Friday morning...

Well, the sun has set on our Hamtramck trip, and we are all thankful for all of the things that God has done in us and through us.  At the request of the kids, we are making one last prayer walk through Hamtramck this morning and then are hoping to leave at around 10 am for home.  Our ETA is between 1:30 and 2:30 pm.  Thanks again for following, and especially for praying!!!!

Oh, and by the way, even though it was on the menu at the Polish restaurant, no one was brave enough to try Duck Blood Soup!

Thursday Night...

In no particular order, here are each of the Harvest team's biggest takeaway as reported in our last debriefing session of the trip.  Obviously, much more was said, but I am doing my best to summarize it succinctly here!

McKenna reflected on passing out meals to the homeless, and thought that it was a very doable kind of ministry that could be continued in college with other Christians on campus.

For Norman, the prayer walk impacted him the most.  He enjoyed praying for different things and people as he walked, and especially liked praying with people and listening to their stories.

Tim said that he learned a lot in our daily training sessions, and never considered how we need to know the culture of others in order to be most effective in our evangelizing.  He also was surprised at how people are willing to talk if we will listen.

Alec was impressed with how willing Hamtramck kids listen, open up, and share.

Abbey and Mollie were amazed to find out that Muslim women are not as shy and reserved as they seem at first.  They discovered that they can be loud, fun, willing to talk, and are a blast to spend time with.  Mollie mentioned that it was surprising to see them being energetic and competitive and acting like little kids again.  She said that it was easy to forget that we are all the same that way.

Matthew's eyes were opened to how the International Hope Center runs things, and the positive responses they get.  This makes him want to possibly do missions work in the summer someday.

As Katie watched our leader and her ministry in Hamtramck, she discovered just how great of a long-term impact one person can have on a city if they stick with it for the long haul.

Brett was encouraged to see so many young believers who are either interns or paid staff follow God's call into missions in a difficult mission field.  It once again showed just how powerful God is working in different places.

Carson enjoyed being exposed to different cultures for one of the first times on a mission trip.  He also was challenged to see people on the streets as people who have a story and who are very willing to tell their stories.  

Jean reflected on how we were forced to step out of our comfort zones, and be faced with many different experiences.  She added that we fear what we don’t know, and that going through such  experiences (such as prayer walks, teaching ESL, and having conversations with different people) helps to take away some of those fears.

Norm said that this trip got him over the typical Muslim stereotype.  He discovered that a small minority are radical extremists and his fear and suspicion of them was challenged.

Unfortunately, Charlotte had to leave early before sharing what God taught her with the rest of the group.

Even thought there are a thousand more stories and lessons learned, thank you for helping make these possible through your giving and your prayers!

Thursday Morning...

Most of the team this morning traveled to a huge campus which serves as a shelter for girls and young woman who have been abused or have been rescued from sex trafficking.  We didn't get to interact with the girls, but we were able to sort mounds and mounds of donations for the Boutique where girls come and go shopping for free.  Norm and three of the guys continued their work on finishing the fence at the community garden.

Thursday afternoon...

So around 4 o clock this overcast Thursday our youth team paired up with a small group from the International Hope Center to help lead a Backyard Bible Club. The purpose of the club was to gather kids from the area together to play games, make crafts, and get taught a lesson from the bible. So normally when you hear that you're going to spend an hour and a half with a lot of kids who are all under the age of 12, you might usually just want to hide under your bed sheets and cry but... not for this Hamtramck crowd. With the 10 kids who showed up, we had a lot of fun tossing footballs, playing soccer, and dodgeball. It really is an awesome thing (I think) to see the children of a struggling community come together and open themselves up to us (the youth team). It brings a smile to my face to see a 7 year-old little girl laughing and getting along with the people she had just met 20 minutes before. This experience was for sure one of the highlights of this trip for me. BBC is a huge testimony to the fact that Christ Jesus is making his way into the world everywhere.

Alec S.

P.S. As you can see, we finished the fence at the community garden!

Wednesday afternoon...

This afternoon our high school mission team really stepped up and stepped out of their comfort zone...homeless ministry.  We ventured into Detroit (the city proper) armed with 64 sandwich meals with the task of not only handing these to those who were in need of food but also taking the time to talk to each of them.  Our group was led by 2 local missionaries Sal & Bethany (along with Sal's 11 year old daughter Emma) who were familiar with this type of ministry.  20,000 homeless residents call Detroit "home" and we were able to engage a bit of this population, ask their names, establish context for conversation and on a few occasions even pray for them.  This team of high schoolers looked for opportunities to converse and feed those whom were in need and showed such love for their fellow man.  I am honored to be a part of this team and have experienced more blessings from this experience than can ever be conveyed,  I challenge you to step up and step out. Together, let's show our youth what it looks like to love beyond our borders.

Jean

Wednesday Morning...

This morning we started off by having a great devotion time! We were taught by a man named Scott who had a lot of experience sharing the Word of God with people from the Middle East. He talked about their mindsets are different than ours and we need to make sure we share the gospel in a way that makes sense and fits in their world view.
However, the highlight of my morning was playing soccer with thirty or forty Muslim women. If you know me you know that would never be a highlight for me, but this was my type of soccer. We sat down in two rows of chairs facing each other and each row of chairs was a team trying to kick the ball to one end or the other. Everyone was so into it and happy. The Muslim women sitting next to me were closest to the goal and were trying desperately to score against Mollie who was the goalie, but we failed. After that though we both cracked up laughing and smiling at each other and it was just such a cool moment to see these women in a such a different environment than normal.
Sadly, today was our last days with these women and when they left we hugged them all. It has been such a great experience with these women!

Abbey M.

P.S.  The guys dug holes this morning with an auger and poured cement for the posts.