11.11.07
Day 3 – “It’s beginning to look at lot like Christmas” in Charlotte!
This morning we began work on the Christmas craft party for today. Nell worked feverishly on defrosting the fridge with help from the rest of us while we also prepared more sandwiches (this time in squares and triangles) and carried materials over to the community center.
Kay joined us as we were making last minute preparations for our Christmas craft time and what a blessing it was to have another hand on deck to sew and provide additional craft support. Joanie went for a walk to bring some kids over and before we knew it the room at the community center was buzzing with excitement and joy as the kids began to make blankets, hats and scarves. We also had another station for wrapping those presents and making Christmas cards. Let’s just say we used a lot of glitter for those cards! The kids also got to put together shoe boxes for Samaritan’s Purse for the Hyaets group to deliver. The blankets and other crafts were a great hit and many of the kids shared with us that they were making these for a relative and often their grandmother for Christmas. Joanie and Jason offered to keep many presents at the Hyaets house so that these kids could surprise their families on Christmas morning.
After we finally finished up all our material, we packed it up and headed back to the Hyaets house to clean up and debrief our experience. Joanie raised the question for us, “Where did you see God at work this weekend?” If we had to narrow that to just one sentence, here’s a start: We saw Christ in the smile of a neighbor, the giggle of a child, the twinkle in a baby’s eyes, and the hug of a Hyaets resident. We hope that we can share many of those stories in person.
We will leave you tonight with some things we learned this weekend, both silly and serious…
- the correct way to cut a sandwich
- what to do with all those brownie crumbs that get left over in the pan
- how to clean the Hyaets oven
- which one of us has contemplated plastic surgery
- a strange assortment of middle names and given names we wish people didn’t know we had!
- and on a more serious note, we learned a little about what it means to encounter Christ. We often talk about the biblical mandate to serve “the least of these.” Oftentimes for us, we simply refer to them as “the poor.” “The poor” becomes a catchall term for those we don’t know or understand and a problem we send money to. For us this weekend, “the poor” had a name: Raynard, Bre’Asia, Brianna, Kaila, Laderrick, Janai, Dominique, Rafael, Porsha, and many more. “The poor” are not a nameless category but real people with real stories who also reflect back to us the love of God. While our skin color, socioeconomic status, education levels, family life, and community life are altogether different, we all share something in common: We are all made in the image of God. And if we have our eyes and ears open, we realize that each of us reflects God’s glory and goodness. Our God is bigger than our human-made differences.
While we are all snug in the comforts of our own homes this evening, part of our hearts remain with the residents of Enderly Park. Some of them will go to bed hungry, many cold, some afraid, and yes, hopefully some smiling as they remember encountering the living Christ today. Our prayer is that God would keep watch over us all, bring about justice in our worlds, grant us grace and mercy, and give us the love and courage to reflect God’s love to the worlds around us.
Blessed and grateful in Richmond,
The Five Blobs
11.10.07
Day 2 – What a Day!
This morning began with a trip to Wal-Mart for our supplies for the day. After buying lots of groceries and shower supplies, we came back to the Hyaets house for a full day of work.
Malinda and Nell got to work in the kitchen making brownies. They also did some kitchen clean up which included mopping the floor and various other small tasks. Meanwhile, Melissa and Lorene set up baby wrapping central in the family room and prepared our gifts for tonight’s baby shower. Joanie floated in between groups.
After completing these projects, we headed out to Joanie and Jason’s church for a barbeque fundraiser lunch! Yummy! We even made a visit to their bake sale (and didn’t come away empty handed either!).
Once we got back to the Hyaets house, we were up and working again. We pulled together some things for the baby shower and began food preparation. We had much discussion about whether or not the best way to cut a sandwich was lengthwise or in triangles. Malinda insists “triangles” makes it go further! We also worked on more cleaning projects like the oven which ended up being the crowning achievement for some of us today! You should see the difference!
Late afternoon, we took a walk in the neighborhood and invited kids back to paint “petals” on the shed that our previous HRBC missionaries started. (Don’t forget to check out these pictures.) It was such a highlight to see how much fun these kids had and how great it made us feel as they hugged us and asked when they would see us again!
The rest of the evening we spent finishing up preparation for our baby shower complete with a snack supper. We took all of our material over to the community center across the street where we set up, arranged, and decorated for our baby shower for Laderrick. You won’t want to miss his precious pictures in the photo gallery! Melissa had a hard time setting him down! The evening was great fun and both Mom and Dad were present to open gifts. These two young parents are teens in the community and doing their best to provide a good quality of life for Laderrick. Thanks to many, many HRBC folks for providing some wonderful baby gifts for this family.
After giving away all the food we had for the evening, we headed back over to the Hyaets house to clean up and admire the clean stove one more time! We were exhausted from a very full day of work. But we were blessed to have the joy of seeing the face of Christ in the neighbors, the Hyaets couples, a sweet baby boy, and each other. God opened our eyes today so that we might see Jesus!
Tomorrow, we will make Christmas crafts with the kids. The ones we played and worked with today can’t wait to meet us tomorrow morning for a snack lunch and some Christmas present making from 11am-2pm. Kay Griffin will join our group tomorrow for Christmas craft time. Following that, we will debrief with our new friends at the Hyaets house and begin our journey home.
While our time has been short, it has been productive and fruitful, and we look forward to the ways God will bless us tomorrow and use us to bless others.
Tired and grateful in Charlotte,
The Four Blobs
11.09.07
Day 1 – Arrival
Day 1 has been wonderful day already. On the trip down, we enjoyed God’s beautiful creation as we saw a wonderful display of leaves changing. We only had to call Fred once to ask “what’s that noise the van is making?”
We arrived around 4:00 p.m. and made our way over to the Hyaets house. A couple of us were surprised to see someone we knew! (Some of us didn’t realize our former intern, Joanie Williams, was leading our group for the weekend.) Joanie shared with us about the mission of the Hyaets community and gave us an itinerary for the weekend. At times it was difficult to keep a conversation going because children were knocking on the door looking for after school snacks and a few came by just for a hug. We were amazed at the way the Hyaets couples interacted with these children and how comfortable the kids were around them.
We broke for a little while to help with dinner. While dinner was simmering, Jason, Joanie’s husband, led us in an exercise about poverty. We learned that we are blessed beyond any doubt, and we take many things for granted in our lives. We learned how folks living on minimum wage have to make hard choices about what they can actually afford from groceries to health care to heat. We thought about how many of the people of Enderly Park could eat for weeks on the food we simply throw away. Our understanding of what it means to be “poor” expanded in many ways. Jason left us with the thought-provoking question: “How would Jesus respond to this community?” One of the ways we discussed was that Jesus wouldn’t simply give a hand out but walk among the “poor” and enter their community. We hope to be the presence of Christ during the next 3 days in this community.
After our discussion, we enjoyed “family dinner” with the Hyaets couples and a neighbor. We had a great meal of chili and wonderful conversation. Jason then led the group in a devotion about the way we “see” the world around us.
After helping with clean-up, Joanie took us over to the community center to show us the places we will be using to do our baby shower tomorrow and Christmas crafts on Saturday.
Thank you youth for our great notes of encouragement! We opened the first ones today and look forward to the ones yet to open!
Tomorrow will be a full day of shopping for groceries and supplies, household chores, food prep, baby shower and lots of community building! Let’s just say, we won’t run out of things to do this weekend!
The song we ended with in our devotion that will be our prayer for the weekend is:
“Open our eyes Lord
We want to see Jesus
To reach out and touch Him
And say that we love Him.
Open our ears Lord
And help us to listen
Open our eyes, Lord
We want to see Jesus”
We wanted to add our unique signature to the blog so we conclude by signing out as…
The Four “Blobs”
Nell, Malinda, Lorene, and Melissa
P.S. We have just a few pictures up already so check them out from the article on the hrbc home page: www.hrbcrichmond.org.
11.07.07
HRBC Seniors Prepare for Charlotte
On Thursday, November 8, a group of 4 ladies will depart for our Hyaets partnership in Charlotte, N.C. Their 3-day mission will include the following activities:
- Hosting a “welcome baby” party for a local mother.
- Assisting local residents with decorating the shed at Hyaets with their hand prints.
- Providing a snack lunch and Christmas craft project for the neighborhood kids.
- An assortment of “honey-do” chores at the Hyaets ministry center.
Please be in prayer for these ladies that they would be the presence of Christ at the Hyaets ministry center.
Check back here for updates on the ways God will use them in the coming days!
