Tuesday: Trailer Park and Seven Bridges (Last Day)

As I reflect on this trip I can say that the trip as a whole was both a spiritual awakening and revival. Throughout the past few months, I’ve been focused on certain things like college and school to the point where I was not setting time aside for the Lord as much as I should have. But getting out into the streets praying for the homeless and the needy helped me realize that there is a lot more to life than what lies right in front of me. The day that made me realize this was on our night route on Monday, under all of the bridges where I felt an overwhelming amount of the devil's presence, and it was so strong that it affected my mood entirely, and I basically shut myself down for the rest of the night. Not only that, but I started thinking of dark things as well, like specific outcomes of situations where some of or all of the people in our group wouldn’t make it back, and it started to scare me because that is always a possibility. After the route was over, I didn’t even eat anything and just went to bed to think and pray to make my mood lighten, and it finally got better the next morning. Stuff like that just makes me realize the frightening power that Satan has over the unbeliever and how it affects those around them. 

Another one of my favorite experiences of the trip was Tuesday afternoon as after we had done our route, we had so much extra food leftover that we set up the trucks on the side of the road and started flagging down every car that passed and handed out our leftover food to them. Even though we weren’t directly giving to those in dire need, many of the people who stopped to grab food didn’t even take it for themselves, but for others they knew were struggling. It’s just so awesome to see how God’s grace can reach people as we help others and show them His love. God works through his servants in ways we can't predict. We just have to be obedient.  Overall this trip has been my favorite use of a week I have ever gotten since I got to grow in Christ and help others to know Him. 

~ Sam da Silva

On Tuesday’s route our group went to a trailer park to give out food to the people there. Throughout that time it was so impactful to be able to see their thankfulness and being able to pray with them. I also met this little boy, Amar, who lived at the trailer park. I learned that he hasn’t been able to go to school or see his friends since Corona, so it was amazing to see how excited he was to play with Hayla and me. Overall, the experience of sharing the gospel with others was very touching and I was able to see how the Holy Spirit works through people.

~ Mackenna Epping

Today, we went to a trailor park to give some food out for free. While we were there, this kid was playing by himself. I felt so bad for him because it seemed like he had no friends to play with. Then, Mr. Hendrikse went to go and talk to him. Once he was done, he came back and said that the he doesn't play with any kids because of corona. He can go to the playground, but only when no one else is there. Once I heard this I felt so bad. I just imagined my self with no one to play with for months and being so lonley.

Once I was done packing one of the foods in a bag, I saw the boy on the wall and I went and sat by him. I asked him his name and he said it was Amar. He was so cute and adorable. I learned about a lot of things about him like how his grandma lives next door to him, how he has 2 brothers, one that is 1 years old and another that is only a few months. He also said how old he was, and how his parents are divorced. The parents divorced thing kind of touched me because my parents are also divorced. But his situation is much worse. He said that he hasn't seen his dad in a long time and that he lives far away. That was all really sad, but after we started playing the smile on his face made me so happy! And also knowing that he finally got someone else to play with might have made "Covid" a whole lot better for him, also it made me really happy! It's also funny and cute because he gave me a rock that I can keep. I know that anytime I look at that rock I will think of him and 7 bridges. 

7 bridges has meant so much to me. Just hearing everyone talking about God amazes me! Even with normal things these people talk about, it always leads back to God in some way. This was especially true in this one lady, Candice. She has these 4 amazing kids that are so kind and just so caring! She is an amazing mom and any time a word comes out of her mouth its just life. You never want her to stop talking! And her kids Jeremiah, Josiah, Keiyah, and Providence, they just have so much love to give and it really touched my heart! You just never want to let them go and just take them with you. It was also amazing to me that Josiah, who is just 10 years old also just talks about God a lot. These young kids can just talk about God just like that. They know more about God then I do and I can tell that this place has helped them with that! Everyone here is just so welcoming and wants you here and it feels like nothing I've experienced in Sheboygan! I know that next year I will definitely be trying to come back here and see everyone and help everyone, and hopefully get out of my comfort zone even more to pray for people.

~ Hayla Besaw

Today at the trailer park I was able to meet and talk with a woman and her son. Chloe and I helped her son find a cute little scarf he liked, which took forever since he was very picky. We prayed for her and then talked with her and learned a little about her story. She had recently started a new job in roofing and was able to go back to church for the first time in a long time since she no longer works on Sundays. She was explaining how it was such a blessing to her and how much peace and joy it brought her by going to church. It was such an amazing experience to be able to see how much joy it brought her and how thankful she was. 

Another one of my favorite experiences from today was playing with the kids. My favorite one was a little 2 year old girl named Providence. She was the cutest and sweetest little girl. She enjoyed doing everything and anything, from being pushed around in her little car to being swung by me and Chloe. Overall, the entire experience here at 7 Bridges has been such a blessing and an amazing opportunity.

~ Lilliana Young

Loading up food for our route!

Setting up at our station for the morning.  This trailer park has about 250 homes. Many of the people we connected with here are Hispanic and didn't speak much English. It was a great opportunity for our students to practice using their Spanish:)

Lilli and Chloe helping find clothes

Hayla and Amar

He we are shortly after setting up shop back by 7 Bridges. It was a blessing to pray with people and bless them with food.  Some people really needed food, and others stopped to get food for others. One person that stands out was a teacher who picked up food she could drop off at the homes of some of her students.

Whether it was the sign that brought people in or Iain's dance moves is debatable.

Some of our students played with the kids while the rest stayed up by the road handing out food.

Not that Iain needed encouragement to dance, but Starsky gave it to him anyway:)

Couldn't even venture a guess as to how many pounds of potatoes we gave away today.

Our guys were blessed to sit under the teaching of Pastor Robert F. Vann during the Bible Study time.  Pastor Vann is an authority in the field of addiction and relapse prevention.  He leads class every Tuesday night at 7 Bridges.

Ellianna and Providence

Never easy saying good-byes

Group shot with some of the kids

A Viking fan shares her testimony and explains why she wears a Packer hat....today.

Kim and I with good friends Jess and Nick.  It has been a blessing for Kim and I to develop friendships over the last 8 years of serving at 7 Bridges

Cleaning up and doing a little packing before heading to bed our last night in Atlanta..

Monday: Serving at the Garden / Night Route

I was very excited about today, and I was not disappointed. We start each day with a prayer that we chant standing in a circle, which I always look forward to. It's a great way to begin the day with a solid reminder of the faith we love and believe. I was kept busy all day, first making hygiene kits, then washing dishes, then sorting clothes. When I was done, I joined some of the others playing with the kids outside, especially Faith and Jeremiah. They were so excited to play and run around and clung onto us when we tried to leave to do the night route. The night route was incredible, if a little scary. One man, named K.R., was standing on a red rug under an overpass and made everyone "touch and agree" before he let let us pray for him. It was a bit discouraging because he didn't seem to be right in the head, but it was also a reminder that God is capable of saving anyone, even if it seems impossible to us. As Ephesians 3:20 tells us, God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."

~ Anna Perkins

Today I was able to have many different experiences and make new relationships and memories. This morning, before lunch, me and the boys were able to help load two big trucks full of stuff and different things that would eventually go to Africa. The trucks were full to the top, it was fun and good to see how much stuff there was to give to the people they could actually use it and that needed it. Then we had lunch and were able to be involved in packing lunches and making the lunches for the route we would go on at 5 at night. After we got finished putting the lunches together and then bagging them all, the boys and I went outside to go and play with the kids. I met this young girl name Provi (Providence) and she was super sweet and super cute. I had the opportunity to play with her and have a good time with her. I am glad I was able to make a new relationship even though she used me for my phone and the games. It was still fun to get to know what I could about her and have fun playing games with her. 

 At 5 we went out to the streets and went out to give people food, hats, gloves and more. This was the part of the day I was the most excited for. The other day we went out but it was with another youth group and we didn’t get to do much, but today it was just our group and some workers that helped us. It was a good experience to see how people live and how we can still show Gods love to everyone no matter what they are going through. At this park we went to I was able to meet a man named Tony. This was a very good experience because I was able to hear a little bit of his story and know about him. I gave him a lunch, a couple blankets, gloves, and a couple hats. He was really appreciative of receiving the things I gave him and even a prayer. He was a really nice man and really appreciated what we were doing. We also were able to meet the other end of that and someone that didn’t appreciate what we gave him and we had to leave because he was swearing at us and seemed to be on drugs. It was a overall good experience and fun time to see how people live and try and help them. I hope that we were able to show Gods love and that God can make a change in their hearts and they can find him and see the value that he has.

~ Eli Johnson

Today we started the day off by splitting off into guys and girls. The guys in our group prayed with the men from 7 Bridges and the girls prayed with the women. It was a really good way to start the day because we were able to get our minds set right. Right after that the guys went with the men and we had to go into one of the crates that is on the site that’s filled with random stuff that people donate. We pretty much emptied a whole 50 foot long crate and moved all the stuff into a big truck that would deliver the donations to an organization who would eventually send the donations to Africa.  After we finished the crate we went to an old bus that’s on site which was also completely filled with donations. We emptied that one too, into a different truck.

After we finished that we sorted some clothes with the rest of our group and then made the lunches for the routes later in the night. Then, we went outside and played tag with the kids for a while before we left to go on our routes. This one kid, Josiah always comes up to me and he’s always just hanging out with me, Max, Will, Eli, and Kory. He’s pretty funny cuz he gave Max the nickname "toothpick" and started calling Kory "retail" which I have no idea where that one came from.

Tonight was a lot different from our experience going out on Saturday because it was just our group with the men and the men stayed back a little and let us do a lot of the praying and going up to the people. My first time praying with someone actually went a lot better than I thought it would because the lady I asked to pray with seemed really thankful for everything we gave her. But, it was really sad to see some of the living conditions of so many of the people we met. There was one time where we went under a bridge and had to walk pretty far back and we could only see a ton of trash and a few silhouettes of people. We prayed with one lady back there and she seemed very grateful, but then we prayed with another man who at first seemed very eager for us to pray. We had the whole group over by him and he made us all have our arms around each other before he let us pray. When we finished he saw that one of the guys from 7 Bridges was using his camera and he started swearing and yelling at us to leave. When we got back to the vans I found out that he had actually graduated from 7 bridges. So, it was really sad to see that he was now living way back under a bridge and in the mental condition that he was in. But, I was able to see the way God is working when we went to other people who really seemed to have a good relationship with God and were really grateful for what we were doing.

~ Justin Hendrikse

Today was a fun day full of different experiences. We started off the day with the rest of the men from 7 Bridges with their morning prayer and scripture reading. They all are so hyped and they all start hooting and hollering. It was really neat for me. We had the opportunity to help out the people down here by helping them fill up these trucks full of different donations like toys and supplies. These supplies are being sent to people in need in Africa. I was the person in the back of the huge truck squatting and grabbing the stuff at the beginning of the assembly line so I got my share of a workout in.  We also sat in on a Bible study which a young guy named Eric led. After a day of helping around the 7 Bridges Recovery grounds I was kind of wiped. I also had a chance to play with a kid named Josiah. He loves playing tag and is a fun kid.

We also got to go on a night route at the end of the day. A “route” is when we go out and give lunches to the homeless who need them and we try praying with them as well. I was a bit nervous about this because it was at night in a big city. It was also a little bit creepy walking up to people in the dark, especially when they’re complete strangers and you don’t know who they are. I had one interesting experience where a man didn’t want anything to do with God and was yelling at me and calling me things which was a bit startling. This was a good experience for me and overall there were a lot of great people I was able to pray with which was really cool. So far it has been a great trip where I have learned a lot and have strengthened my own relationship with God by trying to reach out to others in need of Christ. It has been a great opportunity for all of us to spread the love of God.

~ Will Grasse

Prayer time with the men this morning

A little cleaning...

Transferring donations from crate to truck

We eventually packed this truck completely full of donations

 

Sorting donations from back home to take out on route

Justin and Josiah

One of the men drove this out on route tonight. Wish I could've ridden shotgun:)

Handing out clothing and blankets

The Bridge to Nowhere

Here you can see us walking over to a group of people that are homeless. We had several opportunities to hand out clothing and food as well as offer prayer. 

Some members of our team praying with a person that lives under the bridge

Outside the Capital building there are several people who are homeless