Dear friends,
Thank you for praying and supporting me for the spring break mission trip!! It was a wonderful time diving in a city that God is making it better. As a group of college students from three schools, we did many city serve projects throughout the week, and got to fellowship together 24/7. It was a week out of our normal schedule, and it shaken us so that we can grow closer to Him by serving, not taking, even after the week. I am so glad you partner with me, without your support, I wouldn’t have the chance to experience 2011 spring in the way I had. So thank you, your support meant a lot to me.
I want to tell your more about what we did in Phily for the week. Keep reading! It’s good stuff that I learn from the trip, and maybe you will find it to be good wonders too.
We are a team of 50 college students from Penn State (university park), Temple, and University of Pennsylvania, many of us did not know each other before the Sunday of March 6. Then a week later, we became good friends, and it is special kind of friends. We aren’t just another brother/sister by the name of Jesus, but we actually know how they look like, what they like, and what talent/gift they have. I didn’t know most of the team members from Penn State before I go, and now I run into them on campus oftenly. They were probably strangers to me before March 3rd, but now they are my dear friends. Isn’t that amazing? In a week, I made 49 friends who I will always want to get coffee with. Well, 35 of them, the other 15 of them will get their chance when I’m in Phily again (they don’t go to Penn State, so I can’t get coffee with them when I’m in Penn State)
Our team lived in a church called Summerfield in Fishtown, Philadelphia for the entire week. (and yes, there are fish sculpture everywhere in the town) It’s a town next to a couple not so safe towns of Phily. That was the goal of the week, to serve at places that need a touch of healing. We attempt to meet this goal by serving in city projects. Most of these projects require labor work, like cleaning up a lot filled with trash, and some are working with children.
What does cleaning a lot help to further God’s kingdom? It is most likely new trash will build up again anyway. Well, there isn’t a perfect answer for this question, but the smile on people faces when they see the lot is clean paid off the work. Maybe by cleaning the lot we have implanted hope in people’s life, or maybe we help them to keep dreaming with the vision that they can yet achieve now… there can be many possibilities, we are not sure what our work can produce, but we saw what work like the one we did can do, as we heard stories, or more like testimonies of people who benefits from the work like one we did. There was a church we partner with on Friday called Victory Outreach, where we cleaned two lots in the neighborhood both a block away from the church. The pastor there sees the lots are use for drug traffic activity at night. They are dirty, abandon, and no one cares about them. By cleaning them up, he hopes this can give the neighbors another perspective about the place they live in. If someone cares about you, maybe there is hope. Actually, the pastor used to use drug 14 years ago, but when Victory Outreach reached out to him, he found new hope for his life, and he lives a different life from then. He said if it weren’t of that night when victory invited him to live in a safe house, he would’ve not found Christ. He said he would have died on the street from what he was doing to himself. This is a story of many drug user, and its urgent to reach out when they need the help. What Victory also does is they go on the street at night when it’s the busiest hours for drug traffic, like they did 14 years ago. We were invited to join this ministry for one night, so we went, and try to show some love to a group we would not approach normally if we weren’t loved by Jesus.
So we were out that night to pray with the people passed by, and give a new chance to someone who wants to go to a safe house. If someone cares and reaches out to you, they are the people who want you to know you are beloved and you can have hope in your life today, and tomorrow, and the day after, and for the rest of your life. That night there were a few people who went to the safe house. And even if there weren’t any, the power of praying with and for a stranger makes a big big BIG difference to them. No really, some of the stories I heard that night, if our prayer is a seed for the love from heaven to grow in them, it’s worth standing in the cold for one night. That night was something amazing.
This trip definitely taught me to engage more in serving people in small things like cleaning up or talking with someone, or praying for someone.
Well, then I got sick for the last day of the trip. *Woobwoob* Germs aren’t too forgiving. I’m ok now!!! and I discovered the wonders of CVS medicine row. Oh yes.
Ok I’m done writing and you can be done with reading this looooooooooong email in a few seconds. You are definitely welcome to email me back to tell me anything you want. Really. You don’t have to thou.
It’s wonderful to have you supporting me all this time! Thanks for reading!!!
And enjoy the beginning of spring season.
Shalom (peace out, but even better),
Faye
