HSM 2023 Wisconsin: Day 6

Hi Friends, Today we all got to sleep in, which was the perfect start to our free day. Thursday was a late night, so we figured we let the students sleep. On Thursday our cookout was moved inside, due to the air quality. We were joined by other mission organizations and members of the community so around 150 people ended up coming. Since the cookout was moved in doors the decided to gather students to lead worship. Kate, Cece, Ethan and Samuel all volunteered and helped to lead. It was so cool to see them stepping out of their comfort zone. We headed back to the church for an extended time of worship where we concluded this time by praying over each student and leader. We ended up praying over each other for over an hour. For lack of better words, this time was SUCH a blessing and so special…

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HSM 2023 Wisconsin: Day 5

Happy Thursday Everyone! Today was our final work day and both teams closed out their worksites on a high notes! The crew at God Touch was able to finish their final project before we left. We power washed, sanded and painted a couple shelves for the ministry to use at the food pantry. We treated ourselves to Dairy Queen in celebration of making it through our work week. The crew that was at Bridge Builders finally completed the fence we had been working on! It was our smoothest  day yet and we had no major hiccups. To cap off our time working on the fence the leaders of Bridge Builders made cupcakes as a thank you for the team. Tonight we are going to a cookout at a community center to eat dinner and hang out with other mission trip teams as well as some of the locals Milwaukeeans that…

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HSM 2023 Wisconsin: Day 4

Hi Friends, Day 4 was another good day of serving! The teams split up again today. Abby and her team went back to God Touch while Quinn and Mike went back to the Bridge Builders. Bridge Builders – Many hands make quick work was not a true statement today, our team spent 4 hours trying to remove one fence post, and after many different techniques and approaches we failed to remove it. We even managed to bend a crowbar attempting to remove the posts. So, after lunch we shifted our plan and cut down the metal polls and began digging new holes for the new wooden fence. Although our team was exhausted, we rallied together to install 3 of 4 posts. That will hopefully set us up well to finish the fence tomorrow! Overall it was a great day digging holes, listening to country music, and capping the work day…

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HSM 2023 Wisconsin: Day 3

Hi Friends, Today our squad split into two teams and went to two different worksites. Abby went with a group to the sight we were at yesterday – God Touch. Quinn and Mike took another group to work with Bridge Builders. God Touch – We had a FANTASTIC day at God touch. We were able to complete our really big project for the week today, so that was a huge blessing to them. We were able to work today to cut and remove all the unused piping in their basement. They are excited to continue to transform the space for a potential kids area, hang out space and gym. We spent our additional time doing various projects that helped to update and beautify the church. In the afternoon we met up with all the churches we are working with and spent an hour worshipping and praying. We had some extra…

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HSM 2023 Wisconsin: Days 1 and 2

What a wonderful few days we have had! We made it to Milwaukee safely, without issue, despite the storms we hit on the way over. PRAISE! We spent sometime getting to know the Next Step’s Team and the other churches we are serving with. We were also split into our work teams last night. Fortunately, both of our work teams ended up serving at the same place today – God Touch Milwaukee. We were able to start on  some renovations to their basement for a children’s area. Later in the morning we got to serve at their community food pantry. Even in the rain people were lined down the street! The ministry has a lasting impact on the community and it was awesome to have the students be a part of that and see them getting more and more comfortable with the people at the food pantry. After lunch, we…

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2023 Greece: Day 5 Update

How is it already our last day with these kids?! We started the day by asking the kids to reflect on what they have learned with us and what they may want to learn from us before we leave. We heard an awesome teaching on Jonah by Nathan, and played water games outside! We ended the day with VeggieTales Jonah and worship songs together! We had an awesome final day of kids camp, but are so sad to say goodbye to the sweet children of Glyfada that we have come to love and cherish over the past week. We had a chance to debrief with Pastor George before heading to our debrief location in beautiful Mati! We are looking forward to a day of rest and reflection of our own before heading back home.

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2023 Greece: Day 4 Update

Quiet ball was the first game of the day- our teams favorite game so far 😌Then we flowed into yoga taught by our fellow yogi Ally Ray.Our team did an English lesson on fruits/foods and we practiced with a fruit salad game. Bingo was a hit for the kids! Again, they are very competitive 😊Alexander Schmidt did a fun teaching in fruits of the spirit and in the community. The kids finished the day with creating crayons with several broken crayons colors. This is a great example of how different parts of the community look different but make one body- the body of Christ. The team finished our day going into Athens to meet up with Pastor George. He had a wonderful message about Acts 17 at the Acropolis – where Paul was when he spoke to the people of Athens. The team is so clearly seeing Gods hand and…

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HSM 2023 Wisconsin: Pray with us

Hi friends, As we prepare and ready our hearts to go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to serve with Next Steps Ministries, your prayers are the greatest gift you could give our team. Below are what our team is specifically praying for, so please pray with us over these requests! Growing more comfortable talking to people I don’t know Bonding as a group, working well as a team, connecting well with other teams, and just having fun Growing in my spiritual walk with God Understanding how even the small things we do have a big impact for the kingdom Achieve what we came to do and reach the people in Milwaukee Experience God in a way we haven’t before That intentional conversations would be had with students AND the people we are serving That we all would see this trip as important and weighty even though it is a state over and…

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Greece 2023: Day 3 Update

Wow this week is just flying by!!! Today we started the morning with Red Light, Green Light and Heads Up Seven Up. Red Light Green light got pretty competitive…in general the kids this week are all competitive in most of the games! Next we did an English Lesson in Words of Encouragement by Ally Ray. The kids were able to use this lesson for the next round of carnival games! Danielle Balanda led an amazing lesson on the importance in encouraging others and how together we can lift up our community together. Then we all ended the day building marshmallow-toothpick bridges together in their teams – we got some solid foundations! (…before they started to melt in the Greece heat) The Team got caught up in playing games at the church after the kids went home…we were at the church for an hour and a half playing signs with Liz…

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2023 Greece: Day 2 of Kids Camp

We finished up our second day at Kids Camp in Glyfada. Today we started our morning with Hot Seat, Simon says and Freeze Tag, where the kids got to know each other more in small groups. Our English lesson today was about community members and places they work including a scavenger hunt throughout the church.Next, we moved into the common thread game while each team created their group flag for the week.Builders and destroyers was the favorite and most competitive of the day!Micah Bagley led an ecology lesson on how the crow, grass, tortoise and red fox are apart of a food chain. When one part is removed then the entire chain struggles- reminding us how important each one of us are in God’s community. Then we finished the day painting rocks and playing more games (the kids had particular favorites that involved running ☺️😮‍💨)The whole team is having a…

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