Hey everyone! Sorry for a late update, but I am excited to share all about my domestic ministry experience from the last week! As many of you know, my squad went through a hurricane, yet God protected us and spared all our lives. I am so thankful for everyone who supported me and my squad, by either donating to Adventures in Mission for relief efforts, praying for us and sending many encouraging messages! I will be writing another blog soon about my experience, everything that happened and how we are recovering. For this blog however, I would just like to share stories from the rest of our ministry week. There were so many amazing moments that happened in North Carolina before the hurricane and I am excited to share those as well! God blessed us with such an amazing week, even if it didn’t end how we wanted it to.
Last Monday, our squad heading up to Black Mountain, North Carolina. We arrived to beautiful cabins (with indoor plumbing !) and meet some of our awesome hosts! It was raining that night, but we still decided to played beach volleyball in the rain. It was so fun to just hangout as a squad! We slept great that night in our comfortable beds and were ready for the week!
On Tuesday we began ministry. We split into different groups; one group did ATL (Ask The Lord) and went downtown in Asheville to evangelize to people. Another group helped by sanding tables and painting. My group headed to Excel college and helped clean up parts of their campus. We raked leaves, trimmed trees, moved rocks and weeded. In the afternoon it began to rain really hard. We continued to work for a while before our leaders called it a day. We went to a porch and got towels to attempt to dry off. We were getting ready to head back when one of the leaders from Excel came running up and asked us to help a house flooding. We dropped our towels and ran down the road. There was a house that was in front of a hill and water was rushing down the hill into the house. We ran up the hill and used pick axes and shovel to re route the water to a safe outlet. We used rocks and mud to make a barrier so the water couldn’t flow down the hill. Once the situation was under control we headed back up to attempt, once again, to dry off. My shoes never recovered from being that wet!
Though the first day of ministry was hard work and we returned soaking wet, it was amazing to work as a team and serve others. God showed up and it was a joy to work with the team from Excel! That night our whole squad went back to the Excel campus to eat dinner and have a games night with the college students. It was such a great night of community!
The next two day we did ministry work at Black Mountain group home. The group home is an amazing ministry that is home to so many children. They provide shelter, food, fun programs and most importantly a place for them to feel safe and loved. The home serves God, children, family and the Black Mountain community. They have multiple locations, partner with foster families in the community, run a cafe and thrift store to support the ministry and run the retreat camp we stayed at. It was such a blessing to be apart of their amazing and God-focused ministry and meet some truly amazing people.
We helped out by cleaning the community centre, gardening, organizing a wood shed, and sorting items and clothes at their thrift store. Our squad worked hard each day and came ready to serve in any way we could. God was so present durning our time in North Carolina. He brought our squad together as we served and allowed us to meet so many amazing people from Excel college and Black Mountain group home.
Some highlights from the week:
- Watching Survivor and playing euchre in the cabin with the squad
- Playing beach volleyball in the rain that first night
- Eating McDonald’s in our cabins
- Helping out at the thrift store, run by Black Mountain group home. We sorted items and clothes and it was so fun to do it as a squad!
- Having a bed and indoor bathroom!!
