Dear everybody,
I am so sorry that I wasn't able to make daily updates for the trip in Miami. I know it isn't much of an excuse, but we were busy from 7am almost every morning until at least 11:30pm every night. I chose sleep over blogging, and I realize I should have at least posted SOMETHING for you guys to pray over other than the loose itinerary. This post is for catch up. :D
Here is the short version of what we did:
We prayed with 22 people
Gave out 24 soccer balls
Gave out 80 frisbees
400 windshields were washed
720 water bottles were handed out
1500 doors were knocked on
Only God could do all this with 20 people. :)
Friday, March 18We planned to make it as far as Montgomery, Alabama. We had hotel reservations there and were planning on arriving in Miami during the mid-afternoon on Saturday so that we could get some rest after the 24 hour drive. God had different plans for us. Just after we trucked through Memphis, we heard a loud crashing noise. I thought that the trailer on our 21 passenger people mover had fallen off. It was extremely loud and it scared the living daylights out of me. When we pulled over, we saw that the tread on one of our trailer tires had completely come off and that the fender had flown off the trailer and hit the back of the bus. We were very fortunate that the fender did not hit our rear light or fly through the back window. God kept us safe in that. We spent about an hour trying to find someone who would come replace the tire. The closest person with a father in the area was me, and my dad was about an hour and forty minutes away. God showed us his provision when we finally found a couple who were gracious enough to find a tire for us and repair it themselves. There was also a man who pulled over on the side of the road to check if we were okay. He was a Christian man who grew up in one of the cities just outside of Memphis. He gave some people from our group a ride to the bathroom when we needed it and stuck with us until the couple who repaired our tire arrived. By the time everything was said and done, we were stopped for 3 hours. Patrick (our director) had to cancel our hotel reservations. That night, we ended up staying in Tupelo. We arrived at 12am and left at 4am. Talk about a rough night!!
Saturday, March 19We drove all day. We made several bathroom stops and stopped for breakfast, lunch, and supper. We made it to Miami around 11 pm on Saturday night. Brittany Brewer led devotional when we arrived at the hotel. She spoke from Luke 10 about the Lord's harvest.
Sunday, March 20We woke up early to go to the church that we were going to be serving with all week. They handed the service over to us, so we had free reign over what would happen. Patrick led worship. We sang 2 spanish songs, 2 praise songs, and 1 hymn. We also did a skit that was about sharing God's love with others. Patrick preached from Romans 12 about what the church (a body of believers) should look like. The church served us lunch and we spent most of the afternoon planning what we would do for the rest of the week. We then were able to take a much needed siesta (nap).
That night, the Gouldings (pastor's family) served us supper and we prayer walked the area we would be serving in. We prayed at the four corners of our area for God to show us what His will was for the week and that His will would be carried out through us. Afterward, Patrick and Pastor David drove us out to see the Miami skyline. My friend Tessa and I spent that time praying over the city. As we prayed, we listened to a song called, "God of this City" by Chris Tomlin. If you want to know what that song sounds like, please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmC44K0xQLE
That night I led devotional. I spoke about Mary and Martha. It was a good tie-in to the mindset and heartset you can have while on mission.
Monday, March 21We canvassed during the morning and afternoon. Since we were doing most of this during work hours, not a lot of people answered their doors, so we left a card about the church at each home. We were in groups of 2 or 3 and invited several people to church. We also prayed for opportunities to ask if we could pray for each person we came into contact with. Sadly, that did not happen very often. Many people were cold toward the idea of church or a relationship with God. Many refused prayer. Some, though, were very warm and welcoming. I was able to pray with a couple of ladies who were having parenting troubles with their grown daughters and a man who had a grandson who was just diagnosed with epilepsy. Others told me that they were in a place where they were blessed and we prayed for them as well. It was really good to be a blessing in a complete stranger's life.
I found that between Fayetteville and Miami, my allergies worsened. That night, our group went to the Miami Boardwalk to shop a little and see the ocean. I wasn't able to go because I had several allergy issues. I stayed at the hotel that night and rested. Monday night, we had prayer and worship over the trip.
Tuesday, March 22 Tuesday morning, we canvassed for about an hour but then went to a parking lot and washed windshields until about 1 pm. This type of servant evangelism was needed because people in Miami are so closed off to others. They won't listen to people try to talk about God's love and most won't accept anything for free. We had to be creative. Window washing was really awesome because we saw these folks coming to their cars and looking at the cards that we left. The front said something along the lines of, "We saw that your windshield was dirty...So we washed it!! We hope that this small act of kindness brought light into your day. Please call us if another need arises." On the back of the card was the church information.
That afternoon, we worked at a camp that would be starting in May. We worked in all of their flower beds, pulled weeds, and shoveled gravel and mulch. Since I have outdoor allergies, I was given a rake and told to get the dead leaves out of the mulch. It was a pretty hefty task but I found that I was able to praise God through that kind of labor. It was a sweet time for me in my walk with Christ. I also have two pretty good sores on my hands from raking for three and a half hours. :)
On the way to supper, Patrick randomly stopped in a Walgreens and a CVS parking lot. While we were at the Walgreens, we saw a girl walking in who seemed distracted. We offered to wash our windshield and she refused to let us. Later at the CVS, we saw her again. She approached our director. Most of the people in our group were confused and thought she was complaining to Patrick. What was interesting was she was actually telling Patrick about how she lives about 40 minutes away, but that morning, she was having her quiet time and God told her that she was supposed to meet some kids at Walgreens and CVS today to pray for them. When she saw us at Walgreens, she didn't think twice about us because we weren't "kids." We were college students. When she saw us again at CVS, she prayed with us. We invited her to join us at dinner and she came to talk with us. It's so cool that we did something completely unplanned but then realized that that time was ordained by God and He sent someone to confirm that.
That night, we had a supper and went back to the hotel for rest and devotional. Sydney led devo and spoke about encouragement. We ended up spending a little over an hour giving each other verbal affirmation and doing worship. It was awesome. The rest of the week when on the bus, we spent time pointing out each others' strengths as affirmations.
Wednesday, March 23In the morning, we went to work with "Caring for Miami." In the church that is associated with this program, they were renovating a floor that they weren't using to make an art studio. Until about 1pm, we scraped paint from windows, sanded walls, swept, mopped, primed and painted walls, and scraped paint from light fixtures.
That afternoon, as a reward for our labor on Tuesday, we were able to go to visit the Florida Everglades for half price. We went to an Indian reservation where they talked to us about native life in the everglades. After that, we watched a man wrestle an alligator. Afterward, we went on a hovercraft ride through the marsh. That was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had.
During the night, we did more windshields and handed out free bottled water at a soccer park near our host church. That night, Meleah led devotional. She spoke about the strength of words that people say and unity.
Thursday, March 24Thursday morning we did more canvassing. We were able to pray with 3 people, including an older lady who was very old and unable to walk. Thursday afternoon, we helped with P.E. classes at a local Christian school.
The rest of the time was really interesting because Patrick (our director) divided our group into two teams and gave each of us $50. He instructed us to come up with a service project for all 20 of us to do. Group 1 decided to make small bags of candy for each of the 32 hotel workers. Group 2 (my group) asked if there was anything we could do to serve the pastor's family. We did several projects around their house that afternoon.
Thursday night we washed windshields and handed out more water at the soccer park. Tessa led devotional and she spoke on Prayer.
Friday, March 25After a week of hard work, we went to the beach this day and ate dinner at a Cuban place. That night, Seth taught from 1 Corinthians 13 about love.
Saturday and Sunday, March 26 and 27We drove home on these days. Saturday we weren't able to make it to our target destination, Tupelo, because of severe storms through Georgia. We spent the night in Birmingham. Royce led devotional on the bus, talking about how God can make something out of what seems nothing to us. He referenced Moses, Gideon, and Jesus feeding the 5,000. We finished the drive on Sunday, making it in by 5.
Right now, I feel exhausted and blessed. I know I was sick over the trip, but I feel like I was taught a lot of humility through that. The manual labor, mental labor in translating spanish, and keeping up a good attitude could have only come from God. I also learned patience with others and to appreciate the little things. We can all go into something with high hopes in doing things and plans can change at the last minute. It turned out that when our plans changed at the last minute were when God used us most.
Also, Praise!!
-God covered all but $176 of our expenses through donations and cookbook sales. Hallelujah!! :D :D
Thank you all for praying for us. I hope to post pictures sometime soon!
As I've said before, please leave a comment if you read this post. I'd like to know how God answered your prayers for our group as well as what you did over your spring break!
Thanks for reading!
Katie
