We woke up early this morning to Florence and the Machines. Scratch that. I woke up early to Florence and the Machines. Everyone else woke up several shuffled songs later. The time lapse between the alarm and the actual time the kids get up has increased a decent amount each day this week. But we are smart in setting our wake up time a solid hour and half before we actually have to load up and be somewhere.
Today was the last day of service and something completely different from what we have been doing. The ministries up to this point have been primarily relational. The project today was at Doghead Farm, an urban farm in south Atlanta. When we arrived, Aubrey who is a dude from Concrete Jungle greeted us and set us up with our specific tasks. Some of us were to plant sweet potatoes, some were to dig new beds, and others were to work on the compost. I was on the digging crew. We had to dig a bed three feet wide and two feet deep. Several of us worked on it so it wasn't too bad, AND we found strange treasure buried in the dirt. About a foot or so deep, we ran into something hard and started to uncover a MASSIVE root. When we finally got it uprooted it was like 6 feet long and around 5 inches in diameter. It was pretty cool. Apparently there are lots of strange things under ground around there including pieces of a car, not limited to a bumper and hoses.
Aubrey explained that Concrete Jungle was established to provide fresh produce to food banks and homeless shelters where most of the donated items are not nutritional or not fresh. They pick fruit trees around the city and run the Doghead Farm named after the mural at the back of the empty lot. When you pull up to the farm you aren't really expecting it as it is oddly planted in the middle of a residential neighborhood. The variety of plants ranging from watermelons and beets to sweet potatoes and tomatoes take up the majority of a large lot between a creek and a several homes. It is pretty neat.
We spent three hours out there planting, digging, pulling kudzu and turning compost. By the end of our time there we had accomplished a fair amount of work and the sweat covering every inch of our bodies proved it. Luckily the Y allowed us to use their showers early today so we didn't have to do our fun activities in disgusting clothes. We ate our lunches in the car on the way to the Y and dropped off our belongings at the church before heading downtown to visit the World of Coca-Cola.
Between our many visits to the DeKalb Farmer's Market and Starbucks, our funds are running low so we decided to do an activity that was both fun and cost efficient. So World of Coca-Cola was it. We had a fun time going through the exhibits but the most fun was had tasting all the many flavors of Coke from around the world. Some of them were super disgusting. After about and hour and half of the World of Coca-Cola, we were ready to grab some dinner at the DeKalb Farmer's Market. With traffic and everything we made it there in about 45 minutes or so and grubbed out. Several of us ate at the hot bar while others got some stuff to bring back to the church to eat. Philip showed off his cooking skills by making a steak with a heavy cream sauce, mushrooms and onions with a side of mashed potatoes. They were cracking me up.
We rounded out the day with our final meeting to see what everyones favorite experiences were and what challenged them most/what they learned over the past week. Several people said Living Water in the park was their favorite; most said the refugee children were their favorite. I think the overall consensus was that interacting with the homeless population under the bridge on Tuesday night was the most challenging simply because it was something they hadn't done very often. Though many of them said that they were very glad they got the opportunity to do it. I was most excited to see each of the youth open up to one another and the communities we served. I also felt a lot of energy around bringing one of the programs back to Montgomery. The Smart Lunch, Smart Kid program seemed like such a wonderful program that I know would benefit the neighborhood around the Ascension. My hope is that this fall I can work with Ascension and other churches in our area to make that dream a reality for our community next fall- specifically with the help of the youth.
The kids are all enjoying each others company tonight on our last night together! I know that they will all miss each other alot after all the wonderful memories they've made together. It is such a blessing to be able to see these kinds of friendships form over trip that serves the kingdom. I have LOVED watching our youth be the hands and feet and hearts of Christ this week.
This will be the last post of the trip as we will just be cleaning up and hitting the road in the morning. Please pray for safe travels for everyone tomorrow and pray that the seeds that have been planted this week will take root in both the youth and the communities we've served (and who have in turn, served us).
Thanks!
Pax,
Holly
Today was the last day of service and something completely different from what we have been doing. The ministries up to this point have been primarily relational. The project today was at Doghead Farm, an urban farm in south Atlanta. When we arrived, Aubrey who is a dude from Concrete Jungle greeted us and set us up with our specific tasks. Some of us were to plant sweet potatoes, some were to dig new beds, and others were to work on the compost. I was on the digging crew. We had to dig a bed three feet wide and two feet deep. Several of us worked on it so it wasn't too bad, AND we found strange treasure buried in the dirt. About a foot or so deep, we ran into something hard and started to uncover a MASSIVE root. When we finally got it uprooted it was like 6 feet long and around 5 inches in diameter. It was pretty cool. Apparently there are lots of strange things under ground around there including pieces of a car, not limited to a bumper and hoses.
Aubrey explained that Concrete Jungle was established to provide fresh produce to food banks and homeless shelters where most of the donated items are not nutritional or not fresh. They pick fruit trees around the city and run the Doghead Farm named after the mural at the back of the empty lot. When you pull up to the farm you aren't really expecting it as it is oddly planted in the middle of a residential neighborhood. The variety of plants ranging from watermelons and beets to sweet potatoes and tomatoes take up the majority of a large lot between a creek and a several homes. It is pretty neat.
We spent three hours out there planting, digging, pulling kudzu and turning compost. By the end of our time there we had accomplished a fair amount of work and the sweat covering every inch of our bodies proved it. Luckily the Y allowed us to use their showers early today so we didn't have to do our fun activities in disgusting clothes. We ate our lunches in the car on the way to the Y and dropped off our belongings at the church before heading downtown to visit the World of Coca-Cola.
Between our many visits to the DeKalb Farmer's Market and Starbucks, our funds are running low so we decided to do an activity that was both fun and cost efficient. So World of Coca-Cola was it. We had a fun time going through the exhibits but the most fun was had tasting all the many flavors of Coke from around the world. Some of them were super disgusting. After about and hour and half of the World of Coca-Cola, we were ready to grab some dinner at the DeKalb Farmer's Market. With traffic and everything we made it there in about 45 minutes or so and grubbed out. Several of us ate at the hot bar while others got some stuff to bring back to the church to eat. Philip showed off his cooking skills by making a steak with a heavy cream sauce, mushrooms and onions with a side of mashed potatoes. They were cracking me up.
We rounded out the day with our final meeting to see what everyones favorite experiences were and what challenged them most/what they learned over the past week. Several people said Living Water in the park was their favorite; most said the refugee children were their favorite. I think the overall consensus was that interacting with the homeless population under the bridge on Tuesday night was the most challenging simply because it was something they hadn't done very often. Though many of them said that they were very glad they got the opportunity to do it. I was most excited to see each of the youth open up to one another and the communities we served. I also felt a lot of energy around bringing one of the programs back to Montgomery. The Smart Lunch, Smart Kid program seemed like such a wonderful program that I know would benefit the neighborhood around the Ascension. My hope is that this fall I can work with Ascension and other churches in our area to make that dream a reality for our community next fall- specifically with the help of the youth.
The kids are all enjoying each others company tonight on our last night together! I know that they will all miss each other alot after all the wonderful memories they've made together. It is such a blessing to be able to see these kinds of friendships form over trip that serves the kingdom. I have LOVED watching our youth be the hands and feet and hearts of Christ this week.
This will be the last post of the trip as we will just be cleaning up and hitting the road in the morning. Please pray for safe travels for everyone tomorrow and pray that the seeds that have been planted this week will take root in both the youth and the communities we've served (and who have in turn, served us).
Thanks!
Pax,
Holly