FRIDAY!

Today, we had a final worship service, packed up and loaded the cars.  We met as a team to share what God taught us this week, and now we are headed to the Westside Market to eat lunch and return.  We hope to be home by 1 or 1:30 pm!  Thanks for following and for praying!!!

THURSDAY!

Alright, so it's currently 10:00 PM and I'm exhausted so I'm going to try to make this blog a short but thorough summary of our day. In the morning we started by doing an online scavenger hunt all through Cleveland. I was in a group with Gillian, Zoe, Stacie, and my Dad. At first we were very into it and started sprinting to every location, but my Dad and Stacie kept getting lost so we realized that we had no chance of beating the guys and gave up.  Then for lunch we went to Melt, which definitely cured my starving stomach. I was actually pretty positive I was going to get a full sandwich due to how hungry I was, but the last second changed it.  I'm glad I did because I barely finished the half. Anyways, after lunch we came back to Nehemiah to change and get ready to swim and hang out at Edgewater Park. When we arrived at the beach we found out that the waves were too dangerous to swim. We were all very bummed and disappointed because we talked to the lifeguard and he said that usually when the lake is closed, it doesn't usually open until the next day. I guess you could say God helped us out because less than 45 minutes later, we were allowed to swim. We then swam for about and hour. After they called for
break, Gillian, Zoe, Jack, and I went to explore these big pile of rocks on the lake. This was pretty fun
but kinda scary. We then headed back to Nehemiah again to shower and get ready for the movies. Incredibles 2 was really good but not near as good as the first one. I also kinda slept through a little bit but still watched most of it. We headed back to get some sleep so now I'm here and ready for bed, so Goodnight!

                           -Brooklyn

P.S I originally planned for this blog to be like 2 sentences but there was too much to tell!

So, I asked a question today. Yes, I often ask questions, my kids would probably say too many. But Mrs. Hansen and I saw God answer a question for us...literally, within a few moments. Our kids have been working really hard cleaning up a couple of pocket parks.  You've all read about all the sweat and hard work that they are putting into our time here in Cleveland. The empty lot that we were assigned to this afternoon to cleanup was right across the street from one that we cleaned up yesterday.  As we parked the car, I noticed that there was trash scattered on the ground of the park we made beautiful yesterday.  My heart kinda sunk. The hard work that our kids put in for a few hours ... was it for naught? I asked Mrs. Hansen a series of questions;  What do people who are living here think of us? Are they thankful for us, glad that their community is being cleaned up? Do they look at

us as just some do-gooders, unwelcome in their neighborhoods? Do they notice that their parks are clean and weed free? Do they even notice us at all?
Within the next couple minutes, I had my answer. And I'm not exaggerating.  Truly, 2 minutes later, a really nice fellow in a pickup truck dropped off a couple a pizzas to show his appreciation.  I looked at Mrs. Hansen, "Oh my goodness, God is amazing!" Yes, God answered my question.  People in the community really do appreciate what we are doing! My heart was lifted!

Stacie

As I'm typing this at 10:13 at night, the kids are playing cards, laughing and carrying on! Slap-happy! Why, you may ask at this hour, after 3 days of working in both sunshine and rain are they not exhausted?!? Well, we thought it'd be a great idea to take them to Sweeties Candies after dinner. What?!? Who's idea was this? They shopped and bought .... Sugar. And more sugar.  And then we played Putt-Putt and had a lesson in a pavilion beside Sweeties. So, now we are back with 10 kids on a sugar high! Maybe I should ask God, when are they going to crash?!

Stacie (again)

P.S.
I beat Pastor Brett in Putt-Putt...by 5 whole strokes! ;)

BEFORE AND AFTER!

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON!

Heyyyyyy whats up everybody?!! Its your girls Gilli and Vic here back atcha. For the rest of the day, we worked on an empty lot, with a fence that was falling down. There was tall grass and weeds EVERYWHERE!!!! There was a house right next to it, so that part of the fence was just fixed up by

us, but the rest of the fence was torn down. It was awful and the before and after picture didn't do justice to how much work we had to do. We had a lot of fun doing it though. We got passing semi trucks to honk and a kind person even brought us pizza.  We did find a garter snake the two of us got attached to. We named him Service the snake. However, the weed hacker hit him on the head and when we found him he was already hit.  We buried him and gave him a cross and Jack made him an RIP tombstone. It was a very productive day and despite the rain, we had fun and got closer to God. Seeya tomorrow for our fun day! Whoop whoop!

                                                           -Gillian and Vicki

BEFORE AND AFTER!

WEDNESDAY MORNING!

Today the entire team went to the church today to finish up the work we had started yesterday. We ate lunch, came back here and now are playing cards until we are assigned to a new worksite. The work we did was trimming the bushes, cleaning the window wells and removing the big pile of sticks. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do more work later today. We are currently waiting to go to an empty lot to clean it up and destroy a fence.

Jack

CAPTION THIS!:

TUESDAY NIGHT!

Tonight was a free dinner for anyone in the community, and some of the people present were either homeless or close to the homeless.  There were about 15 people not staying at The Nehemiah Mission that came.  Some of our group talked to a man who had a mental illness, and some of the things he said did not make any sense.  After the dinner, there was a short service led by a pastor that came from a very poor area of Liberia, Africa.  We had free time until our evening devotional, which the guys used to play game of basketball with members of other groups.  We studied Nehemiah again during the devotional with our Harvest group.

Brayden

Nehemiah Mission Director Jim Szakacs telling stories about his recent trip to Liberia at the pocket park.  Nehemiah Mission partners with a ministry in Gonta, Liberia.  

TUESDAY!

Today we worked on two separate sites, fixing up a church property and weeding/cleaning up a "pocket park". We split up into 2 groups, one would do the church in the morning and the "pocket park" in the afternoon. For the other group, vice versa. For the church property, the morning group started out by mowing the lawn and weed-waking around the area. Then they had to completely clean out one side of the church that had become totally overgrown by weeds and had a large pile of broken branches and a large gate. There was also a small front area of the church where some bushes needed pruned. The morning group took care of the front yard, and about half of the side area before lunch. Meanwhile, the group at the "pocket park", took to some weeding and edging of the beds. Then lunch happened, we had to make sure that everyone had their drinks bought at the gas station and that they were all correctly distributed between everyone after meeting at the park. After lunch, work resumed. The afternoon "pocket park" group made some serious gains, clearing out a five foot section behind a large fence that was about 80 feet long. Not only this, but they managed to weed out almost all of the thistle, a certain invasive Japanese plant and a lot of grapevines. But wait there's more, the group was also reassigned after completing their work to another tiny park. They were tasked with cleaning up trash and weeding the area. The second afternoon group, after arriving back at the church, began where the first group left off. They finished weeding the side of the property, and

almost completed the rest of the job. Pastor Brett helped with completing the pruning of the bushes. However, on the side of the church there is still a lot of remaining tree branches and sticks, along with the large gate. Both groups, made significant gains on their select jobs, and we hope that in cleaning up these areas, we will help clean up the areas around them.

Chase

MONDAY NIGHT!

Today after we ate dinner, our leaders decided to take us on a prayer walk. We split into two groups and went on our way. As we walked around, we prayed for whatever we came across that we felt needed prayed for. A few examples of things we prayed for are: the people of the city, the local churches and their leaders, police officers, and local businesses. The first half of the walk ended with ice-cream. After we finished our ice-cream, we headed back to Nehemiah Mission together as one group for singing and a bible lesson taught by my dad.

Claire

MONDAY AFTERNOON!

After lunch, we went outside and we made their property
look really nice. We pulled weeds in their garden and in the mulch beds. We mulched around their chicken coop around their outdoor chapel.  We mowed their lawn, weed-hacked, and made a fire pit stand. Chase stayed inside working with power tools creating a wooden platform. It was a good day.

Quinn

MONDAY MORNING!

Hello everyone! Gillian and Zoe here. It has been a good day. Last night, it was very very hard to

sleep for both of us, but most people had a good night. We went to breakfast then hung out for a little while before coming upstairs for a devotion. The director of Nehemiah Mission, Jim shared a few stories of how people have been transformed by the mission. We have been sorting out clothes and hanging them on the racks for Twice Blessed, the free clothing store where people can go to a worship service then shop for free on Saturdays. There are some very very very very cute babies. We have been taking turns holding them and walking with them. Chase, Quinn and Stacie just got here this morning.  Chase is helping with cutting and installing baseboards.  This afternoon, we're doing some work outside of the building.

SUNDAY NIGHT!

Today was Sunday, June 24. We left for the Nehemiah mission trip. The car rides were really fun, we got in the car at first it was really quiet, then it real loud. We started to joke around, talk, do some other stuff like pointing out all the super sketch stuff. Towards the end of the car ride we saw an adorable puppy thing. It was soooooooo cute. Emma rolled down the window and screamed "I LOVE YOU, WE'RE GONNA BE BEST FRIENDS FOREVERRRRR!" as we were passing the puppy thing. Once we took a good look we realized that it could be and evil puppy thing, but it was fun while it lasted.

Once we got to the building we were staying in, we introduced ourselves and explored the building.  My favorite area near the building is the chicken coop.  We already named 4 out of 8 of the chickens.  We have Sunny the Buff Orpington, Snow White the Bramah, Grinch the Rhode Island Red (she is evil), and Shadow the all black one.  We will soon name the other ones as well.  The other good thing is that the snacks are a free for all.  You can have any snack whenever you want.  See ya!

Emma 0_0 and Vicki :)

WE MADE IT!

NOT PICTURED:  Stacie, Chase & Quinn Marquis

WELCOME!

Thank you for visiting the middle school mission trip blog for Harvest Presbyterian Church.  Check back during the week of the trip for updates, pictures and prayer requests!

The Nehemiah Mission of Cleveland rebuilds the lives and homes of the physically and fiscally challenged of Cleveland through volunteer mission teams who improve living environments in order to sow seeds of hope for individuals and neighborhoods.

Please pray for us as we serve in the name of Christ!