Week 5. Upper Perkiomen Community Church. Perfect.
*warning: long post*
This week stands out in my mind because it was full of interesting events. In all of those events, I SO clearly felt God's presence the ENTIRE time. It was amazing. So much happened this week, I know I'm going to ramble a lot so sorry in advance.
This group rolls up in their van and as they're getting out, one of the kids is wearing a bucket hat and I knew immediately I was going to love them, BUT I was actually really nervous that they'd be way too cool for me, which they were. At dinner, I knew for sure they were awesome. They challenged me to guess who was related to Danny which was actually one of the hardest things ever. At cultural orientation, two of the people in my group had me literally crying from laughing so hard because one just dropped on the ground face first in the grass and another was talking to a football.
Monday, we had a super long day but they took it like champs. They dove in and did whatever was asked of them. Our afternoon ministry site was The Neighborhood Center in Camden which was amazing as always. Then we served dinner at Chosen 300 followed by dinner at Los Gallos. At Los Gallos, I had made another guess about who I believed was related to Danny and it was wrong. I had also gone to the restroom during dinner and after I got back, I had drank some of my water and after drinking most of it, everyone decided to tell me that they had put salt in my water and had all taken turns guessing how long it would take for me to notice. Then, Danny went to the restroom and Addison had decided to put some salt in his drink as well but as he was doing it, Andrew S. pipes in and goes "hey, leave my brother's drink alone!" I didn't really process what he had said until everyone was like noo, Andrew, you ruined it and all that kind of stuff. We decided to just pretend like I didn't know so I could come up with a crazy conspiracy to tell Danny. Then, for the rest of dinner, Addison and I were making up the conversations that the people in the Spanish soap operas were having that were playing on the TVs in the restaurant. If you can't tell, as a group, we had a ton of fun together.
Tuesday, ohmygoodness. This was our prayer tour day so we go to Love Park and parked where we always did and we got out and I told my group all about Love Park, what the prayer tour was about and it's purpose and that we needed to have silent, prayerful attitudes for the tour, that we should keep questions and talking to a minimum because I had a lot of information I wanted to share with them. So, we got back into the van, I get my prayer tour playlist going which starts with "All the Poor and Powerless" by All Sons and Daughters (a slow, solemn song that is really emotional and amazing) and Bryan goes to back up a bit so he could get out of the spot and smack, he ran into the car behind us. I was so into getting collected in my head so I could get my information going because I wanted to give these guys the best prayer tour I could that I didn't even notice what had happened. I only noticed because I heard a bunch of giggling and I looked back and then Bryan goes "sorry, they're laughing because I just backed into the guy behind me." I was so surprised but the best part was that not only did we hit the guy, but he was in his car texting and instead of freaking out or whatever, he just reversed to give Bryan some extra room to get out. God was definitely looking out for us. That prayer tour ended up being the best one I gave all summer. Every single person was clearly interested in what I was telling them and each one got something amazing out of the tour. We always do a debrief at the end of the tour and every single person blew my mind with what they shared about what impacted them the most because the things they said were such subtle things and I thought that was amazing. They didn't just look at the big things, the big statistics, the obvious hurt but they also found the small, less obvious hurt. Danny and Addison saw a girl standing by a door in Kensington (poorest neighborhood in Philly) who they said looked incredibly sad and it was just so obvious that it really resonated with the two of them.
I don't remember specifically what day this next thing happened but we were in Camden, a city that is only safer than 3% of all cities in the United States, and we had accidentally left our back van door open while we were at our ministry site...for FOUR HOURS. We got done serving and then we went to get in the van when we realized so we started to stress that maybe it had been broken into but it hadn't. NOTHING was stolen, everything was as it was. If that wasn't God watching over us, I don't know what it was.
Wednesday, we had a REALLY early morning. Like leaving at 6:15 kind of morning. Plus, two of our leaders had to go back home (which was less than an hour away) and we were getting two more. Well, because I'm awesome I overslept and Caitlin woke me up at 6:30. I was ready by 6:33 and we left at 6:34. We had to be at our ministry site at 7 and I was sure we would be late but instead, we got there at 6:58. I was AMAZED. This group just continuously blew my mind. After that ministry site, the leader of the group, Bryan, decided he wanted to give the housing site a mid-week clean so our entire group worked together and cleaned the bathrooms, the big room, the atrium and the showers without complaints. Then naps were taken by some while the rest of us played apples to apples. Afterwards, Bryan bought us pizza for lunch and then it was off to the Neighborhood Center again. That night, on our way to debrief after dinner, everyone was kind of asking me questions about my life and Bryan asked what my story was but I was getting so distracted with directions that I decided that I would just share my testimony at debrief. As I was sharing, I felt so comfortable with each of the people in my group and I shared the most honest and detailed version of my testimony.
Thursday was our last full day of service. We started the morning at a ministry site, Wayne Hall, doing gardening. My group laughed about it because they had gardened for about 1-2 hours every day at The Neighborhood Center before spending time with the kids so of course they'd be doing that here too. It was actually some of the most fun I have ever had because these kids didn't complain, didn't slack, and didn't have crappy attitudes. I mainly worked with Andrew S. and Lydia and they were cracking me up. At one point, Lydia was trying to teach Andrew how to do the worm and it was seriously one of the funniest things I have ever seen. The volunteer coordinator at Wayne Hall pulled me aside and told me that this group was "by far, hands down the best group of volunteers" that she had had in quite some time. She said that all of them had such great attitudes and were such hard workers that she really enjoyed having them serve with the ministry. As she was telling me that, I was just thinking "I KNOW. THEY'RE AMAZING."
Later that night was worship night which I think these guys really enjoyed. There is a portion of time where people get to share little testimonies from the week and almost everyone in my group shared. Danny's cracked me up because he said that the first day, he was nervous that we wouldn't get along because I seemed really conservative. For all the people who know me, that isn't true! So it was really interesting to hear that. I also shared with everyone at worship night, but I shared about all of the different times that I had clearly noticed God working that week. Bryan shared about "the ugliest dude" he had ever seen during the prayer tour. The guy had bought drugs from a dealer literally outside of my window of the van and Bryan talked about how you could tell the guy was messed up and it was obvious that it was from the drugs. It was a real life example of what drugs can and will do to you. After worship night, we had a nice long debrief about the stereotypes they had when they first arrived in Philly and how those stereotypes had been changed by the things they had witnessed and encountered.
Friday, they left and I was so sad but more than sad, I was ecstatic for them to go home and share what they had learned. I knew that there was going to be so much good that came out of the trip after they went home and were able to share their experiences. This group showed me how important it is to be in a community of believers that you feel comfortable enough to share your struggles with as well as your triumphs and who constantly encourage one another.
To my group; Bryan, Paul, Kim, Ben, Rachel, Andrew H., Andrew S., Danny, Lydia, Maddie, Mandy, and Addison: you all changed my life. As cheesy as that sounds, it's true. Your group was so encouraging and loving and it really refreshed me and prepared me for the rest of my summer with CSM. You all opened up so easily with me which in turn, encouraged me to open up with you all as well as with everyone else I met for the rest of the summer and is even pouring into how I interact with people back here at school. Just being around you all and experiencing each and every one of your true and passionate relationships with Jesus helped me to yearn to strengthen mine even more.
You hooligans have a special place in my heart and when I come back to visit Philly, I will definitely be making a stop to see you all.
With much much love all the way from Missouri,
Saundra aka Sonya ;)