with a Somali family. We worked with families from China, the Czech Republic, Mauritius, and one other country. It was so much fun! Sydney and I were with two children from Mauritius, ages 8 and 5, who needed help with reading, so we read with them and asked them questions. As it turns out, the 5-year-old is better at reading than the 8-year-old. We are looking forward to returning. And what’s really cool is that we are able and encouraged to share our faith with them, so Himanshu and I were able to have a few short discussions about God and the Bible. It was exciting! I’m looking forward to more of the same this week!

Tonight we ate dinner at Real Jerk – yes, that’s the name of it – a Jamaican restaurant. So yummy! And while I wait for my ride to the airport, the rest of the crew is out on a sandwich run. Another group made over 120 sacks lunches today, and we will be delivering them to homeless folk and building relationships tonight. It’s going to be a cool opportunity that I am sad to miss. But I am glad that they are having it!

As I have been typing this, I have been uploading pictures. Due to our slow connection speed, I’m not sure that I will get them uploaded tonight or any time this week. If not, I will do it as soon as we get back. Sorry if you were looking forward to seeing them.

Keep praying for us. We appreciate this more than you know!

A couple of funny comments:

• ·         While eating at the Indian restaurant, discussing the various foods we were experiencing, Blake said, “Change is bad.” If that’s how he really feels, this is going to be a bad trip for him.
• ·         Last night after dinner, Myles dropped something. Barry said disapprovingly, “Myles!” He replied, “I dropped it. It’s not my fault.” Then whose is it?

OK, they’re not hilarious in print, but they were funny at the time. I hope to have another update soon…

DC - Day Five

It's been a trying trip. It probably doesn't quite measure up to the trials that the Guatemala team experienced, but it's rough just the same. With that being said, let's start with some levity. The lady who more or less runs the "restaurant" (as she calls it) at SOME (So Others Might Eat) has a habit of dancing with her volunteers. Nathan promised to dance with her before the day let out, so just before we left, here's what we got:




Fantastic, right! SOME was a great place to serve. It is basically a soup kitchen - but don't say that to Michelle; it's her restaurant - that serves several hundred meals a day in breakfast and lunch shifts. And boy, do they have it figured out! each person comes through a line, gets their food, then sits at the next available open seat - no looking around to find a seat off by yourself. The volunteers each have a specific responsibility: placing napkins, forks, and cups in just the right place; dishes; filling water cups; pouring coffee; cleaning off tables and chairs; dishes; etc. It was an impressive thing to watch! Michelle had great things to say about our group and how hard they served...except for me. She just got on me for showing up later than everyone else. I didn't mind though. As long as people appreciate what our kids are doing, they can say what they want about me. Besides, she was just messing with me anyway...I think. Seriously, our students worked their tails off, especially Nathan doing dishes (Jason said he was a beast!)

While at SOME, between shifts, Jared Ritter wrote this poem:

Change to Believe In

S.O.M.E.
A chance to make a difference for all to see.
No matter the struggle, no matter how long the task may last.
We are here to change lives, forgiving others and moving on from the past.
Meal after meal we will serve under one name,
Blessing others, as they leave better than they came.
We ask upon the Lord, to watch over us until our goal is complete,
As we change the world, so others might eat.

Wow! That's all I can say...


After serving and eating lunch there, we went on our Urban Plunge. Basically what this is is an experiential learning experience. Students are broken up into smaller groups with an adult and given a set of instructions for an advanced scavenger hunt, for lack of a better description. The object is to put ourselves in the shoes of a homeless individual so we know a little bit what it feels like. We were each given $2.00 with the explanation that this is money we made panhandling earlier in the day. We were told a specific area to go to and how to get there: by foot, bus, or Metro. When there, we had to do some research, including what churches were in the area, where a homeless person could find food, healthcare, or a place to stay, and so on. We also, with our combined $8.00, had to buy a pair of socks for a homeless individual (and give them to him/her), and had to buy food for us and some to share with a homeless person. We ended up buying socks at a consignment store (and giving them to a homeless lady) and three Lunchables from CVS, two of which we shared with a homeless guy we ran across named Rick. We had a good conversation with him while we ate with him. He told us that he had been homeless for eight years, and the reason was because he simply drank too much. He spent the majority of his days in a park, unless it rained overnight; then he slept under a bank drive-thru overhang. We also talked sports with him (he watched the games through the front window of a bar in the area). It was enjoyable to talk to him, but also very sad. And to think that there are thousands of them all over DC is sobering. One of the other groups ran across a guy who lost his Bible, so after we were done with our Plunge, they went back and tried to give them Barry's Bible (he gave it to them to give to the guy) but they didn't find him. So they left it at the church he said he attended. We have a great group of students on this trip with huge hearts! You should be proud of them if one of them is your kid!


Last night we debriefed as one big group at Ebenezer's Coffeehouse. It was a lot of fun to be in that environment! I shared with the group about the story behind the Coffeehouse and the Church that it housed (see earlier post). During the debrief, Sydnei said something that got me a little fired up. She said something about being "just a kid." I took the opportunity to speak out against the idea that just because they are young that they can't do something great for God in this world. Please back me up on this. If your kid wants to do something big - or even little - for God, give them whatever support you can to make it a reality. They need it from their parents and other adults in their lives. God has done amazing things in the past through young people and can do even more through our young people. Let's give them the backing to make it happen!


Earlier today, I spent time at Food & Friends, an organization that provides food for very ill people, including HIV/AIDS patients. Many of us spent time packing food, while others delivered. As always, we worked hard and got the job done in spectacular fashion.

Ken has had a rough week. You may have heard that he got his vehicle broken into and his wallet stolen. We called Budget and they told us to exchange the vehicle because whoever broke into it had some sort of scrambling device that screwed up the remote locks. Ken took the vehicle to the airport and accidentally was sitting in a restricted area. A cop pulled up behind him and asked for his ID, which he didn't have because his wallet had been stolen. So they frisked him, cuffed him, and put him in the back of the cop car, where he sat for 45 minutes. His arm was falling asleep, so he laid down in the back seat and thought, "I hate this city!" They then took him inside the airport where they have a holding cell, where he sat for another 45 minutes until they got the results from his fingerprints back. Needless to say it was not what he was expecting when he agreed to take a bunch of high school students to our nation's capital. But he has been a champ throughout!

We have a change of plans for our return trip. Instead of staying in Knoxville, TN, we will be spending the night in Wilmore, KY, home of Asbury Theological Seminary, where Rob Mehner, Daniel Taylor, Brett Cheek, and I all received our Masters degrees. The phone number at Asbury is (800) 2-ASBURY, if you need it, but my cell phone number is still probably the best way to get a hold of us.

This may be the last post until we get home. I will upload the remainder of the picture when we get back to Cape. They can be viewed here. Thanks for your continued prayers this week. See you soon!

DC - Day Four

So, out the door of Star COGIC I walk this morning to find half of Team Arlington standing outside their vehicle. They shouted me over and showed me that they had a flat tire. That's great because we haven't had any vehicle troubles yet (snicker-snicker). Barry and a local got it changed and off they went. Barry will be heading to the airport to switch out the vehicle for another one because there is no way I'm driving back to Missouri without a spare.

Yesterday, after my requisite blogging and failed attempts at uploading pictures (I'm trying again right now), I spent time with Team Pentagon, headed up by Team Captains Taylor Quade and Ashley Davie and SIMYs Marcy and Nic. They were serving at A Wider Circle, that has already gotten a couple of mentions in this blog. A Wider Circle, among other things, accepts donations of used furniture and home goods and gives them away to people who need them. While we were there, several U-Haul-type truckloads arrived and Team Pentagon went to work unloading furniture and putting it where it belonged. Also, several people arrived to claim some stuff and our crew would then snap into action to load the furniture they had claimed into their vehicle. It was moments of frantic activity followed by moments of downtime. I learned several things about the group, not the least of which was that Molly is a stellar steam cleaner (she had the job of steam cleaning mattresses to kill the bedbugs). Pentagon worked hard yesterday, and just before we left, the supervisor made it a point to express to me her appreciation for how hard our team worked. I always know that we have good workers, but it's a special joy to hear it from someone else.

After wrapping up there, we headed to our dinner location, Pollo Granjero. We were early to we ducked into a coffee shop called The Potter's House, which is essentially a coffee house church. One of the ladies who is heavily involved - she may be a pastor; I missed the first part of her talk - talked to us for a long while all about the church, it's history, it's worship, and all of the ministries that they have started. It was very interesting stuff, but our crew was really tired so I'm not sure that they got the full effect from the conversation.

After a yummy Salvadoran dinner, we headed to the Lincoln Memorial for debriefing. I got separated from the group and got horribly lost, winding up on the bridge that takes you across to Virginia. After much driving around and finally finding a parking space, I made it to the Memorial...and only beat the rest of the group by about 45 minutes. They also wound up in Virginia, then made it back, then had to take a potty break, then parked entirely too far away. When they did arrive, we had a good debriefing. One concern that was mentioned by a few students was the fact that when they are on these trips, they want to make a change when they get home, whether it be in serving more, or giving more, or being less concerned about their "stuff", but then when they get home, back into their reality, there is no change. Please pray for them, that there is a real change in their hearts and actions when they return to Cape.

Here are a couple of blog-worthy stories from Kim, one of the Team Arlington SIMYs:

• While driving downtown, Cory Hogan thought we were on Embassy Row, where all the embassies are lined in rows on both sides of the street. He saw a building with a lot of palm trees out front and said, "Oh, I wonder if that's for Hawaii!"

• Arlington's pickiest eater, Corey Robertson, has really branched out this week. He has tried every ethnic food we've eaten and he especially liked the Vietnamese food. From a guy who has never eaten steak or pork chops (but he's trying one tonight) he wins the "most improved in eating" award. Alex Ellis wins the "most exotic food eaten" award because she ate a quail egg in her Vietnamese soup without gagging or choking. Way to go, Arlington!
• During our morning devotional on Wednesday, we had talked about being tired and how it could affect how we minister to or treat others. Rachel Diamond shared about how, in Luke 21, Jesus was telling his disciples that the woman who had very little to give but gave all she had gave more to God than the rich man who gave more money. She compared that to us being tired but giving all that we had to serve God well and how that we would be giving more than serving when we are well-rested and serving out of our own "wealth" or strength. Serving and loving others while exhausted requires a greater sacrifice. It was a great reminder to us about how we are to serve and she really encouraged all of us. We have great student leaders on this trip.
• (This story also come from Team Arlington, but came from Barry) While they were driving yesterday, they were on Pennsylvania Avenue and they noticed a huge, white house. They started discussing that, "Hey, I think that's the White House," and were getting excited about it. Their CSM host, Shaina, finally spoke up and said, "Guys, I hate to break it to you, but that's not the White House." They pressed on. Some time later, Barry turned to her and whispered, "When are you going to tell them the truth?" She confessed, "Guys, that was the White House." It was a perfect scam, and the youth were non-too-thrilled that they had been got.

I'll be heading to SOME (So Others May Eat) here in a little bit to hang our with Team Watergate (a.k.a. The Scandal, according to Jenn Lipe) and doing the Urban Plunge with them (more details on that tomorrow), Then tonight, it's on to Ebenezer's Coffeehouse for our debrief. I am still working on housing for us in Lexington on our trip back. If neither of my options comes through, we'll be staying at our originally-planned location in Knoxville, TN. Thanks for your continued prayers...

BTW, don't be looking for any new pictures until we get back. I am having issues with Flickr Uploader. I'll try to get that remedied when we get back home. Sorry for those of you who are visual learners...

One final thing: Houston Below wasn't too thrilled when he found out I posted the video of him doing Young MC's 'Bust a Move.' So when he gets home, make sure you mention how much you loved his rapping ability.

UPDATE: Just received these three notes via text message from Jenn, Team Watergate:

• Today, Nathan was our super washer in the SOME kitchen! He was speedy, had suds a flyin', and Dave wants him to stay and work full time (Thursday).
• 80-yr-old Bennie worked as hard as the group did, clipping the hedges alongside us as we overhauled her yard (Tuesday).
• Jared almost clotheslined a guy on a moped trying to take a picture of the Washington DC architecture. (Wednesday)

DC - Day Three

We are officially at hump day here in DC, and things are moving along well. I wouldn't say everything was perfect, but that hasn't really affected our group's motivation and willingness to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this city.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of hanging out with Team Arlington, headed up by Barry, Kim and Lisa as SIMYs, and Team Captains Corey and Rachel. I got to their morning site pretty close to the time they were planning on wrapping up. They went to Community Christian Homes and were expecting to hang out with senior citizens. Instead, they did yardwork. This group provides home cleaning and yardwork for seniors who want to continue to live in their homes, so our crew got to go clean the yard of one such house. They did fantastic work! Let's just say Cody was a beast, breaking a set of limb cutters with his sheer strength, and no blade of grass was without fear with him around, including the ones on the hillside. And who knew that Riley had the guns she has, going after every possible limb that needed cutting. The group made the yard look great! And Kim used her meal money to buy flowers for the lady's planter in front. It is a privilege to hang out with such cool kids and adults!

In the afternoon, we went to ROJA. After a long drive and getting turned around several times, we finally arrived. We were split up into two groups as they had two locations. This organization provides after-school tutoring and homework help for the kids who live in their particular apartment complex. Our crew helped tutor the kids in spelling and math, among other things. Then, it was play time! We went outside and played dodgeball, kickball, freeze tag, frisbee, badminton, and anything else they wanted. Unfortunately, our youth really don't like to play that much (sarcasm alert!). We all had a blast! Before leaving, the director of the organization sat our youth down and asked them their input about getting kids to read. It was neat to be able to see someone value our kids opinion so much as to ask them for input. And they had good things to say.

After all that, we went to dinner at the Old City Cafe for falafel. We had our choice of chicken, beef, or plain filafel. The chicken was delicious! Then from there, it was on to the Basilica for our debriefing. CSM is doing a great job of allowing us to see the city without making it feel like we are here just to be tourists. The next two nights we are tentatively scheduled to debrief at the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, but some of the Team Captains want to debrief at Ebenezer's Coffeehouse, a ministry of the National Community Church which gives all of its proceeds to missions. You can read their story here. What once was a crack house that the church leaders prayed for years for is now being used for God's glory.

Team Watergate experienced some difficulties yesterday. They showed up at their afternoon site and were told that they were going to clean the houses of three senior citizens. They were excited and fired up to serve and split up into three teams. However, when two of the groups showed up at their location, the people weren't home. They were disappointed and came back to our housing site. Rather than doing nothing, they used their time to clean bathrooms and other areas of the church we are staying at. And Cory and Riley have cleaned the common area each of the last two nights before bed just because. Just before I went to bed last night, one of the CSM hosts approached me and asked, "Fitz, can we keep your kids here the entire summer? They are great! I don't want them to leave." That's the caliber of kids we have. They are a joy to work with!

Now I am off to work with Team Pentagon at A Wider Circle, a warehouse of some sort. More updates tomorrow...

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photo updates today. They wouldn't upload, for some reason. I will try and work it out tomorrow, but I may not be able to upload photos until we return. We'll see...

And now, for your listening enjoyment:

DC - Day Two

Tired. I think that's the word that best described our team yesterday. We were wiped out from driving for two days, and then driving some more for our prayer tour. Then, a full day of serving made us a pretty wiped out crew. This, combined with more driving and much getting lost and walking, contributed to some frustration within our ranks. However, once our crews got to their work sites, the mindset of everyone changed and we were reminded why we were there: to serve. And serve we did!


I tried to catch up with Team Smithsonian at their morning site, the DC Central Kitchen, an organization that provides meals for the homeless. I didn't make it - it took longer to upload pictures than I was hoping (if it keeps up that way, I may have to wait until we get back to upload all the pictures) - but they worked hard cutting all sorts of vegetables to get ready for the meals. They will have very sore arms today due to the numbers of carrots they grated. They ate lunch there and had time to kill until their next site, so they went to the Air & Space Smithsonian to walk around a bit...except that they parked so far away that they didn't have much time to do that. I drove around for a long time waiting for them to be done, then went with them to Children of Mine, a ministry to children. The woman who started it is an incredible lady. Her husband was murdered by teenagers, and instead of being bitter and vengeful, decided instead to minister to kids to keep it from happening to someone else. We cleaned a bit, and then played with kids a lot! Several of the crew were outside doing acrobatics with the kids - one little guy did back flips off of every piece of the playground - while others of us stayed inside and tutored or played school. I was the problem student, dang it! We had a blast!


From there, we went to dinner at Pollo Granjero for some Salvadoran food: beans and rice, fried plantains, and pupusa, a pastry-type thing with sausage and cheese inside. Yum! Then we met with all of the other groups at the Jefferson Memorial to debrief as a large group. Our group is really too large to debrief together, but it was cool to hear from each team what they did and experienced. Then, back to the housing, and sleep. We slept hard!

Other groups had good days as well, doing things like playing with kiddos, sorting toys, doing yardwork, and moving over 100 mattresses. You would be proud of your kids (if you are one of their parents, I mean)! They are great servants! And Mrs. Robertson, you would be especially proud of your son because he actually ate the Vietnamese food last night. WOO-HOO!!!


Here is a report from Kim, one of the Team Arlington SIMYs:

Team Arlington went to A Wider Circle, an organization whose mission is "to help people lift themselves out of poverty." We served in their warehouse moving and sorting through furniture and other household goods and then helping the clients load everything in their vehicles. Our students served with enthusiasm and cheerful hearts the entire time! We were complimented over and over about what hard-working volunteers they were. The staff expressed how grateful they were that we were there, especially around 3:00pm when several trucks showed up and we helped unload 128+ mattresses and box springs. Had we not been there it would have taken them hours to unload what we did in less than 30 minutes! Our students learned first-hand what God said in Proverbs, "The generous prosper and are satisfied; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed." After A Wider Circle we did the Eden Center Plunge which took us to the Vietnamese center of the eastern part of the US in Falls Church, VA. There we interacted with the local people, learned a little about Vietnam and ate Vietnamese food - Yummy!! BTW getting around in DC is quite a trick - keep praying for safety while driving, especially for the DC drivers while we're here. :-)

Thanks for all your prayers! Don't forget to check out the pictures - more were uploaded today.

DC - Day One

I finally have some access to be able to upload some pictures and give y'all an update. It has been an interesting trip, to say the least. But we are here and have hit the ground running.

Getting Here

In case you haven't heard, we had a bit of difficulty with our vehicles. When Jane and JT and several volunteers showed up at Budget to pick up our eight 12-passenger vans (five for DC and three for Milwaukee), they had exactly NONE of them. Awesome. After much finagling, they supplied us with eight SUV's for the DC trip which the volunteers brought back with them, and Budget also dropped off three 12-passenger vans for the Milwaukee team to use. They also agreed to pay for all of our gas, tolls, and parking for the trip for our troubles. I would prefer to have the 12s, but what can you do.

The trip itself wasn't exactly smooth either. Terry Ann's vehicle lost power twice. The car was still running, but nothing would happen when she pressed on the gas. So twice she had to pull over on the highway, and wait, and then try again. We called Budget from the road and told them we wanted them to bring us a new vehicle to I-64. They said they could, but we could wait anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours. So we chose to go to the Louisville Airport instead. We explained our situation to them, and they hooked us up with a new SUV...which wasn't going to fit our people and luggage. In the meantime, they took our other vehicle with all of our stuff in it. They weren't going to upgrade us to a larger vehicle because they said all of their large SUVs were not one-way rentals. I told them they needed to do something. They mentioned a minivan, which everyone agreed would fit our people and stuff, so off we went...after and hour and a half setback.

Huntington, WV

We spent the night in the gymnasium of the Twenty-Sixth St. Baptist Church in Huntington, WV. This is the town probably best known for two things: Marshall University and the Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver. The church was so hospitable to us, as they were so excited to start using their gym for something like this. Some of the ladies in the church made all of our people small goodie bags to take with us, including a bottle of water, tissues, candy, gum, and crackers. It was really sweet! We got on the road again at 7:20am the next morning after a not so great night's sleep.

DC

After a beautiful drive through the mountains of West Virginia and Maryland, we made it to our site a little before 4:00pm. The people of the church we are staying at were still meeting from their morning services - a little different than La Croix. The girls are staying on the third floor of this old church building, right down the hall from the "kitchen" and the showers (two showers for the girls - one for the guys); the guys are staying on the first floor (so we are getting our exercise going up and down the stairs). After a few minutes of hang time, it was off to dinner.

We ate dinner at Addis Ababa, an Ethiopian restaurant. This is one of my favorite parts of CSM trips - the students get to experience many different cultures in one week just by eating dinner at various ethnic restaurants. Dinner consisted of a platter of various things that we scooped up with this spongy bread and ate - no utensils or plates. Many of our crew walked away hungry because they were a little unsure, but I left stuffed. It was delicious! From there, we left for our prayer tour, which started at the National Cathedral (which, unfortunately, we couldn't go inside). This is also usually a highlight of CSM trips because you really get to learn about the city and the cultures and problems within it. However, the prayer tour was less-than effective this time around because they tried to keep us together in one big group, which was basically impossible. Eight vehicles in DC - yeah, not so much. Not to mention the fact that we were exhausted and sick of being in cars for the past two days solid. We followed Kristy's vehicle, and she had a host who was trying to give us the tour over the speakerphone, but we couldn't hear her well at all. So, although the prayer tour wasn't great for the prayer and learning aspect, one thing was true: we laughed an awful lot. Kenny is a very funny man, and we were slaphappy. When we finally hit the beds, we crashed hard.

This morning, our crews are at the sites doing various project. One team even left at 5:30am to serve breakfast at a shelter. More power to them! And now, I'm going to head off to join Kristy and Ken's group to pack some food and do some cleaning for an after school program. Before I go, please pray for a couple of things:

• Energy: Like I said, we are extremely tired, and it's only day one. This is making some of us a little raw.
• Jason and Jenn: They are going through a difficult time right now. Pray for comfort for them.

Thanks! More updates to come soon...like, tomorrow...

Made it to Huntington

I realized on the way here that we made a change in our gameplan that wasn't communicated. Instead of spending this first night in Knoxville, TN, we are in Huntington, WV at the 26th St. Baptist Church. We finally got here after a long, trying trip which I will detail later when I am not typing on my iPhone (think vehicle issues). We have 7 hours to go tomorrow, so continued prayers for travel would be appreciated. Good night for now...

Unplugging

15 more minutes in the office. Then a day off before heading to Washington DC with 43 senior high students and 10 other adults. I hope I'm ready. There are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up before embarking on a venture like this. I think I'm good, though. Time will tell. T-minus 41:15 hours and counting 'til departure...

New Blog!

This is the blog for Renovate, the Senior High Ministries of La Croix Church...