This was our first week of missions back in Norfolk. It is so good to be back in our home base! EY2S started in Norfolk, and we love being here. This was also our first week ever of doing missions out of Jeff's home church. Grace Community Church has supported and loved Empowering Youth 2 Serve since the very beginning. This summer we are housing the missionaries there. So far it has been a blast.
The group this week was from Peninsula Community Chapel. They arrived on Sunday full of energy and excitement and got right to having fun. PCC brought the largest group of missionaries we had this summer. There was always someone willing to play a game, whether it was cards, or spikeball, or just running around. Monday morning the team woke up bright and early and jumped into their morning devotionals.
Now that we are back in Virginia, our worksites have changed. Our first worksite for the summer was right next door to Grace Community Church, at our "mission house". This house is where the EY2S leaders stay during the summer and it also houses some of the staff during the school year. The team helped clean up the yard and remove some stumps to make it ready for hosting students throughout the year for Bible studies and events. They also worked at the house next door. Heath and Megan are our next door neighbors and we helped them out in their front yard, cleaning up, getting rid of the brush, and even taking down an old fence! We had a lot of fun ministering to our neighbors and sharing the love of Jesus with them. Throughout the morning, all the groups took time to go on prayer walks throughout the neighborhood, knocking on doors and asking people how we can pray for them. They also did some painting to serve Grace Community Church and did some organizing over at the Rec Center!
Now that we are back in town, we are able to reconnect with our community partners in Norfolk. Our community outreach here is doing a VBS at the Huntersville rec center. Ms. Foy is the director at Huntersville and she has been a friend of our ministry since it began. She has opened up opportunities for us to serve and love on kids at every single Rec Center she has worked at. We love Ms. Foy and are so grateful for her! On Monday the students split up in teams and Tuesday through Thursday they put on a VBS complete with crafts, games, storytime, and music! The skits this week were about Noah, David and Goliath, and the Prodigal son. Everyone had an amazing time.
Every night the team gathered in fellowship hall at Grace and spent an hour in intentional Bible study discussion. With such a larger group, you might think we'd have trouble being focused or keeping everyone engaged, but the students dived head first into Bible study. They were all participating and asked some super insightful questions. Afterwards they came together for some beautiful and emotional worship. This youth group definitely grew closer together and watched God move in their midst!
Friday we celebrated an amazing week with a trip to the beach! See you next time PCC!