June 29 (Day 4)

The first two days have been off to a great start as the Knoxville team has grown significantly in their relationships with each other and with God. The team started the morning with a southwestern stable of biscuits and gravy. After a quick morning devotion all three teams headed out.  

Crew 1

Crew one spent the day at the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission, and had the great opportunity to serve KARM’s guest’s face-to-face for the first time and experiencing the heart behind the thrift stores we had been in the first two days.  We spent the morning handing out water and granola bars in the courtyard then had the privilege of serving lunch from 11am-1pm. Several of us were able to sit down and hear the stories of God at work in the lives of those we met and pray with them for God’s continued presence. 

Crew 7

The girls on crew seven continued to have great interactions with the residents of the home they were painting, which was especially powerful as they shared the last name of our amazing female leader on the trip: Nhung Hurst! The girls had the opportunity to be able to pray over the Hurst family and especially for Mr. Hurst’s battle with cancer, and finished their site work early, which allowed for them to formulate a plan for a very special service project on Thursday. Read Thursday’s post for details! 

Crew 5

The boys on Crew five continued to work hard in the Tennessee heat and finished building the expansion to their resident’s deck so that it better met ADA regulations and allowed for their homeowners to more easily enjoy their backyard. The homeowner was overcome with emotion at seeing the finished project and allowed our team to pray over her.

This crew was the only Calvary group that was mixed with another youth group, which allowed for relationships to grow with students from North Carolina as well! 

The night 

We did not post a blog on Wednesday night because our worship service & breakout time as a church went so long…it was INCREDIBLE.

The video series and devotions led by our Next Step team leader, Kate (who is from OHIO!), have been on Finding Joy. Tonight dealt with letting go of the things that keep us from growing in intimacy with God, and letting God take care of our hurts, burdens, and past mistakes. Along with the message was a powerful experience of nailing post-it notes with those hurts, burdens, or past mistakes written on them to a large cross. As we closed our time of worship, the Spirit was powerfully moving, and the site worship leader, Konnor encouraged everyone to talk with someone or ask for prayer if they needed. We did exactly that as a youth group.

We went out into the church parking lot and sat in a circle – as has been our habit for church breakout time – and asked each student to take a turn sharing how they would like for us to pray for them. We would then have them sit in a chair in the center of the circle and have 2-3 others pray over them. I have no doubt that for the majority of us, this will be the highlight of the entire trip! As the Spirit moved, we shared in vulnerability, trusting our burdens to one another as the body of Christ and lifting one another before the throne of Grace. The tears flowed freely as the love of God and his nearness to us was abundantly evident. We finished our time of prayer together after two hours, with eyelids heavy, but hearts much lighter.

What a mighty and wonderful God we serve!