Week 3 was a combination week for us over here at Empowering Youth 2 Serve. New Covenant Presbyterian Church has been a long time part of EY2S. They have a new youth leader starting this summer, so the youth group has been on a brief hiatus this spring and they had a handful of students who were able to come. This meant we had some extra spots. We had a couple students join us from Fairmont NC (where we are currently doing missions), we had a couple come back from last week's church, Virginia Beach Community Chapel, and a couple students from the surrounding North Carolina towns. When the students are from all over, it is always fun to watch them come together and bond. After a couple days, it's hard to remember they aren't one big youth group.
We returned to some of our same worksites this week. All summer long we have eeb going by once a week to visit and help Mr. James. We met Mr. James last summer through our connection with Orrum Baptist Church, and it has been a pleasure getting to know him. He is always so kind and wise. He recently found out that his cancer in his shoulder is coming back, but throughout he has been trusting God and continuing to praise Him. We love sitting on the porch and talking with Mr. James during our breaks for water and prayer. On top of helping him with his landscaping needs, we had the privilege of getting to build him a new set of stairs up to his porch. Mr. James is a beautiful picture of a life that has been lived out in full devotion to Jesus. We will miss him when the summer is over.
We were back this week with our open-air Vacation Bible School in the park. Monday afternoon, the team headed out to the nearby apartments to spread the word about VBS. They knocked on doors and even started a game of duck, duck, goose with the kids in the neighborhood! Then on Wednesday and Thursday we went to the park. We had games, crafts, music, and storytime. The two stories this week were Noah and the Flood and Daniel in the Lion's Den. Everyone had a great time!
One of the special moments from this week was when one of the veterans from Camp4Heroes was able to share with the students. Tom is a triple amputee. He and his family were staying at Camp4Heroes this week. His daughter ended up joining our team of students for the week. We really enjoyed getting to know Tom and his daughter.
