Our last service day in Knoxville!
Crew 1
Crew one went back to KARM today. Some of the team members did some work outside in the garden planting strawberries and also pressure washed the cement in the courtyard. The rest of the team painted the bathrooms at KARM.
Crew 5
Since the boys finished the deck yesterday, they moved to a new site today and started a ramp on another home. Because this is our last day of work, they were not able to complete the entire project. The local ministry who is the partner of Next Step will gather a team from a local church to finish the ramp on this house next week. Despite starting a project they would not finish this week, our crew dug in and worked hard to finish our service out well.
Crew 7
As our crew of ladies had finished all of their work yesterday, they decided to work with Kate – our Next Step team leader – to surprise the rest of the Next Step staff with a home cooked meal & a birthday celebration. Only Kate and one other Next Step staff member were aware the girls had finished their project on Wednesday, so everyone else believed they would be going to their work site to finish up their projects on Thursday morning. Instead, they waited until all of the other staff had left the host church and then circled back to begin an extra special day of service. The girls went shopping for supplies and spent the remainder of the day cooking a delicious meal of chicken parmesan, spaghetti, and green beans. The Next Step chef knew she had the night off, but the rest was a complete surprise. In addition to the meal, the girls baked three different cakes and decorated them to look like construction sites in celebration of two of the Next Step staff members’ birthdays.
That Evening
Our students stepped up and many of them pitched in to serve the evening meal, ensuring that the Next Step staff went through the line first. Following the NS staff, our students invited all of the various churchs’ youth leaders to eat next, followed by the students from the other youth groups. It was a joy to see students serving in this way; they did an amazing job!
Following the video series, the talk, and worship, the Next Step team had us all divide into work crews and pray over one another. Another powerful time of prayer was a double blessing, and it was followed by cake and ice cream!
What a great way to end the service portion of our trip!
– Dakota Tomac & Josh Karhan on behalf of the HSM Knoxville Team