final day

Friday June 25, 2010

Hi ladies and gentlemen, its Angel and I am going to tell you about our day! Today was an exciting day, but it was also a very sad day too. We woke up early, like everyday and instead of doing a work project we decided to do some sight seeing like we did the day before. We took the “L” Train which if some of you don’t know is kind of like a subway but above ground. That was very fun to ride and it was a new experience. First we saw the Liberty Bell. It was very educational and it was cool to see a historic landmark. I didn’t realize about how important it was to some people and how many places the Liberty Bell has been too. And I also learned about a bunch of different things about the history back in that time. At first I was like what is the big deal its just a famous Bell, but once I read some of the information about it I understood why people liked it so much and now I am kind of more interested in history than I was before.

After we saw the Liberty Bell and some of us got pictures we took a walk down to a park which as you can probably guess had some more historic landmarks. We waited a while because we were going to get some tickets to have a tour in some of the important buildings. Once we got tickets we joined a group and our tour guide told us about some things and asked us some questions before we got to the actual tour. Then it was time. We saw the Independence Hall and “WOW” it was amazing. It is so different then what I have pictured in my head, but our tour guide told us about what would happen in it, and she made me even more into history than before. Well, we took another walk (we did a lot of walking on this mission trip) and went into a building with gift shops and a food place and more history and people dressed in what I think was 1930′s clothes. Some of them were tour guides, but some were there to entertain.

There was this one gentleman who had this little wooden puppet on a stick bouncing him on a piece of wood while he and this lady where singing and making the puppet dance! It was cool. The we journeyed ourself down the hall some more and there was a man playing what kind of looked like a harpsichord. He asked us to pick a song from his list and he played it and it made an AWESOME sound. That type of instrument can be used in weddings, but one of our presidents had it in one of his personal “bands”. Then some of us wanted souvenirs so we went to a souvenir shop. Then once after everyone got what they wanted we took the “L” Train back the mission. Before VBS we ate some lunch to fill our tummy’s. Then we put our awesome yellow VBS shirts on and headed for the park. This was the sad part, well for me it was and probably for other too! It was the last day of VBS and the last day we got to connect with the kids. Allie did her skit with Phil and she and Phil did and awesome job at it and the kids really enjoyed it too! I already made a friend, and it was sad to say goodbye to him.

We got back to the mission after walking the kids back to their parents and had some down time to ourselves. It was nice to just relax and take in the day and then it was time for more yummy food, DINNER TIME!!! We didn’t eat at the mission we ate at the church with another mission group that was here for a couple of days. We got a chance to mingle and get to know them! It was a lot of fun to meet new people. The food was again AMAZING! We had mashed potatoes chicken and gravy, and my favorite vegetable corn. There was going to be music and prayer at the church and we had some time to spare so we all piled back in the van and went back to have more down time before heading back to the church. Finally it was time to leave for the church. It was different! The praise team there sang songs while we worshiped our Lord! Then we had prayer time which was I liked! Some of us went to the altar to pray including me!

When I was up there praying I felt different, like not myself. It was an amazing feeling! I felt like God was working through me not just that night, but the whole week we were there. It was intense for me, but in a good way. Then it was time to say goodbye to some people that we would not see in the morning, it was hard to say goodbye to them, but it was good to know how they helped us this whole week with how we let out light shine for Jesus. This has been an exciting week and it was hard to say goodbye to it, but I know that we accomplished what God wanted us to do and we learned new things on this trip! I think all of of will come home as a new person with new perspectives on things and to know that God has a plan for us and we should listen to him and we should shine our light for Jesus and tell others who don’t know him! I’m going to miss Philadelphia, but I’m going to leave with the feeling of success and the feeling of being closer to God!

This has been Angel with your last update on our Mission Trip and we want to thank all of you for praying for us!! God Bless All Of You!!!

Filed under: General, Sr High

Thursday

Hola! Este es Felipe! (Hi! This is Phil!) Today was an adventure. After a wonderful breakfast of assorted cereals we hopped in the van to do a little sight-seeing. Our first stop was the Art Museum, more famously know as the stairs Rocky Balboa runs up during his training montages. The most exciting part was out race up the stairs! Unfortunately, Rob won (I got second!) As we headed out some of us started to get hungry so we stopped in a tiny sub shop to order lunch. Once we had our food we hightailed it to Love Park which had an amazingly huge fountain.

VBS was the next on our agenda. We had a turnout 8-9 kids with Aziz bringing the most friends (he won a chocolate bar). We had our daily WSFJ skit and then made a great bracelet with beads that reminded the wearers of Jesus. Our lesson was about the widow who only had 2 pennies to give and gave them both. Some of the VBS-ers even attempted the “Monkey Trap” which consists of someone trying to pull a BIG bottle through a SMALL hole. Games followed with Sharks and Minnow and a game where you empty a bucket of water with only a sponge. That seemed like the end until Sarah reminded us that it was Matt’s birthday today. An impromptu happy birthday was enjoyed by everyone. That was when the rain started. Within thirty seconds it went from just a couple clouds to pouring rain! We enjoyed the sudden down pour until we headed under a pavilion because of lightning. We were shocked when, not far from us, a power line started sparking! We even witnessed two fire men running down the street in all there gear. Rest assured all of us are ok and we got all the children back safely. We then returned to the Mission and managed to get dry.

Supper was at the church with the 60+ person youth group from New Jersey. It was kinda crazy watching every scramble for food! After a fun time of intermingling we had to head back to the mission to prepare sandwiches for our outreach at the corner of Kensington and Summerset. This was our first time without Pastor Frank around! This led to many of the students feeling a little more nervous but the night went by with no glitches. We ministered to many people and felt a connection with several. One thing that helped abate our fears was that there were 3x more cops patrolling than normal!

Unfortunately, not all of us are remaining until saturday. We had to say goodbye to Heather Boeve who leaves in the morning on a flight back to Michigan for a wedding. Hugs and tissues have been prevalent as of late. Pastor Frank received good news however! His 11^th grandchild was born this morning around 5. Her name is Isabella and weighs 7 pounds and 3 ounces.

Por yo y todos los otros persones aqui, buenos noches! – Felipe

(For me and everyone else here, good night!) – Phil

Filed under: Uncategorized

Wednesday

Hey this is Sarah (the birthday girl!!!!!). Today is Wednesday and we woke up and had a wonderful hot breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast, cereal and potatoes. We did our normal routine of devotions and prepared for our service project of finishing cleaning up the church. We divided up into groups for the kitchen, cleaning and organizing. We started at 9 and lasted until 11:30.

Once we got back to the mission we cleaned up and rested a little before lunch of the normal cold cut sandwiches. After all the dishes were done we got ready for the day of VBS, which was a complete success. We had about 9 kids or so. At the VBS we played games that could keep us cool in the 95 degree weather. The games included water balloon toss, bean bag relays, 3 legged races and a blind fold game that was incorporated into the lesson.

Today’s lesson was about the blind man and how Jesus healed the man. Allie and Heather Slagh taught today’s lesson. The kids enjoyed the lesson and the story told by Matt who played the blind man. The craft was a mini flashlight that the kids were able to color on and when they got done they colored on paper laid out on the tables. A lot of us are able to make buddies with the kids and I got a ton of photos of the buddies.

While typing this the group just surprised me with a birthday cake which was GOOD!!!!!! Well continuing today’s schedule we are up to the time we had to rest and play cards and just having a good time together and laughing a ton too. We are just finishing the cake and now just getting some down time before the children’s service at the church. The service is going to be lead by the youngest kids to the teenagers. Sadly we are not going to the corner and continuing building relationships with people on the streets.

Just got back from the children’s service and getting ready for bed. The service was lead with the children starting to sing and shared bible verses or art work they drew. The singing was awesome to sing along with or listen to when they sang in Spanish. Then they had a little play to present to us about Daniel and the Lions’ Den. The lions were the youngest kids and were so adorable. There was refreshments and desserts after the service. We stayed for a little while but decided to go back and get ready for bed or play games.

Praying for a great turn out with more kids at VBS and a great time sight seeing tomorrow and Friday. Going to soak in as much as possible with only a few days left. Going to be sad to say good-bye to the kids and the people at the mission and the street but going to having many memories and stories to share for the rest of our lives.

Filed under: General, Sr High