The participants were asked: What is one story you would like to share from the trip?
One participant said:
“Talking to people on the street. Doing small things made an impact on me because they were tasks that weren’t easy to do but it felt great to do something for other people. I loved making even the smallest impact on people’s lives. Cleaning the church, the church basement, the streets… cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! I did it all happily and cheerful because I knew sometime, somehow, someone would be blessed by it and that is why I am here.”
When there was down-time the team deep cleaned, organized the church basement and cleaned other areas of the church. Some went outside and picked up trash from the streets. During the street cleaning some of the neighbors wondered why a group of teenagers who weren’t from the neighborhood were picking up trash. One of the neighbors asked, “Why are you picking up trash, it’s just going to get dirty again?” The team explained who they were and what they were there. One simple act of service opened the door for a conversation that wouldn’t have otherwise take place and some of the neighbors said they would visit the church.
Another participant said:
“We got to go work at the elementary school one day. Working with the kindergarteners blessed and encouraged me so much. I had been struggling with my future plans because I wasn’t sure if God wanted me to go into teaching. But, working in the classroom confirmed that God placed that passion in my life for a reason.”
We were given the rare opportunity of visiting a school for the day. The public schools don’t often allow faith-based organizations inside the school to serve. A member of New Life Pilsen (the church we served with for the week) happens to be the community representative for the school. They’ve been placed in that position by God and it has allowed the building of relationships between the school leaders, parents and the church. Because of those relationships we were able to visit two classrooms. Our groups split up and half worked with the kindergarteners and half worked in the Library/Media room. We stacked, sorted and organized books and helped with their assignments.
