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Mission Trip Reports Trip Reports Home
Nashville, TN, US Urban
Youth Group
| Trip Dates: | 7/18/2010 to 7/23/2010 |
| Age Group: | Jr. and Sr. high school students |
| Status: | Completed |
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| Reports for Nashville, TN Trip |
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McDonald's ATL
4
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7/22/2010
By: Jonathan Goble, Youth Pastor
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Crossview Church- Grabill, IN
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During our last ATL, one of our Jr. High girls received a vision from God about the McDonald's Golden Arch. She didn't see the building, nor did she see any words, just the Arch. We really did not think too much about it because there was such little detail to the vision and McDonald's really was not part of our plan for the day. The afternoon we headed back to Centennial Park in Nashville for an afternoon prayer walk. We had been to this park the previous two days for various ministry opportunities. As soon as we stepped out of the van one of the kids shouts out, "Look! It's a McDonald's!" We all looked over and saw what she was talking about. This McDonald's had been there all week and we had not paid any attention to it. The park pavillion, our parking spot all week, was directly behind the Mcdonald's. It was difficult to tell that it was even a fast food restaurant. What was even more interesting was that the park sat a little lower than the restaurant so the sign post was not visible. Because we had parked on a street parallel to the main street the sign was perpendicular to us so we could not see any words written on the sign. The only thing that was visible was a single arch of the McDonald's M. Immediately, we knew we were exactly where God wanted us to be.
We headed towards the park to begin our prayer walk still uncertain of God's plans for us. As we continued, we approached a homeless man sitting on one of the park benches. The kids asked if we should talk to him. Our group leader told the kids that if they felt the Lord leading them to talk to him then they should do it. The kids were anxious, nervous, and shy, but a conversation ensued anyway. As our group drew nearer the man yelled out, "Hey, I know you!" He was pointing at me. I had never seen him before. If I had seen him, I surely did not recognize him. But, I had to speak with him, so I smiled and said, "Oh yeah?" He smiled back and said that he had seen me at the homeless shelter a couple days ago when we were serving food. Apparently he had gone through the line at some point. We had served over 400 hundred guys on Sunday night, and i could not have picked out a single person that had passed through that line. Anyway, we began to talk and soon he got the kids involved. He joked around with him and before long he had all the kids laughing. He then asked if he could have fifty cents to get a refill on his McDonald's drink. I told him we did not have fifty cents, but if he would like to follow us to McDonald's we would get him whatever he wanted. He immediately jumped off the bench and led the way there, all the while continuing to make the kids laugh with his jokes.
After ordering the food, we stood outside and began to talk. Within five minutes our discussion began to lead to his past experiences and very quickly our discussion became quite serious. At that moment another homeless gentlemen approached our group and asked if we were Christians. I continued talking with our friend while the rest of the group introduced themselves to their new friend. For the next half hour I was occupied in one conversation while the rest of the group was caught up in another. I don't know what the others talked about, but the conversation that I had was a total God experience.
This gentlemen had lost his job during the Nashville flood, when his kitchen that he supervised was completely washed out. Therefore, he had no means of making payments. He lost everything. He had tried at so many places to get a job but there was none to be found. he shared that he hated being poor, he hated having to beg for food, he hated that he was not able to shower and he hated more than anything that he was a worthless individual. This opened up the chance to share about God's love for him and that God did not view him as worthless but rather as one of his children whom he loved very deeply. This fellow believed in God and could even quote plenty of scripture, but he could not fathom why God would allow something so terrible to happen to him. Above all else, he did not understand why God had not answered any of his prayers. He had been praying that that God would guide him in some way. And, if God Himself would not speak to him, then at least send someone to speak to him to give him some sense of guidance. He told me that God had not answered any of his prayers and that he had been praying each day. I looked at him and said, "my friend, your prayer has just been anwered." I then proceeded to tell him of the vision that one of our girls had been given from God. I told him that we had no idea why we were here or what God wanted from us, we were just being obedient to him. I told him that it is very obvious that God wanted us to run into him on this day at this very moment, and that I believed that God had sent us there to be an answer to his prayer. His face lit up as he told me a story that was somewhat similar. This gentlemen had not been to the park for several days. But something inside him told him that today was a good day to go to the park. He also told me that he does not like to heckle people because if anyone becomes afraid or annoyed, all it takes is one call to the cops for "harrassment" and he is in jail. But, because he had seen us a couple of days ago he figured he could talk to us. He then told me about his last two weeks.
Two weeks ago this man had attempted to commit suicide, but his plan had failed. Someone found him after he had overdosed on Advil and Tylenol and had phoned the ambulance. They arrived shortly and took him to the hospital and cared for him until he was well enough to leave. He had planned on doing the same thing that evening, only this time he was going to make sure that no one was around, and that even if he was found he would make sure that there was no way that he would be brought back to life. As tears formed in his eyes he thanked me. We began to talk about the story of Job and God's sovreignty. Even though Job had lost everything he remainded faithful to God and because God is sovreign over all things he was able to provide. I challanged our friend after this story. I told him that God had a plan for his life even after all that had gone wrong. If it were not true then God would not have led us to one another, and he would have just been another dead homeless man. But God did not want that to happen. I told him that this was God answering his prayer, and now it was his turn to remain faithful and to begin to seek after whatever it is that God was calling him to do no matter how ridiculous it may seem. That God would probably only reveal His plan in steps and that all that was asked of our friend was to remain faithful for each little step that God called him to take. As long as he remainded faithful, God would continue to lead and would continue to provide for his needs.
We ended our time in prayer, and then we embraced one last time.
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Tuesdays Report
3
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7/21/2010
By: Sarah Field, Participent
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Crossview Church- Grabill, IN
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This morning we went to the nursing home and helped with craft time.Mary, the craft helper, had thanked the Lord because He answered her prayers, because both of her other helpers weren't there to help. So her face just lit up when we said we were here to help with craft time. We stayed for quite a while. Then after crafts a few of us had some notes to deliver to some certain people that we met the day before. Then, after lunch, we went to Centenial Park. The very first thing we did was wait for Amanda, a girl who helps homeless people and gives them food, clothes,etc., and gave her the clothes that we had bought for the cause. Then as we were going to start our prayer walk a homeless person walked up and asked if we could give him some food and Jonathan,our leader,offered to take him to the Mcdonalds and buy him some food, but he said no because the manager told him to never come back. So we went on our prayer walk. Well just a couple minutes in we met another homeless guy and he said that he knew us from when we helped out at the Rescue Mission. His name was Larry. So we went back to the Mcdonalds and bought him some food. There Jonathan carried a conversation with Larry, while us kids and Pat,our mission trip leader, listened to a homeless guy that was standing outside of the Mcdonalds. He was an extremly good Christian and preached to us for a long time. After all the conversations were over we finally started our prayer walk. We went around a lagoon and just prayed out loud and just thanked God for blessing us for everything! Then we headed back and the day was done!!
Sarah
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Second Day
2
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7/20/2010
By: Brianna Datta, student
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Crossview Church- Grabill, Indiana
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On Monday we went to the nursing home. We did a skit for the residents there. The skit was about the peer pressures and temptations that we go through growing up. The residents really enjoyed it.We then went around the nursing home and visited with random people.I had a nice conversation for about 45 minutes with a man named Billie Joe.He told me about his life. Later that day we did atl's 9(ask the lord) and we all sat seperately with our bibles and asked god to tell us where to go. I got a picture of an african-american toddler with a ponytail in her hair and a little dress on and she was holding someone's hand. Later on we went to the fellowship hall and we helped get meals ready to hand out for the homeless for dinner. There were many people who showed up, so that was a little sad but i was glad to be helping them. On the way back from helping the homeless we were on our way to get dinner, and we passed a bus station.I wasn't really paying attention,but one of the other kids on our mission trip was. She told me to look and i looked out the window and in the bus station parking lot, there was a little african-american toddler girl in a dress and she was holding her mom's hand and she was with her dad and her other siblings. We decided to be pretty bold and we stopped the van and a few of us walked down the street to them and we asked if there was anything that we could pray for them about.They said no, but it was still cool to see God work that way.
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Sunday Day One
1
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7/20/2010
By: Olivia Huffman, participant
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Crossview- Fort Wayne, IN
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The day was awesome, we went to visit the Naschville Rescue Mission to pray. We went inside to ask if we had to wear long pants to serve on the line. Jack, one of the residents, he assumed that we came to serve dinner. So we jumped in, with our shorts and flip-flops on. We all had fun serving the homless. And then we went to the park for dinner and debriefed.
Olivia
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The Art of Listening Prayer - by Seth Barnes
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This interactive devotional is for the person who isn't satisfied with a dry faith. If you're dying to hear God's voice, the good news is that you can! Jesus is the door, and He has opened it up to you.
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The Art of Listening Prayer |
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