But it's about the paint. We heard these words over and over again while taking part in the Refresh Project, 2012 in Toronto. Aaron, myself, 2 other adult sponsors, and 5 teens from our church packed up and loaded up with 100 others from the Indianapolis area and headed to Canada. 12 hours later we met up with another 250 people (from MI, IL, WI, and other parts of IN) to take part in a week long mission trip. We were there working with Emmanuel Nazarene Church and thier community center, Ephriam's Place. For the sake of keeping this post from being extra long, I'll just tell you to head to thier website and read the story about how Ephriam's Place got started.
Below is just a recap of the painting we did. I'll do another post on Wed about all the awesome things God did and showed me while we were there. I put pictures at the bottom of the post. We arrived on Sun night. We headed straight to the church where we got a basic rundown of what we'd be doing. After leaving the church we checked into our hotel and rested up for the next day. We had no idea what was in store. Monday, we headed to our site which was about 45 mins from our hotel. We were in the city of Missisagua just outside of Toronto. We joined with 2 other churches that had smaller groups of kids, and between our churches, we had enough kids to create a girls group of 9 and a guys group of 7.. Our girls group (GG for times sake) was one of the last groups to be assigned to a unit. The boys group (BG) had a unit and got painting right away. Our workday was supposed to be from 9-4. At 10:30 we finally got into a unit and started painting. There ended up being about 23 people in a small apartment. We had the opportunity to work with another group of students that were part of the boys and girls club of Toronto. After we painted, we cleaned up at the hotel and headed to the church for dinner and a service. They provided Jamaican food for us. It was actually really good! After the service we went to Walmart so the kids could pick up some snacks. Tuesday we headed back to the same sight but we painted down the street at some townhouses. We painted the living room, kitchen, 2 flights of stairs, 2 hallways, and 1 bathroom. The family had a little boy named Enrique. We enjoyed playing with him while we painted! After showering at the hotel we went to a local mall called Vaughn Mills. The kids had the opportunity to shop while the adults sat and ate at a really nice restaurant. We went back to the hotel and played some games before bed. Wednesday we were back at the apartments. We worked with a nice man from Pakistan, Haza. We painted his kitchen, dining room, living room, entry way, hallway, 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and 4 closets. It was basically every wall in his house. He fixed us a very good (and VERY spicy) chicken and rice dish. We enjoyed painting for him. He even gave us ice cream when we were done! We had the opportunity to work with a few of the boys and girls club members again and one of the members of the worship team from Olivet on Wed. Later that night we headed back to the church for dinner and a service. We had Korean food for dinner. YUM! It was really good! After the service we headed back to Walmart for another snack run. Thursday we (GG) worked in a townhouse again. The site leaders approached us on Wed and asked if we'd be willing to paint in a townhouse that had some special circumstances. The family that lived there included a 12 yr old autistic boy and they were sure exactly how the envoirment would be. We agree to paint it and headed out on Thurs morning. We got into the house and were overwhelmed with the smell and condition of the house. Dirty would be an understatment. But, we got to work! We painted the kitchen, living room, 3 hallways, 1 flight of stairs, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. By this time we'd really gotten into a rythm and we were able to finish by 2:30. We had the opportunity to paint with some of the BG on Thursday, which we hadn't done all week. After cleaning up we headed back to Vaughn Mills Mall. The kids enjoyed shopping again. After that we headed back to the hotel and played some cards! Friday was our free day. Kinda. We got to sleep in and headed to our site for a BBQ. We helped load up all the supplies we used throughout the week and then headed to the church. We had a debriefing and then headed into downtown Toronto for a Toronto Blue Jays game. The baseball game was totally unimpressive but being there was fun! We got back pretty late from that and tried to get as much packed as we could. Saturday morning we loaded up and hit the road about 8:30. We made it home in almost exactly 12 hours!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
HEY, I'M JESSICA!
Christian. Wife. Mommy. Daughter. Pastor. Friend. Saved.Redeemed. Beloved.
Archives
August 2021
Categories
All
|