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Day Two – Thousands of Socks!!
Our first day of work has come and gone! Today, after a quick breakfast, we headed to the Salvation Army Regional Headquarters where we spent the day packaging socks. The socks were donated to the...
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Day Three – Beanie Babies and Sorting Clothes
This morning after breakfast we headed to the Child Savings Institute – a nonprofit that helps children in a variety of ways including a daycare facility, adoptions, and emergency shelter. We received...
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Day Four – Community Gardening!
Today we worked with the Benson Plant Rescue – an organization that takes plants that are about to be thrown away by retailers and nurses them back to health so that they can be sold to raise money for...
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CYF Mission Trip – Day One
We made it to Chicago!!! Today’s activities can be summed up in one word: DRIVING. Time passed by with music, sharpie “tattoos”, odd makeovers, occasional bathroom stops, sing alongs, and a huge amount...
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CYF Mission Trip – Day Two
We made it to Detroit!!! After sleeping on the gym floor in Chicago, we got up early to repack the vans. Then we joined in worship at New Life Lutheran Church (ELCA). The service was special in that a...
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CYF Mission Trip – Day Three
Today we got to work – and there’s so much work to be done here. Our group joined with volunteers from the Motown Mission to clean up a neighborhood about fifteen minutes away from the church. Cleanup...
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CYF Mission Trip – Day Four
If yesterday was chaotic (and it was), today we started to find our groove. This morning we headed into a different neighborhood – one in which residents have come together to create a neighborhood...
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CYF Mission Trip – Day Five (Canada Edition!)
We’re on our way back from Canada tonight! It was a really fantastic day all around. We started by heading to work, splitting off into four groups. From 9 to noon we painted a garage, caulked around 40...
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CYF Mission Trip – Day Six
Today was another good work day. After yesterday’s jaunt to Canada we were all very tired, but we still worked hard. A difficult plumbing job finally got finished, a ceiling was resurfaced with a layer...
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CYF Mission Trip – Day Seven
Today was our last day of work. Our plumbing team finished work at a couple houses that needed shower and toilet repairs, one group finished painting the nursery at United Christian Church, and our...
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Day Two: Servant Stairs
Today we worked at Hawthorn Hill, a special homeless shelter for women with children. After an orientation and tour, we got to work cleaning and organizing the kitchen that is shared by eight families....
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Kids, Cans & Zombies!
For our second day of work, we started at Children and Families Urban Ministries, which is housed in the historic Trinity United Methodist Church. This ministry provides meals, mentoring, safe space,...
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Day Four: Serving Lines, Bubbles and Blue Nail Polish
Today was our last day of work. We started by spending the morning at the Central Iowa Shelter and Services, a homeless shelter in a gorgeous new building in downtown Des Moines. The shelter does...
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Tomorrow = CYF Mission Trip!
Tomorrow (July 28th), 13 youth and 6 adults will pile into two vans and begin the trek to Denver. We’ll be living and serving at the Tennyson Center – a facility for children and youth who, for a...
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Colorado, Here We Are!!
So, Kansas is really long. Out of our eleven hours on the road, 8 or so were spent in Kansas…and at least another 2 were spent in the part of Colorado that looks JUST LIKE KANSAS. But now we’re here in...
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Day Two: Learning The Ropes
Today was our first day of work here at the Tennyson Center. Because life and work at Tennyson is governed by a strict system of rules, and because the children we are serving come from backgrounds...
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Day Three: God Is Here
Today was a roller coaster. Many of the children in our classes had very bad days. Yelling, screaming, running away kind of days. At the same time, many of the kids we worked with had very good days....
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Day Four: Back to Class, Out to Eat
Today was a short work day at Tennyson. Children get an early release each Wednesday and are treated to a barbecue lunch that is prepared by the volunteers. So, after joining our classrooms for a short...
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Day Five: Nearing The End
Today was a good day! It’s tough to tell whether many of our classes were different, better…or if we’ve been changed in ways that make it easier to see the good in these amazing children and their...
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Day Six: Mountaintops and Deepest Valleys
Our last day of work was filled with emotion: the joy of field trips and parties for children being discharged, the pain of children having a bad day, the fear of the unknown, the happiness of youth...
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