Northeast Ohio 09

 

Saturday, July 18- 9:30 am.

Last update of the week and it will be brief.  Sorry, no pictures today but there will be plenty to see tomorrow at church and on facebook very soon.  This has been a great trip!  The team does not want it to end and they've come up with an idea to buy a giant farm house together, live off the land and do ministry projects all around akron permanently!  I'm not sure they've thought that through!  Hopefully, this trip will go on in spirit and in actions.  The students all have opportunities to take a step toward getting involved in the ministries we worked with all week and make this a part of the other 51 weeks in the year.  Families, please encourage them to do so.

Well we've got too many stories to tell to fit on the internet, lots of resting to do, and a half day of ministry left so I will end with a few thoughts. 

God is good, and to Him be the glory!  He was with us.  This trip was about Him and for Him and we couldn't have asked anything more of Him.  He blessed us beyond what I imagined.

Thank you for letting your son, daughter, brother, sister or friend be a part of this team.  They were each a huge blessing and great teammate.  I can't imagine this team without each individual.  Thanks for letting us have them for a week.

Lastly, thanks for praying.  You were a huge part of this trip!  We love you all and will see you very soon.

-Eric Hays on behalf of the Northeast Ohio Ministry Trip

 

Friday, July 17- 9:00 am.

Hello Fans of the Ehko Blog!!!  Thanks so much for your prayers.  I want to let you know that God has been so good to us on this trip.  He's showing his love in so many ways, both to us and through us.  The students have done an amazing job and they are starting to get sad that our time together is almost done.  It's been such a blessing to lead this trip. 

We've been going through the beatitudes in Matthew 5 for our training and during the trip.  Our students are learning how to be humble, compassionate and merciful.  They are seeing God's heart for the broken and hurting.  It's such a privelege to see them want to be the type of people who store up for themselves treasures in heaven.  Like the beatitudes urge us, our students are desiring to sacrifice for the gospel, to mourn over sin, and to submit themselves to God's plan. 

Yesterday, we had a team doing VBS as usual, while another team served lunch at The Salvation Army.  In the evening, we sent 10 people to the Haven of Rest to serve dinner and hang out with some kids while their moms took part in a program.  The rest of our team stayed back and worked hard doing some work at our home site Urban Vision.  God used us in four different places to show his love and it was great to hear the students share their stories with each other. 

Enough of my rambling!  No you get to hear them share their stories and see some highlights!  God bless!

-Eric

"Hey kids!!! This is Amy (Hoag), and I’m going to tell you about today’s adventures. At the beginning of the day, we were all tired, hungry and annoyed at the slow movement of water in the Chapel showers. Although, when we got to the VBS site, we were finally beginning to get excited about being with the kids again. Everyone kind of got “bonded” with one kid or another, and I seemed to have attracted quite a few kids. The girls I stayed with most of the day were Selena, Kelsey, Alyssa, Beverley and LaDaysia. It was heartbreaking listening to the sad things these children had to put up with at their homes.    

Like I said, we’ve been having so much fun bonding with the kids (my favorite part) and working with people we didn’t know. I didn’t think that I would be able to really interact with the kids because most of the time I have issues talking to people, especially strangers, but somehow, it was really easy for me. Now, the kids all treat me like a loveable, huggable jungle gym. Kelsey, a girl I have really bonded with, was very upset when I left the VBS today, and although it was horrible and heartbreaking to see how much trust and love she put into me—a person she barely knew, and at the end of only our third day together-- it was really touching that she refused to let go of me, and repeatedly called me mommy and told me how much she loved me.

On the Brightside however, when we got back to Urban Vision, it was time to paint. Although we were all sad and tired, after a nap we all got to work in different areas. My area was with a ton of cool people in a hot sanctuary, painting the whole room. It was fun, although we got dirty and VERY messy! Having all of that constructive fun really brightened us up.  

Please be praying for us to have the strength (emotional and physical) to keep on going for the next few days as we continue working hard.
P.S: HEY FAMILY and CALEB and ADRIANA and EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!         
P.P.S: To MRS.LEPAGE: Mary says HEY!"
Peace--- Amy
 

Hey everyone reading this! ☺

This week has seriously been amazing. We’ve been able to show God’s love and touch so many lives…whether we’re weeding an empty lot, feeding hungry people who come from everywhere, painting a house, or having a blast with kids who don’t really have a family. We’ve been hearing really depressing stories; kids who have no clue who’s their brothers and sisters are, kids who just can’t trust anyone anymore, or kids who will just become attached to you if you just show some love to them. We’ve been doing all kinds other stuff…like painting in this cramped sanctuary, demolishing a wall, and fixing a ceiling! It’s great to know that we’re touching lives just by doing stuff like that.

Yesterday, half of our team went on a breakfast experience. Each van got like $20 and we had to feed the whole van and also bless someone else. We argued about everything at first (like what pop tarts to get) but we got through it and we actually had so many leftovers even after we fed ourselves and blessed someone else. It was pretty fun and then we realized that homeless people go through what we did every day. It’s a challenge for them to figure out how they’ll like survive the day! ☹

So yeah…that’s what’s been happening. I got to go take a shower! :)

P.S. HAPPY BiRTHDAY MOM!
P.S.S.  (Amy did it wrong) We’ve been planning to all move in together and have a farm. Just letting everybody know ☺"

~Christina ☺

"Hello my name is Danny Clemente. I am having an awesome week on this missions trip. Yesterday I was on team two which meant that I got to go to the Salvation army. But before I to go to there Igot to try something called the Breakfast challenge. It was very fun and really showed us how challenging it is to by food with little money.  Then we went to thew Salvation Army. At the Salvation Army we were sent to work in their kitchen to prepare food for homeless people. We made like 200 lunches which included to chicken-salad samwiches, and some snacks. Then we went and set up the place where we would serve them food. As the people started to come in we gave them each a lunch, a  drink, and a half of watermelon. But believe it or not we actually ran out of food. We found out that some of the people eating had taken more than one lunch and were taking advantage of us. Then , after that we came back to urban vision and worked on some labor projects. Tonite we will finish. I am looking forward to that. Goodbye

P.S. Happy Birth Day Leah"  

Danny

"Morning this is Bethany. I don’t know what others have said but yesterday was lots of fun. My group went to VBS. It was different because we got to find out a lot more about the kids family lives and how different theirs are from ours. Then we came back to Urban Vision and got to sleep, which I was very excited about. Then we ate and my small group and someone else’s got to go paint. 

Today we (group 1) are looking forward to do the breakfast experience today. Also like the other group did yesterday we are going to Salvation Army. 

I am sure you have already read some funny things that have happened so I want to share something cute….
One little girl named Xy, who was 3 years old, said when praying…
Thank you for mommy and daddy who give me hugs and kisses and love me.

I have begun to realize that we have loving parents who most of us just expect to be there and love us.  So thanks mom and dad love yah. I didn’t forget you Caleb and Emily, I love you too."  

-Bethany Schroll
 

 

 

 

Thursday, July 16- 1:00 pm.

Another late night followed by an early morning.  We had a great day of service followed by an evening of fun at Lake Erie and some dinner and arcade action at Dave and Busters.  All in all, yesterday was a great day.  Here are the students takes and some pictures.

“Yesterday was Wednesday, which therefore meant it was fun day. Before the fun began, we still had vacation bible school and south street to do. I had this one kid named Kobe follow me around the whole time, I don’t even think he knows my name. He’s the coolest little kid ever. I’m looking forward to seeing him again on Friday. Alright, after all the work was done, we started on our way to the fun. Our first stop was a beach on Lake Erie. When we got there, we only had about 45 minutes to swim and the water was completely freezing. After the beach, we went to Dave and Busters, one of the biggest arcades I have ever seen in my life. It was awesome. The fun day was truly a fun day.”
-Jeremy Jagger

"Wednesday was a very busy day. First, group 1 went to South Street Ministries. We had a meeting in a part of their house. After that, we went to another building that they own and did a variety of things. We cleaned walls, moved big furniture, and did other things to help out the ministry. I picked up trash on the outside of the building with Thomas and the Crabbs’ son Jon. At about two o’clock we went back to Urban Vision and rested until our next event. It was the fun day, so they didn’t tell us where we were going. We drove for about an hour until we stopped at Lake Erie and swam for a while. Next, we went to Dave & Busters which is a restaurant/arcade. After we ate an awesome buffet, we played at the arcade for about  2 hours. Myself and a few other people put our tickets together and bought a lot of prizes. It was a really fun day."
-Andrew Schauer

"Yesterday was Wednesday our fun day. The whole group got split up into two groups, one group went to VBS and the other group went to South street. Our group went to Vbs with the little kids. For a while the little kids played outside with us, then the Zoo came to show some animals to the little kids because it was a zoo theme for that week. Today we are going to Salvation army to help out and the other half is going back to VBS. The other half of the day we went to lake erie to swim, and then dave and busters to have fun and play games. The whole day was really fun I am excited for today to help at salvation army, and we are going to help construct the bulding we are staying at. We are having a great time!"
-Marissa Ridenour

“Wednesday was our fun day. But first we had to get some work done. We did our normal split with the group where one group went to VBS and the other group went to South Street Ministries. When we all met up again at 2:00 we were forced to take naps:[. After the long drive, we finally found out that we were going to Lake Erie. Afterwards, we went to a place called Dave and Buster’s. It is sorta like an adult Chuck E. Cheese. Then about 4 other people all put their tickets together and got a ton of prizes and some certain people [Andrew] were addicted to a certain game. Today my half of our group is going to work at Salvation Army and we get to serve lunch and show God’s love to all of the people there.”
~Marisa Gross:]

Here is our team dancing at VBS to some prayer beats and for fun, we threw in the Cha Cha Slide.  We had a special guest dancer in the form of Pastor Halley!

If that doesn't look like a solid gold dancer, I don't know what does!  Thanks for your prayers, you'll hear from us late tonight!  God Bless

-Eric

Wednesday, July 15 10:00 am.

Here is our Tuesday update.  We got in late last night so we couldn't get a blog in.  Here are some updates from students and plenty of pictures.  Enjoy!

"Hello everyone reading this!! Currently the Ehko eighth graders are sitting in the gym of the chapel getting ready to take our showers, did I mention it’s six forty five? We had to get up early to remove paint from last night, so rise and shine was a happy SIX A.M! ☺ We had a long day yesterday but personally I think it was one of the best. Our team split in half and one half went to VBS while the other went to South Street Ministries. I was in the South Street group. We started getting to work at the Crabb’s house which is also a ministry basically in their backyard, they have an extra building and a lot of land. I was assigned to pick up trash down south street with a few other people. We picked up FOUR huge garbage bags of trash and had a lot of fun along the way. We came back to the house and I started weeding the garden. Now don’t get me wrong all of this was really fun stuff, and I enjoyed helping out wherever I could, but my favorite part of the day yesterday was when they told me I was free to go play with some of the neighborhood kids. I went down to the extra lot with the playground and didn’t quite know what to expect. SO many questions popped in my head; were these kids anything like me? What do they even like to do? I wonder what their home lives are like? Would it be weird to hug any of them? All my anxiety was calmed when I asked these two little girls what their favorite tv show was, and of course they said, Hannah Montana. Also my favorite tv show and I’m not ashamed of it ☺. That immediately broke the ice, we started dancing and singing and putting on little skits. These kids were exactly like me, and  sadly enough, before yesterday I never thought that was true. My eyes were completely opened and replaced with God’s eyes. I loved all these kids and I didn’t want to leave. I hope so many more chances to have kids fighting to hold my hand, giving at least ten million hugs, pushing them on the swing, playing through a sprinkler, and kissing this little boys cut before I put a band aid on it. He even said it made it better ☺ . I think my missions trip definitely started for real yesterday and I can’t wait for the rest of this week. Hi to my family whichever one of you is reading this. Jordan, I hope your team did amazing in Atlana. Dad I’m praying for you through everything, and mom try and relax this week ☺ Ryan; I hope you’re doing okay at home, if you know what I mean. Dave I miss you while you’re away!"

Love,
Renee Shaffer
 

"Hey everyone. We are having so much fun here on our missions trip, everything is going very well. V.B.S is so much fun, the kids are so cute and fun to be with. It’s kind of sad because a lot of these children are starving for love, many of us eighth graders are called mom or dad by some of the them. After team one went to V.B.S, we went back to Urban Vision changed our clothes and traveled one hour to Cleveland and painted a house for a lady who just had surgery, that was a lot of fun. I personally am enjoying this missions trip very much. I have learned so many things and have seen so many new things. I hope all of the families are well."

IAN

 

"Hey whats up this is Thomas. Vbs is going good. It is kind of hard to get along with the older kids but everybody is trying there hardest. We have had a great time. We panted and scraped a house. We had a waterslide at vbs. Please pray for us we need lots of it. But the misoins trip. We are working at southstreet ministries to day so im pumped for that and today is our funday score. Hi mom hi dad bye."               
Thomas bush the cooliest kid ever

"Hey its Danielle. VBS is pretty fun. All of the kids like cling to you, its so cute. All of the girls were giving piggy back rides and carrying the kids on their shoulders, and they were smiling and laughing the whole time, and I love to see them happy. Yesterday a group of like 6 people and I pulled weeds pretty much from 10  – 2. There was this gate, with a BUNCH of weeds like up to my head in it, and they guys pretty much took care of that, but we pulled A LOT of weeds, and it looked a lot better. We are all having soo much fun on the trip, and we are all bonding really well & making new friends. The girls are getting pretty close. Oh, hi mom & dad & Melissa(: ! "

Danielle Mellinger

PREACH IT MATT!
 

Monday, July 13- 11:45 pm.

Hello beautiful people searching the worldwide interwebs for updates about the 8th grade trip.  The students have a lot to say about what's going on so I'll be brief.  You'll hear the details from them, but I want to let you know that our team is amazing.  These students are serving the Lord with everything they've got and they are doing it with great attitudes.  Everywhere we are serving, people are so encouraged by them and impressed with them.  Some folks even commented on how seeing these young people serve the Lord is rejuvenating their faith and ferver for serving Christ.  I'm so pleased to have the privilege to lead and serve alongside them.  Here are some photos and the thoughts of some of our amazing students.

-Eric

Hey Fellow Members of the Chapel Blog!

This is Bryce Schmidt [the Great]. Today was our first day of VBS at Miller Avenue United Church of Christ. We only had a couple kids at first, but then more and more came throughout the day. I helped in the red group, which were mainly older kids. It was slightly frustrating during one activity when they weren’t paying attention that much, but they seemed to enjoy most everything else. It was fun playing with the younger kids when they were waiting to be picked up by their parents.
We also went to the downtown YMCA where we participated in a service with worship and a speaker with homeless and impoverished people. Then we served them dinner and helped pass out clothes to those who needed them. It was really humbling to speak with some of the people there. Here I was thinking we were coming to serve these people in need when really they encouraged us and shared their experiences that they have had. I really felt like they affected me much more than I affected them.
After the service, we went to a park with some of those people and sang more songs and listened to the speaker again. He then turned the time over to us so we could share our testimonies. Eric had asked Mary Messner and I to tell ours, and so we did. I was really encouraged to hear another friend’s testimony, especially when many other kids came up as well to share theirs without any future notice.
Then we had an awesome dance party afterward!!! All in all today was a great day. See you soon Dad, Mom, Vanessa, and Janaya!

-Bryce

Hey everyone! ☺  This week has been wonderful since the start. Everyone is so super nice & they have been so amazing since the start. This morning was crazy. Last night no one got to sleep on time, so when we wake up everyone was like dead tired.. we learned our lesson ☹ I gave my testimony today, & it went pretty well. I really didn’t plan on crying but when I did everyone was giving me hugs, & they really cared even though it was the first actual day. I’ve been experiencing so much love around me & it’s wonderful. God is working in each individual person & the entire team just amazingly. The kids are adorable & I don’t want to leave them ☹  oh & Eric just sprayed window cleaner on his face instead of water… haha ☺ Keep praying, we appreciate it!   

Love: Mary Messner ☺

 

First day was a wonderful day. I personally had the older kids at the VBS they were going into 5th grade. They were a hand full but I still had a good day, and I hope I make some difference. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the week has to bring to us and expand the Kingdom of God!
Love: Elizabeth Buerling
 

 

So far, this trip has been an amazing experience.  We just had our first full day today and it seems like we got so much accomplished.  I’m really looking forward to the rest of it. Seeing God work in all of our hearts is something indescribable.  Many kids came to the VBS, and working with them was a blast.  I look forward to seeing them again tomorrow.  Hearing the service at YMCA and the testimonies afterward was amazing as well.  I thought it brought the team closer.  I can’t wait until tomorrow!  And we are truly blessed to be a blessing.

  -Seth Post 

 

 

 

 

Sunday July 12, 11:00 pm

Hey y'all!  We're off to a great start.  We've invited tons of kids to our VBS and we've settled in at Urban Vision.  We're very excited about what's coming up tomorrow.  First, we're off to VBS for our first full day with the kids.  We can't wait to see what God will do through this.  It's amazing to think that kids may accept Christ and that this week is going to matter for eternity! 

After VBS we're going to serve dinner with Word on the Street ministry to people who need a good meal and to be shown and told about the good news of the kingdom of God.  Please pray that our team can be upbeat, humble and have hearts of servants tomorrow.  Thanks for joining with us in this journey.  We know that God is on our side.  I can't wait to report tomorrow about what God has done! 

Here are some thoughts from some of our students on the team.  Just know that I claim no responsibility for their grammar, spelling or punctuation!!!-

"Hey everyone ,ok so here is the deal today we haven’t done too much other than set up for v.b.s (in a jungle theme) and the other half went out to gather up children to come and join us in the future week .We got set up at our temporary home and found out that we are also going to be working at the church we are staying at ,by painting and rebuilding a wall .So its about time for us o go to bed because we have a big day ahead of us ,we are all having so fun!

P.S
I love you mom and dad"

-Abby Ball

"Hello and shalom if you don’t know Hebrew.  Our first day was awesome, ya we took and 10 minutes to get to VBS and that was fun, and we set up a jungle theme.  Then we went to the place we are staying the nights and the guys are sleeping in a tiny room (witch stinks come on guys need a lot of space for there smells) and girls got a huge room, played some B-ball and my team won and now I want to go to bed, good night world. Oh ya, mom and dad, I love u all and don’t let Daniel go in my room."

-Clint Crumley

 

 

 

Sunday July 12

Hey Everybody!!!  We're off.  And by off I mean, we're driving a few miles away.  Pray for us as we are having a party in the neighborhood in which we will have our VBS throughout the week.  Pray that our team will connect well with the other volunteers.  Pray that we will get to know some kids right off the bat and that the Holy Spirit would go out before us and work in the hearts of this neighborhood.  We're excited to see what God is going to do!  Stay tuned for our next update and check the hotline (330.315.5615) tonight to hear about how our day went!  Thanks for your prayers and support!

-Eric