So this week I'm in Kentucky for class.
Last week I was in Tennessee for our Spring Break mission trip.
I need a vacation.
At the bottom of this particular blog I have a few pictures chronicling our trip. We left Saturday at 2:Freaking Early AM and got to Knoxville, TN about 4ish. It was a heck of a long drive there, but luckily I got to ride shotgun the entire way. It's because I'm such a good copilot because my dad taught me well.
During the week we focused on Ephesians 4.11-16, though time and distance between the guys and girls housing made it a bit hard for us to get together for a Bible study/devo every day. But the goal was to teach the students about being equipped and equipping others for ministry.
While there we did a lot of work, met a lot of cool people, and had some great times. Here's a quick bit about what we did.
Saturday: Drove down, stopped in Ashland, KY for lunch and gas. Met up with my girlfriend Rachael who was in Grayson, all of 20 minutes away. Got down to Knoxville, TN and the CSF at the University of Tennessee. We hung out a bit, met the campus minister there, Glenn, and had dinner. They have a campus house, a house owned by the ministry right there on campus by apartments and some frats.
Sunday: Church in the morning at the campus house. We had lunch afterwards, but for the life of me I can't remember where. Maybe I'm getting old. Or need some time off. Anyways, after that we went to a garden type place, or national park, called Ijam's (Iyam's is how it's pronounced). There we went for a hike, about a mile or so. On the walk we got to walk along a river, or lake, or something, and got to see a geological fold. It was mind blowing! Then that night starting about 8, since the weather was about a million degrees warmer than it has been in Pittsburgh, we (both CSFs) cooked and handed out pancakes to anyone who wanted to come by. We ended up serving about 40 students and had some really good conversations with them, it was a great way to do some out reach!
Monday: Monday we went down to Newport, KY to help out a new ministry that's popping up there. It there to help the community, full of poverty and drug abuse, and trying to equip the community to break free of their sin with different classes and giving the youth a place to go and stay out of trouble. They acquired an old hardware store and our task was to help with some demo. With two hammers, a crowbar, and some pry bars three of us and two of our girls took out an entire room, including the walls. We also got to load up a big dump truck twice and trashed lumber. We got to the point where we were throwing a lot of the trash out of the windows from the top floor. There may have been a couple vehicles that got hit...
That night the CSF we were with had their weekly meeting. We had a time of worship and after that looked at 2 John and talked a bit about it. Afterwards we had time to hang out with a lot of the students, and I got to throw down on some Super Smash Bros. Ike's my bro. (Get it? Mike n' Ike?) But it was great getting to hang out, talk, and bond with students from our own group and a group in a completely different state. It's amazing to me how God brings us together and makes it so easy to have a relationship with these people.
Tuesday: We worked at the same place as Monday, though that day we tore down the ceiling tiles. I only took down a few, but I was running errands with another volunteer that day so apparently I'm a girl scout now and don't work, as I was constantly reminded. But I worked hard all day too!
That night we went to an alum's house from Pitt for dinner. We hung out there with her family (husband, son, daughter, father and mother). What was cool was in talking with the father I found out he lived in Grove City at one time (that's GC Ohio, not PA). So we got to talk a bit about the town we both lived in, though at different times. After that we made our way back to Knoxville to finally sleep.
Here's the link for the group that we worked with Monday and Tuesday. http://empowercockecounty.com/
Wednesday: Wednesday we went to a town right around Knoxville. To best describe this place it's more hood. Gang activity, drug abuse, cycles and cycles of sin as one of the workers described to us. The point of this program is to work with children of this town or neighborhood. It was a Christian program and their main focus was helping the poverty of those around them. We were taught there were four areas of poverty: Physical, Academic, Emotional, and Spiritual. Many churches work on the physical and academic poverty of people, which is needed, but many don't work for enriching those in their community with programs for the emotional and spiritual poverty, so this was their main focus. That afternoon we had students come, and we got to work with them. The program was very rigid, and the teachers were very strict and held to the rules, which I think the students needed in their lives. During this time they started with worship, went over the rules, worked on homework, spent time reading together, and eventually did a Bible study. It was great seeing this program focus on the spiritual poverty of the kids, making that their highest priority.
That night we went out to eat for $5 burgers at a really popular restaurant in town. The reason I mention this little fact is this: I hate Wednesdays. I'm sure you all know the Geico Hump Day/Camel commercial. Well I woke up Wednesday morning with texts from our four girls with my name and camel emojis. Well while we're waiting outside of the restaurant I feel my phone going off. "Eh, just must be a text" I think. Then it keeps vibrating. "Is someone calling me?" I pull out my phone and check it. Not getting a call. I'm getting 40 TEXT MESSAGES THAT ALL SAY "MIKE! GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS!" Needless to say, I am not a fan of Wednesday's now. But from there I felt that the students are finally seeing me as a Mike, not the intern.
Here's the link for the group with worked with Wednesday. http://thrivelonsdale.com/#about
Thursday: Thursday we got a bit touristy. That day we went to Gatlinburg, TN and also took a hike on a trail in the National Park. Other than that there wasn't much that went on during the day.
That night we cooked for the TN group. They do a dinner together and then separate Bible studies for men and women. I tried to help with the cooking, but I'm not too good in the kitchen, but we had perogies and Pittsburgh salad (a salad with fries on it n'at). Then during the men's Bible study Greg led it and I helped out a bit. But we went over the main text we were using for the week (Eph. 4.11-16) and had some good conversation about the text, calling for maturity of Christians, the purpose of those who claim to be in Christ, and more. I'm hoping to use this text for a lesson for our weekly Bible study this semester. We'll see though.
Friday: Friday was the day we left. Again not much went on other than driving back. On the way back to Pittsburgh we stopped in West Virginia and everyone tried Tudor's Biscuit World for the first time. While there we prayed for our meal, and there was a group of older ladies there. When they left they gave a note for us with a $50 bill in it (see picture below). After we finished eating we took a big group picture even with the people that worked there and then continued on our journey home.
Now: Well after Friday I crashed at my aunt's for the night. Saturday I woke up early, we had breakfast and a good time just talking then I made my way back to Columbus. Once there I hung out, got ready for class, and did a ton of laundry! Finally Sunday I made my way down to the Blue Grass State for class. This week we're talking ethics and I'm looking forward to later in the week so I can lovingly humble some people in ethical discussions.
During my time in Kentucky I've been doing some work with some possibilities of future ministry. As I've written before I may be moving to Huntington to do campus ministry at Marshall. Well There happens to be a ministry that's wanting to expand there, and I had a conversation with them and we are planning to take it to the next step. It's a baby step, but it's a step towards that. But either way, if Marshall works out or if I stay in Pennsylvania I plan on sticking with campus ministry. I feel this is what God is calling me to do for a career, and I'm incredibly excited about that. Be looking for letters from me soon, if you would like a news letter let me know. If you would prefer it through snail mail I'll probably need your address, and email (which would be easier on my part) I'll need you email.
As always feel free to contact me any way at any time about anything!
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| Stopped in Ashland, KY for lunch. All the girls were begging for Waffle House. Even got to see Rachael! She took the picture for us |
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| The day we got there we walked around campus, trying to uncramp our legs from being in the van for 8+ hours. Ended up finding this, what they call "The Hill." All our students agreed, "That's no hill." |
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| Sunday night we did free pancakes for campus! This is Greg, he's special. This is a marshmallow filled pancake with whipped cream, a peep, and sprinkles. |
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| Spent Sunday afternoon at Ijam's (Iam's). A garden type place with some trails to walk. We gotta walk along some river and found caves. |
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| Got down Right Indiana Jones! |
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| Thursday we went to go be tourists! Went to the Smoky Mountains and Gatlinburg. Further down we took a hike and scaled a waterfall. |
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| This is the beginning of our path to the waterfall. |
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| Here we are at the top of it (or as high as we could get on it). It was a heck of a climb. JEANS WERE A BAD CHOICE! |
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| After we got down off the mountain. Felt like a champ! |
The note and bill that we got!
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| On our way back home! Stopped in WV to treat these kids to some good ol' Tudor's! (Only in WV except for one store in Grayson, KY) |
