Day 6, July 22, 2016

This is the end of our mission trip. It has been such an amazing time for us to stretch our faith, get to know each other and just serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our blog was tonight was written by Claudia but everyone contributed to it. 

Claudia: Today we left Milwaukee, and the trip definitely impacted me in many ways for the better. One of my favorite moments from today( and the whole week really) was all the laughter and the jokes that were shared about us and with all of us. 

Andrew: Eating pizza and watching Family Feud as a family.

Amber: I stepped out of my comfort box by going down a water coaster, and when we got off everyone in line was watching me because I was screaming the whole time.

Breanna: Four of us volunteered to clean the bathrooms(at Unity), with Sam being the very first one.

Mia: Speak with confidence and listen with patience

Miles: A great day of rest after a crazy week of helping those in need.

Sam: I'm glad that I got to go to the dells for the first time as a reward for hard work.

Sheri: At the hotel we watched "The secret life of Walter Mitty"

Kelsey: I only lost my glasses in the lazy river once, and a good Samaritan helped us find them.

Kaitlyn: The lazy river was very relaxing after a week of hard work.

When we first arrived at the hotel, we fit everyone in the jacuzzi that the hotel room has, and after Raul and Stacey went to buy breakfast we all put our feet in for real.

We want to thank Raul and Stacey for being such amazing role models and leaders. Without the two of them, this week would not be possible.

Peace and Love,

2016 Milwaukee Mission Trippers

Day 5, July 21, 2016

Bfast was great this morning because Raul scrambled about 100 eggs and made Bfast burritos or Bfast tacos. In my opinion they were really good. After Bfast, we all had a personal devotion time and then headed out to our service sights for the last day. 

Stacey's Small group: 

Amber, Mya, Kelsey, Breanna

Today's Blog written by Breanna:

Today we went back to St. Ann's, I was in the 0-6 months room(the Peacocks), Mya was in the elementary age(the Lions), Amber with 2 yr olds(the Meerkats), and Kelsey with the 4 year olds(the Giraffe's.) When I was in my room I got to feed the kids, play with them, and rock them to sleep. We were with the kids until 12pm then we had our lunch. Mya was invited to eat lunch with her class so she did. Then after lunch we went to the other side of the building to be with the elderly. Mya and I went in the room that was for people who had Dementia and Alzheimer's, while Amber and Kelsey was with everyone else. Mya and I met Mr.Brown who welcomed us and talked with us the whole time. Mya, Stacy, and I played balloon volleyball with the Dementia patients. Then we helped with their snack. Afterwards Mya and I took some of them outside to get some fresh air for an hour. Then Mya and I helped move patients to the other room with the other elderly people. It was a fun day at St.Ann's but because of our relationships built and the story's we have heard it was tough for us to say goodbye without any tears.  

Raul's Small Group:

Andrew, Sam, Miles, Sheridan, Claudia, Kaitlyn

Written by Kaitlyn and Sheriwith some editing and additions from Raul.

Today we went back to Gingerbread land, and we pulled weeds and picked up trash to start our workday. When it started to rain we went in one of the houses at Gingerbread land and we organized all the tools and put some clothes in the closet. After we were done cleaning the house we went out to lunch at Ashley's BBQ. The food was delicious.

 After lunch we went to the backyard of another house and pulled metal out fence posts. There were five all together but we could only get three out of five out. 

When we were done we sat down on the porch for a little bit and Sam was flipping his pop bottle and trying to get it to land on the top arch of the fence and after several tries he finally got it to land. We had a long day but it was a great day. Serving at Gingerbread Land was great and we will never forget Gingerbread Land nor Mother!!! 

Kaitlyn and Sheri

After our work day we headed to the showers. Showers today felt so good. After a hard days work that feeling of being clean was amazing. 

After showers we headed back to Unity Lutheran to out our things away and headed for a community cookout at Adullum. There were kids, families, neighbors and even the police showed up to eat and talk and have some fun. We had hamburgers and hot dogs and Raul once again was the master griller for the night and grilled about 200 hamburgers and about 200 hotdogs. The evening was great. 

After the cookout we headed back to Unity for our last large group. We sang some songs had a great night. We ended our night with a foot washing service. Just as Jesus washed the disciples feet so his disciples will know that no matter who you are you can servant leader too. So I washed the feet our our students. It was an amazing experience for me to wash their feet and to pray individually with them. Simply amazing and loved being able to pray with every single one of our students. I am blessed!!! Truly blessed!! 

After the foot washing service we had a church discussion time and worship music time and just talked about our week and how and what will we take out of our week. Everyone had something to say. Each different and each very touching. 

I certainly believe we have made a big impact here in Milwaukee and hope to make more meaningful impacts in BP while we are home. 

Morning is coming fast and we have to packed and ready at 6:45 am. Hoping to hit the road by 8:15am and get to the Dells by 11:15 am. 

I know that we all need a good shower, a nap, a little rest and some time to decompress the week we just had. That is why we needed one more night away and together. Tomorrow will be the last night for emails. The students are looking forward to them as I read them out loud during a church group time. So if you can send an email great. Have a good night and we will see y'all on Saturday. God bless. 

Peace and Love,

2016 Milwaukee Mission Trippers

Day 4, July 20, 2016

Good morning peeps!! Woke up early for breakfast and ate. Usual breakfast and time after breakfast for cleanup and pack our lunches for the day. Every morning after breakfast each one of us are in charge of making our own lunch. After breakfast we headed to our work sites. 

Raul's Group 

Written by Miles Foster with help from Sam Strub and Raul

Today, we went to the project concern food pantry. We needed to stack up empty boxes to get them ready for school supplies for the children when they come to the food pantry. We were playing basketball with the empty boxes while trying to stack them. The girls sorted through jewelry so it can be displayed in the pantry area. After a while the boys in this group, Miles, Sam and Andrew, we went to the dollar tree and picked up 25 cases of dish soap. Raul sat in the store and enjoyed the AC while looking at the boys trying to figure out how we were going to fit these 25 cases. After seeing the boys struggle for ten minutes on how to load the boxes, I, Raul stepped outside and gave them a hand and figured it out. The boys did angriest job of loading the dishsoap. After we brought them to the pantry we had fun sliding them down the stairs using the food delivery chute. After the stacking of dishsoap we disinfected the medical equipment that the pantry distributed to anyone who is in need for simple medical equipment. (Crutches, walkers, wheel chairs, etc...) after which we ate lunch. It was alot easier to work there today because we knew the ins and outs of the place. 

   Next, we went to help serve the community at the local soup kitchen called The Gathering. We carried in supplies and then we had delicious soup. The ingredients were generously donated by the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team. There is one instance where Jim, soup kitchen supervisor, let someone in the soup kitchen early for him to eat his dinner before he called 911 because he had just gotten beat up by someone pretty badly. He needed his dinner before going to get checked out. It felt good that we helped so many people but it was also humbling to realize that we have it super easy compared to other people who are just so thankful to have just this one meal. 

Stacey's Group: 

Written by Stacey Haas 

Today Amber, Breanna, Mia, Kelsey, and I went back to Wil-O-Way at Grant Park. Aaron, the assistant director of the adult day services at Wil-O-Way, greeted us when we got there to give us direction about small projects that need to get done both in the garden Wil-O-Way and at the neighboring Boy Scouts lodge. We started the day with watering all of the plants in the garden. It was hot today, so the girls were sure to give the plants plenty of water. We then made our way over to the Boy Scouts lodge to begin clearing of another brick walkway. This brick walkway was buried under 3-4 inches of dirt and grass, so it took some time to determine where the walkway was located. We started revealing bricks a little at a time and came to realize that the bricks extended much further into the property than we originally thought. We knew the walkway extended along the side of the lodge, pretty much connecting the main and back doors. We know now, though, that there are bricks that go out away from the lodge. Since we weren't sure where exactly the walkway was located or where it led, we decided to make sure that the part of the walkway we had already uncovered was cleared and presentable. We then explained to Aaron what we discovered and he plans to have future groups work on clearing more of the walkway.

At lunch (and during later reflection), we talked about how we felt about what we had accomplished that morning. The girls all felt more accomplished today than on Monday, when we did essentially the same task but in another area of the property. The difference today was in the purpose. The girls felt like this path had a purpose and was going to get used and were also curious about where the rest of the path led.  I think there was a little disappointment in leaving without ever knowing, but some satisfaction in knowing they had a part in helping to bring a piece of the property's history back to life. Upon leaving, Aaron expressed his appreciation for what the girls had done and it made them feel good to have helped and pleased another person.

After lunch, we worked on a variety of smaller projects; moving some dirt around the foundation, moving cement blocks for a drainage run off, taking apart a bench, and re-watering the garden. We were done a little early so Aaron encouraged us to visit Grant Park Beach and enjoy some frozen custard. It was hot today, so we decided to go. It was a great day and felt amazing to end a day of hard work by putting our feet in Lake Michigan and enjoying a chocolate/vanilla swirl cone. Mine even had sprinkles! :-)

After our two groups served at two separate soup kitchens we had a community worship at Unity Lutheran and Raul helped lead the worship music. It was a great service that the churches puts on after the soup kitchen closes and people come to worship and have communion after. It was amazing worshipping all of us together. 

After worship we had our large group time and then our church group time. Large group was fantastic and talked about race and some of the tensions there are in society. In church group we had and have been great discussions about faith, life, and everything in between. Of course, we sing worship music during our church group time. This has been an amazing week for all of us. Keep the emails coming raul@fogchurch.org I love reading them out loud to all the group. So if you have good embarrassing stories of anyone on the trip you'd like to share that would be awesome. 

Thank you all for your prayers and support. Y'all are all amazing. 

Peace and Love,

2016 Milwaukee Mission Trippers

Day 3, July 19, 2016

Woke up this morning for Bfast because Raul's small group had Bfast prep. So we were up at 630 to get upstairs by 645 to have bfast ready. Bfast was waffles, sausage, cereal, toast and other Bfast fixings. After bfast we had our own personal devotion time and after we were done our groups left for our sites. 

Raul's Team (Upendo)

By Andrew Jacobson

7/19/16

Today, the Upendo group went to a place called Gingerbread Land for "neighborhood revitalization and beautification ." Gingerbread Land is a one block long street of houses and a central church, most of which are owned by the organization itself. Some of the houses were bought for the organization by others, including the Brewers, Pillsbury and even Paul Molitor. When we got to the main house, we met a woman who told us to call her 'Mother'. Mother was an amazing and spiritual woman who raised many kids on the block herself, and was a friend to everyone. Whenever anyone passed on the street, she would shout to greet and compliment them. She told us that to make friends, you had to first be friendly. Right away, half of us started repainting a fence, while the rest of us weeded, watered and gardened some of the community gardens there. Milwaukee has had a bit of a drought recently, so it was really important that all of the plants got enough water. After our lunch break, we got back to work painting, as well as doing some landscaping on a house down the street. After we had all finished our work for the day, we sat and talked with Mother for a while, before finally heading off for the rest of our day.

Stacey's Group: (drogeste)

By Amber Page

Today group Dragoste (Stacey) went to St. Ann's Adult and Childcare facility. We first met with the volunteer coordinator lady, Delma, and she gave our crew a tour of the childcare side of the building. Here we decided which classrooms we wanted to help out in (Today and Thursday). Breanna went with the 0-6 month year old babies, Mya was with one year olds, Kelsey with four year olds, and myself with two year olds. As a group we seemed to agree that our favorite part of the morning was the innocence of these kids we met. Then we ate lunch around noon together, a bag lunch we made that morning, and then we got back to work. Before working with the older crowd, we were introduced to Sister Lucy who put us all to work, carrying donated furniture through the building for their future projects. After awhile, we finally made our way to the Disabled Adult aide of the campus and started to bond with them and help make them comfortable for movie time. When we come back Thursday we'll be split into their two gathering rooms, one for people with Dementia and Alzheimers, and the other with people who have a mental illness, Down syndrome, or schizophrenia. 

Today I think our biggest take-away was that a simple smile may be small, but it can go a long way.  

After the day we went and showered at the Beukah Community Center, came back home tonUnity to have dinner. Dinner was taco night!! Yum yum!! After dinner we went to a place called Life Changers in which we heard from a panel of 5 people which each have gone through some kind of ordeal in life from almost committing suicide, drug addiction, gang banging, and other tough things in life before straightening out living a Christ filled life. The students liked hearing their stories and were so engaged. I'm glad our students heard these people talk because they encouraged our students to keep what they are doing and that no matter what life throws at you. You always have your family and God to count on. What amazing faith lives that these panelist live now. 

After Life changers we got back to our home Unity Luthwran and got ready for our large group worship and had a great time. Then we moved into our own church discussion and that is always a great time for our church to connect back with each other and tell each other about our day. Love our church time together. 

We have such amazing students and I am in awe of every single one of them. They make me smile and excited about the amazing ministry we will have at Family of God. God is good. Thank you parents for your support and prayers. Please send emails if you want. Have a great day and blessings. 

Peace and Love, 

2016 Milwaukee Mission Trippers

Day 2, July 18, 2016

Woke up early this morning at 630 am to get ready for the day and have breakfast. Breakfast was good. Our teams are divided into groups and so we share in doing dishes, serving Bfast, making Bfast, dinner prep and dinner cleanup. Our church was broken into two teams. 

Stacey's Team:

Kelsey 

Mya 

Breanna 

Amber 

Raul's Team:

Miles

Sam

Andrew

Kaitlyn

Claudia

Sheridan

After bfast we got ready for the day and headed out the door to Adullum ministries. This ministry exist in a neighborhood in which it wants to help the poverty level. Food pantry, furniture donations, coffee shop, worship center, and a transition place for people in the neighborhood. Here are some pictures of this amazing place. 

After Adullum Stacey's team went to their site and here is what they did from Mya's perspective. 

"We had arrived at a recreational area for the disabled early in the morning. Our job was to clean up the interactive garden and greenhouse. We began by watering many different plants. Then we went to help clear out a path in the woods in which we found out it leads to a beautiful beach on Lake Michigan."

This is what Raul's team did from Claudia's perspective: 

"This morning we started our day with a trip to the Adullulam center, where we learned about the mission of the building and we got a tour. After that we went to our service sites where we helped at Project Concern, a church group that runs a food shelf and has other supplies for people of the community. When our group got there we were asked to help an elderly woman weed her garden. We had a really great time getting to know the woman and her husband, and were glad that we got to help them out. After we did the weeding, we went back to Project Concern and helped unload their supply of food for the week. Then we helped go through each of the boxes to make sure that the food was still good for the community. After our service work was over, we had time to hang out with each other before dinner. Some of us girls played "Would you rather" to pass that time."

After the long work day we all went to the Beulah Community Center to shower and felt so good. Had pizza for dinner and got ready for our free night out. We decided as a church to go to the beach and hangout on Lake Michigan. A few students went into the cold chilly Lake Michigan and others just sat and enjoyed the free time and the scenery. We ended our night with some beach worship and devotions. We all went to the shoreline and dipped our fingers into Lake Michigan and one by one we blessed each other with, "You are blessed child of God, Loved beyond measure." Then we circled up and prayed. It was a great way to end our devotion time.

On our way home we stopped for ice cream. Yum yum. 

What an incredible day we have had and we have so many more days to come. We have such an amazing group of young people. Love every single one of them. 

Please say a prayer for a girl in another group from another church whom got hurt because she took a tumble on some rocks on the shoreline on Lake Michigan. She separated her shoulder and has a couple of minor things but please say a prayer for her. 

Thank you this awesome day and hope you enjoy reading this blog about our adventures. Please send emails to raul@fogchurch.org so I can ready them to our students. See y'all soon. 

Peace and Love,

2016 Milwaukee Mission Trippers

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Day 1. 

We started out the church parking lot and set our navigational beacon to Milwaukee, WI. We stopped in Hudson for lunch at Wendy's then made our merry way back on the road. Things went great, smooth sailing as we travelled. Made a pit stop in Tomah to gas up and get snacks. Hit some really busy traffic around the Wisconsin Dells and crawled along in traffic for about 20-30 minutes. Never fear all the cars were busy talking and singing along to the radio. Hit some more traffic in Madison and then construction as we got closer to Milwaukee. But we are here at Unity Lutheran. Arrived around 645pm. Had dinner and had orientation for the week. We are all so excited for what God has in store for us this week. We are going to be divided into two groups from our church but there are a few other churches with us. There is a church from Brooklyn Center, Lutheran Church of the Master. Pretty awesome. Right down the road from us. I just wanted to get something down on this blog and see how y'all like it. If you want to send an email to a mission trip participant send to my church email with their names on the subject line. raul@fogchurch.org  I will make sure the email is read out loud during our church time in the evening. Just as an FYI emails will not be private so funny stories and such would be gladly be appreciated. It has been a busy day already and it was just day 1. Getting late. Hope you will be excited to read our adventures about tomorrow. Good night everyone and God Bless. 

Peace and Love,

Milwaukee Mission Trip 2016