Baby Clothes That Never End

Aside

Well this is our last day. Today we sorted baby clothes…. like a TON of baby clothes. These are all going to women who cannot afford to buy clothes or other baby items such as cribs, changing tables and toys.  The location of our ministry day is the Baby and More Thrift Store which is a part of the Hope Center in Woodstock, Georgia.

We sang songs and listened to christian music while we worked. 

The Hope Center has set a goal to save 250 babies this year from abortion and have already saved 100’s before this year. They give classes to the mothers on what they need to know before their baby comes and give counseling sessions to women who have had an abortion in the past.  Another important part of their ministry is providing ultrasounds for mothers which also saves a lot of babies.

 

The Hope Center is also Christ centered and I am so glad we were able to serve there.

Sara Braswell

(and Chase Conrey. HAHAHA)

God Cake and Poop

Oh goodness, where do we begin? We spent a day at a trailer park cleaning someone’s home. The whole team can agree that we all were shocked by what we found. The trailer was filthy and covered with rat feces. We each divided the work load. Some cleaned the fridge,cleaned dishes, and organized the kitchen. Praise God, they didn’t throw up. Coach Cagle saved the day by unclogging the sink. Some of us took down cobwebs and sacrificed ourselves to spiders. Trisha and Caitlin CLEANED THE PORCELAIN THRONE and very likely inhaled too much bleach. It went downhill from there;) The family included a little boy named Danny aka Batman who really brightened our day. He also prayed by saying, “God is good, God is great, thank you for… the God cake.” (We decided to bring him a cake) We might need some more bleach. Amen.
-Trisha, Caitlin, Madelyn, Jessica, Ellen, Katie, Haley, and Olivia

Reach the Least of These Day 3

Night of Day 2 and Day 3 Epic Adventure

Last night, we got to try the Sky Swing. So fun. The only thing is, we had Chinese before. That might not have been the smartest thing, but everyone was fine and had an amazing time! We all came home and slept like babies. This morning we got up, ate breakfast, and headed to some old fairgrounds to clean up for a concert coming soon. We were all expecting creepy ferris wheels and clowns popping out with chainsaws. Instead, we got a 40 year old building full of old clothes to burn and messy trees to destroy! Sorting through the clothes might have been gross, but it was quite entertaining to see all the tacky items burn in the fire! The fires were huge!! And….technically there was a clown with a chainsaw because Israel was cutting trees 😉 We found an old zoo, had a stray (but very nice) dog follow us around , and then got our cans ready to hand out! We gave two boxes to a very nice man in a wheelchair because of a brown recluse bite and he was devastated after so many losses in his family and terrible living conditions. We were all moved to tears. We gave cans to one more old man and then headed back to camp. The next few hours consisted of William and I fiddling on the piano while others sang and then filming an EPIC (haha) harlem shake video! It was a great day!
—Hannah—

Last night was was my favorite part of the trip so far. We did the sky swing, in our guide’s backyard. This morning, we ate breakfast and went to help clean up an old amusement park. We gave out cans to people in need. It was interesting to see how people in our own country are still and need. Our Impact team had to make a video. We decided to do Harlem Shake in a construction area. It has been a great day and I can’t wait until tomorrow. -Hayden

Just last night we went on the sky swing, its is two huge pieces of rope tied to two trees and were are swung all the way down. It was alot of fun! Today we went out and gave food to multiple people that really needed it. One guy we met had lost his wife and his daughter and we where glad to go and talk with him for awhile and help him with the food. We also filmed our school video and we decided to try and do the Harlem Shake and it was really fun to do! I can’t wait to see what we are going to do tomorrow. -Ashton

Party with a Purpose – Day 3

We started off our day by splitting into teams to tackle all the mounds of tasks on our day’s agenda. Some of us made oatmeal craisin cookies for the Women of Cobb Extention (which were quite delicious). Others made the entrée for the Taffe family, for whom we are providing dinner tonight, which featured a succulent Chicken Elegante (in short, that is just fancy-talk for bacon-wrapped chicken atop dried beef and topped with a sauce), along with rice pilaf, glazed carrots, tossed salad, pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins and a made from scratch Oreo Cheesecake!! The rest of our team worked hard at the craft and packing stations making scripture verse cards and preparing flower arrangements with beautiful greenery and blooms given by Cindi Endredi for our big night and our other “Parties with a Purpose”. We ended the day by giving the Taffe family their dinner and dessert which they received very graciously. This was the first day we embarked on our mission to reach out to the needy in our community. When we gave the food to the Taffe family, we felt that we not only impacted their lives with the love of God, but that we also impacted our own lives.

Creation Museum – Tuesday’s Adventures

Quote

We had a WONDERFUL day at the Creation Museum – what a great way to experience the majesty of our God.  We overheard your students asking great questions, relating things they saw at the museum to things they had learned in their classes and discussing things we don’t understand like quantum physics…  Some favorites were the dinosaur exhibits, the planetarium, and of course, our camel ride.  We finished up the day with two iconic Cincinnati experiences – Skyline Chili and Grater’s Ice Cream.  We were able to sing Happy Birthday to April in both KY and in OH.

Please watch the slide show to see our day – all captions provided by the students, so you will have to ask them to explain them!  We are tired but happy, and learning so much!

Creation Museum Slide Show

Great First Day at the Rock Ranch

Epic Adventure Day 1 and Day 2

Israel David Partridge, is one of our guides this weekend! He is so cool but he snore walks :/, and he text people while he is belaying us!!!!! his goal for us this weekend is to find out where he was born! and he is not a US citizen! i guess we will see who can figure it out!!!! when we do tho….. it will be fun 😉 also beware about this 34 year old man… if it is almost dark and your group is in the woods…. well he might just leave you with no explanation, leaving you only 2 guides to forage through with in the woods!

On another note! we went repelling and slept in the woods and had forest food! and it was soooo good! we all stayed mostly safe! and when we got out of the woods we felt so accomplished by our journey! epic adventure is so much fun! our three guides, amber, tyler, and israel are so awesome and are making this trip so much fun!!!!

-Emily

Going rappelling at first did not seem scary, but once you looked down it it was frightening! (to me) This was a new experience for me. I have never done anything like this so I was not sure what to expect. When I repelled in the canyon, I fell in a waterfall, hit a bunch of rocks, and fell a few times in the mud but it was fun and I survived! It got dark really fast and repelled to in the dark and was frightening for it was hard to see behind you although we had a flashlight on our helmet. We had forest food that includes bark. The temperature was freezing! It was 39 degrees. Bringing the sleeping bag and all the stuff we need to spend the night was rough. But in the end it was worth it.  Although my sleeping bag weighed a ton, I was cozy and warm 🙂 Everyone cuddled in their sleeping bags and ate their food. Once we ate the food, we asked what kind of meat it was. Overall, we had a fun time. It was a new experience for me and now I can say I slept in a canyon!

Ashley 

Epic Adventure is awesome! We have had so much fun and we have only been here for two days. Our guides Amber, Israel, and Tyler make it even more fun. Once we arrived at True Adventure Sports, we went repelling. The experience was scary at first, but once I got the hang of it, I wanted to do again. When we got to the bottom, we slept on the ground and realized bats were flying over our heads. Needless to say, I slept with my face under the sleeping bag!! After we got  out of the canyon, we all felt so accomplished. We are all having an amazing experience and I personally don’t want it to end.

William Sansom

Party with a Purpose- Day 2!

Rolling out the cookie dough!

Bible verse to attach to the flower vases!

Mary Grace, Emily, and Bethany deorating flower vases!

Flower vases!

Decorating cookies!

I think everyone needed a nap…

From cookie baking to ice cream eating, we have the party going! From the start of the day, we were working hard. We decorated flower vases, baked cookies, lemon bars, and an oreo cheesecake. Then we hand-decorated cookies, and made cheesy delicious creamy mac and cheese! In the midst of our busy day, we stopped at Chick-fil-A for an ice cream break after shopping for flowers. The ice cream cones were a great treat after one specific person continually burnt her finger on a hot glue gun.. *cough* Mary Grace *cough* … Anyways, it’s been a great day. We can’t wait to see all that the Lord has in store for us this week. God has already been moving and impacting each one of us through our preparation for the events this week. We continue to pray for the other IMPACT teams, knowing that God has great plans for each and every team!

~India Wheeler, Mary Grace DeFrancesco, & Bethany Diamond

Too many clothes

Today we served at Must ministries in Canton. We were fortunate enough to go help organize, sort, and fold the donated clothes. To start the day, the Must ministries staff prayed with us and they were really encouraged by our volunteering. In the afternoon, our team headed out to a service home that provides for the impoverished Spanish community in Canton. At the house we scrubbed off mildew from the porch, cleaned each room thoroughly, and organized a plethora of donated clothes. So.many. clothes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell that our whole group is girls????? Plus Coach Cagle:) The experience was humbling and tiring, yet it was a terrific day. BAM.
-Trisha, Madelyn, Jessica, Katie, Haley, Caitlin, Olivia, Laura-Margaret