Cincy Day #5

  Today was our last day of service with YouthWorks in Cincinnati, OH.  It was a good day, with much of the same as the past few days, except that we had to say good bye to our kids and work site friends, which was hard and sad for many.

  We came back from our service time as well as our shower time at the local YMCA and began to prepare for a community cook-out where we would mingle with some of the local community folk, eat dinner off the grill with them and enjoy a nice conversation.  Not only did we hang out, enjoy good food but we also played some good sports!  I played football (ya know, the real kind...the kind where you throw and catch a ball...) while others played some soccer. 

  This cook-out was a total blast and a good wind-down for our kids.  When we got back to the site, we had the boys pack all there things and put all but their bedding and other essentials on the trailer.  We then headed into our club time, which was the BEST yet!

  At the end of the service, we did a foot washing where we leaders washed the feet of the teens and prayed over them.  God spoke to the heart of all our teens in a MIGHTY and powerful way.  The Holy Spirit was strong and powerful hitting our kids in the heart with His truth.  Many kids felt an overwhelming sense of God's love for them and couldn't stop crying because it hit them so hard.

  We had all the guys write out what they felt God saying to them and all of them heard a word from the Lord and were able to claim it as such!  Please, ask your students share with you what they heard God speak into them...trust me, it's GREAT stuff.

  I know this entry was a bit short, but the impact of that evening service I believe will echo throughout the rest of these students lives...if they let it!  Tomorrow, we head out to come home!

 Parents: I will have the teens call you as we are in transit so they can relay the exact time in which we will be arriving!

See ya in the afternoon tomorrow!

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Cincy Day #4

Today was a long, hot day, so this post will be quite short because I am pretty tired.

  Most of our groups were out today on a field-trip for our summer day camp groups.  We saw 13 skits and watching the kids perform was very entertaining...the only problem was the heat.  Here in Cinci, we had a 99 degree day but with humidity, it felt like 104.  It was pretty sweaty all day and we had little time to really get in the shade.

  Even though this sounds, rough, it was good for my crew personally because after going to the movies yesterday the whole group kind of felt like we hadn't done much compared to the other groups, so we all agreed that this one was tough, but being stretched felt good!

  Other groups went to the elderly homes and painted a bathroom.  Still other groups worked outside in the oppressive heat pulling trees up and cutting the bush out of the way.  I think my Spotlight person for today has to be Malik Allen.  He has consistently stepped up to the plate and has worked very hard!  Joe Oliver who is in his group says that Malik has done everything asked of him plus more.  I am super impressed with him and many other teens for working hard through the day today.

  In the evening we went to a Baptist church which took some of our teens out of their element with the loud preaching and the constant standing up and sitting down the congregation would do in the middle of a message...yet for their discomfort, God was speaking to them.  Many of the teens shared a profound connection with the preacher and Andy Watkins as well as David Cranston stated they wished there was another service so they could go to it!  The preacher preached from Galatians 1 and discussed how God saved Paul, even though he was a sinner.  It was a great message for the kids to hear and a great new experience for many of them to have.  The website for the church (if you're interested) is: http://www.tbc-onthemove.org/ so you can go and check that out.

  We came back, had some church group time then enjoyed some free time right before bed.  It was a busy day and a hot day where some of the kids had a rough time dealing with the heat.  However, all in all God continued to do His work in their lives and I suspect that you will have some pretty amazing stories from your teens.  I also suspect strongly that you will see a difference in them as they come back! 

Thanks for reading these blogs!

  Stay Tuned for the last entry...tomorrow!

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Cincy Day #3

  Today was another good day full of stretching, service and Jesus' Presence.  Our work day was short today but still very effective.

  My group went to the movies with our kids today and watched The Spiderwick Chronicles. Not your "typical" missions trip type of work but it was great time at getting to know the kids in a different type of atmosphere. Sadly, being a shortened day, after the movie we headed to our afternoon activity without being able to help the Union Baptist Kids Camp directors with the kids during lunch.

  At other sites, there was tons of weeding to be done, and some of the kids found what they labeled "snacks" which were just vegetables that were left in the garden due to the weeds.  Some of the kids plucked them out of the ground and tried to determine what type of peppers and/or vegetables they were.  David Cranston grabbed what he thought was going to be a sweet red pepper, but in fact it was a habenero!  He was regaling the guys of his masculine feet of dominating the pepper this evening and we all cracked up laughing!

  Other groups worked alongside other kids camps while they tested (like our my groups kids did yesterday) and still others worked with the elderly and a small group (Joe Oliver, Malik Allen and Joshua Kovaly) painted a bathroom.

  After we our sites, we headed to the showers at the YMCA to get freshened up for our evening activity, which was at the Underground Railroad Freedom Center.  We went on a tour of all the historical portions of this great slave abolitionists movement and learned a ton about who was involved and how it all went down.  It was very interesting and educational.

  After our time there, we headed back to the site for Taco Tuesday dinner and enjoyed a Mexican feast of nachos and tacos!  After dinner, we had a bit of free time, so we leaders took the students to Graeder's Ice Cream...this is some GREAT ice cream!  We at there and hung out for awhile.  We all highly enjoyed our ice cream then headed back to the site for our evening CLUB time where we learned how to "Be Rather Than Do". 

  Being rather than Doing is all about connecting more to God on a level that allows Him to change us from the inside out.  We sat in silence a lot and reflected on what God was saying to us...it was a good time to reflect and listen to the Voice of God.

  As I've been saying all along, I am really impressed with these students!  There has been minimal complaining and a huge attitude of service!  My hope is to bring this heart for service back to Pittsburgh!  Keep praying for our teens and their hearts, you're prayers have been amazing so far!

  Again, the website to see all the latest videos is here: http://www.youtube.com/user/picako7

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Cincy Day #2

Today was our first "ministry day" where we woke up early, had some good breakfast, spent some time with God and went to work!

  Our group was split into many different groups (7 to be exact).  Some of us were split into groups with other churches and some were just with ACAC but all went super well!

  First, my group: Shawnee, Ramello, Andrew D., Dougie, Essence, Monroe and Nick V. were up early and started putting breakfast together as well as the lunch for the day.

  My group was one of the mixed groups where we had some Canadian friends along with us.  We worked with an inner-city day camp all day and got to know a ton of the kids and enjoyed hanging out with them as well as teaching them.  One thing that cracked me up was that Dougie Graham decided to pull out the game "Life" and was soon swarmed by about 5 teens.  He ended up playing the game "Life" for literally 2 hours!  The kids loved Dougie and it was really cool to watch.

  Two more groups from ACAC worked with some inner-city day camps and hearing their stories and seeing the pictures some of them had was quite interesting.  God has been using these teens in a mighty way and being the largest group of Middle Schoolers have impressed the staff at Youth Works with their maturity and willingness to step in.

  I loved seeing and hearing many of the stories that have been popping up, make sure to draw out some of these stories when the kids get home, because like I said, God has been doing great things!

  After we got back from our work sites, we headed to the showers to change and clean up.  After that was some free time and Dinner, tonight we ate pasta and garlic bread...it was delicious!

  After dinner, we headed to our Evening activity which was the "Purple People Bridge" (Ask the kids to explain why it's called that way) and had a fun time playing in the park.  We even played an international game of ultimate Frisbee!

  After the great evening away, we came home and had our session with the YW Staff was about "Getting out of the Boat" and not allowing our fears to guide us.  After the talk, we headed into small group time and discussed the talk further.

  After that we headed to bed!  Here's the link to some of the videos we took today: http://www.youtube.com/user/picako7


  Here's an interview of Josh Gazica:

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Cincy Day #1

Today was the first day of our Cincy Trip.  We all said goodbye to our families, hopped in the vans and drove away through 4 states (PA, WV, OH and KY) and arrived safe and sound at our site.

  We had no problems except a bit of traffic (only in Pittsburgh though...go figure!) on our way to Cincy.  We stopped only twice, one to eat and one for restrooms.  The girls ate at McDonald's and the boys ate ate Wendy's. 

  When we arrived to our site, we were a bit late but it didn't matter because another church had still not shown up yet.  We unpacked our stuff then headed into dinner.  After dinner the leaders and teens were briefed on all the weeks happenings, then we had a club time.

  We heard of our need to become less and Jesus to become more.  We heard about the rich young ruler who was reluctant to give up his power and wealth in order to serve Jesus.  We were also challenged to seek the one thing that would cause us to hold back and give that to God. 

  After our club time, we broke up into our small groups (done by van) and went even deeper with the lesson.  After we spent time going deeper for about 40 minutes, we got back together, prayed then headed off to bed.  Tomorrow is going to be a long day and we are all expecting some amazing things to happen!

  Be in prayer for me (Pastor Marv) because I woke up this morning with a scratchy throat and am beginning to lose my voice...don't worry I wasn't yelling or anything, it's just this thing stuck in my throat :)  Also pray for our groups tomorrow to really rely on God and be willing to step up to the plate!  Below is a quick video of Josiah White as he ponders the day right before sleep!

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Cincy Youth Works Blog

This will be the site used for the YouthWorks Cincy trip for ACAC Middle School students!

 Depending on web access, this site should be updated each night beginning on Sunday Night August 1st.  Before then, remain in prayer for our students, the leaders and the people we will be ministering to.

  We're all looking forward to an amazing trip where we are knowing that God will do GREAT things both in our youth and in the people we will minister to.

  STAY TUNED!!

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