Serving in the community & Believing the words of God

Today we each went out to our Service Sites and began learning about the people who live, work, and serve there. As each of us went out our tasks varied from making meals, tending to horses, mending fences, making water balloons, cleaning grounds at public housing. Our youth group gathered after our day of service as we shared dinner together and stories from the day. As the evening went on our group served those here for the Week of Hope by completing our hospitality tasks of cleaning the bathrooms, commons, and outside - our students did this with a joyful spirit and great willingness. We reconvened with our Service Crews for evening programming where the theme was From Hearing to Healing - the story of Jesus healing Legion. Each of us were asked to write down all the words that have been harmful or negative then we listened to the truthful words spoken to us by God - that we are loved, the Beloved, more than enough, gifted, filled with purpose. We gathered once more as a youth group to process the day and what our experiences were during evening programming. It was a full day with ups and downs and our students and leaders moved throughout it with a caring hearts and a spirit of hospitality. 

For tonight's youth reflections we will hear from Miciah & Taylor. Here are a few of their thoughts from today. 

"When we woke up this morning I felt that we could feel God’s energy being shared by the camp staff. We all would come down and eat a great breakfast that some students and staff prepared before we were even awake. After breakfast we enjoyed a fabulous service. We then went to different worksites and had fun meeting special people with great personalities. We all had lots of fun at our worksites. We came back to the church we are using as base camp. We had some free time before we ate dinner and enjoyed a great service. These services are great and tonight’s was simply moving. At the end of the service, everyone just sat and thought for about five minutes. We had lots of time allotted where we could just think and get closer to God. Today has been a greatly changing day!"

-Miciah

"Hey everyone! Today I woke up and had breakfast with good friends from my youth group, and I had a pretty good feeling about today. The morning service was a lot of fun, as well. I enjoyed the music and the interaction. My work crew is very diverse, coming from North Dakota, Iowa, Texas, Colorado, etc. We are all very quiet, but very hardworking, and even though it was hard for us to open up, we still made a great team. Most of our day was spent shoveling horse crap in a huge pasture, which, while it wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time, was pretty cool because I got to hang out near the horses and explore the field, which was filled with little toads, grasshoppers, garden snakes, and bugs. Today worked me hard, but I felt a lot better knowing Jesus was working through me, and I can’t wait till tomorrow!"

-Taylor

So from all of us here, we send you are love and wish you well. Thanks for sharing in this experience with us by reading about it here. 

Good night from Greeley!