Our fourth week brought some new faces to Empowering Youth 2 Serve. This was the first summer we got to serve with Evergreen, a church from Williamstown, West Virginia, and it was an absolute blast! The group was our smallest for this summer, but that just made the new friendships that much deeper and sweeter.
Another special thing about this week, our very own Miguel Vargas, who has been involved in EY2S in one way or another since its beginnings, stepped up as a site lead. Miguel has been training this summer to be a site lead and this was his first week stepping into that role. We’re super proud of him and grateful to God that we get to work with such an amazing leader!
Because of the smaller size of this group, we were able to stay together on our worksites. We continued the projects begun earlier this summer--flooring at Buffalow Family and Friends Community Pantry and redoing the Buffalow's backyard. The team worked hard. They finished another section of the flooring and moved a bunch of rocks into the backyard. They also prioritized going on prayer walks; walking in the surrounding area and praying over everyone who lived there.
Once again, our outreach was focused on the Young’s Terrace community this week. Like last week, the team divided up their days to make the pop-up VBS a success. Monday, the team split and prepped to hold a Vacation Bible School. Tuesday, they went out into the community passing out bagged lunches and flyers. And Wednesday, it was time for VBS! This week we took it to the next level and added a bouncy house. Everyone had a great time.
On Thursday, our planned outreach fell through. So in its place, the Lord led us to an elderly lady in our community who had nothing--no furniture, no food, no bed, nothing. And we were given the absolute privilege of coming alongside her and blessing her. The team headed to the store and the students picked out furniture and lamps and towels, and all the other things we so often take for granted.
One of the beautiful things about having a smaller group is the evening Bible study discussions. With fewer people, there is more space for the students to share, for the group to talk about a wider array of subjects, and for everyone to grow in their understanding of God’s Holy Word. This week definitely demonstrated that. We had a fantastic time with Evergreen and can’t wait to see them again!