Union 2012

The time of year has come and gone again when we have a team from Union University, in Jackson Tennessee, come to Providence for their Spring Break Mission Trip. I felt this year was definitely different from the previous years, which I believe is due to the fact that I am no longer in school and therefore have more time to spend with the team.  It was a blast and they are awesome people. They definitely left a place in my heart and there could be some future road trip plans in the future :)

The team (10 people) this year had to be the largest we have had since I started at JWU, but with so many people we were able to reach more of Providence and spread out to other college campuses. We began the week with a little tour and history of Rhode Island, followed by a home cooked meal and conversation about the schedule and spiritual life of Providence. After a good night sleep, Sunday was spent all day with church members from Grace Harbor and ended with some much missed service review. I was very proud to be a member of Grace Harbor this day because my fellow members just swept up the team in taking them to lunch and including them in their afternoon events. I know the team greatly enjoyed the church, it's members and all the conversations they had.

Monday, they really got down to work. We didn't really ease them into into sharing the gospel, we just kind of gave them directions and sent them on their way. It was a good way for them to get a feel of the New England culture, people and spiritual environment. Over lunch we heard the stories and struggles of sharing with people in the morning, gave them a few pointers and then sent them out again for the second half of the day. You see people in New England hate small talk and if they sense that there is an arterial motive to the conversation then they get frustrated and will cut it off. They prefer straight shooting. The second half of the day I spent with one of the groups walking on Federal Hill and Broadway. They took what we said at lunch and applied it to their approach of talking to people. Yes some of them got turned away but many people were open and willing to talk. Amanda, a senior at Union, was stopping and talking to every person sitting on stoops. She even stopped to a waiter whom she returned to talk to a second time on our way back. It was a very fun and productive afternoon. That evening we went to our weekly Monday Coffee & Scripture which was great because some of them were able to answer the students' questions about the passage we read because they took theology class or were studying that as their major.

Tuesday was spent on Johnson & Wales and Rhode Island College campus promoting Christian Student Fellowship or Christianity Explored. I was at the RIC campus with David, Teala and Emilee, talking to students about the spiritual life on campus and if they would be interested in going through Christianity Explored. Teala and I talked with about 6 students. Many of them were of no religion and weren't interested or were nominally Catholic. Vanessa, was one of the girls we talked to and was interested in meeting up. I have contacted her since but have not heard anything from her. Please pray that the Lord would work on her heart. David and Emilee said that everyone they spoke to was open and happy to talking with them. After lunch we decided to play some Frisbee and see who would join us because at this time the students were on break and in clumps so it's a lot harder to talk with them. 2 guys did join us, one was Jewish and the other was nothing but he was interested in Christianity Explored because he was taking a God class for psychology. He has not shown up yet so please pray that the Lord would work on Him. We decided that since it was the first day of Spring some Rita's was in order, so we took a little detour before meeting the rest of the group.
That night the team ran the entire Tuesday Night Truth meeting, with Amanda sharing her testimony, David leading us in Worship and Joshua brought the message. Because of the work the team did earlier on the JWU campus we saw some new faces and have seen them since. This is very encouraging. We ended the evening with a very large, rambunctious outing to Pastiche, a delicious dessert place on Federal Hill.

Wednesday was their demolition day at the Providence Rescue Mission and they were so pumped for it. The Rescue Mission was given a house to use for whatever they needed and so they are turning it into overflow for the women, along with administrative offices. The team spent the entire morning and into afternoon gutting the basement of anything and everything. They returned to us so tired and dirty, but were super excited about the work they did and work the Mission was doing. The evening was spent as a group at Liz's house for dinner and relaxation. It turned into a night of jam sessions, catch phrase and fits of laughter. 

Friday was spent entirely with us and the leaders of Christian Student Fellowship. We had our regular leaders meeting, a large Coffee & Scripture and a very delicious lunch at Olga's Cup and Saucer. That afternoon the team split up all around the city just doing normal stuff, seeing who they could get into conversations with. The day followed with an evening of what started out as homemade pizza at the Reid's, a family at Grace Harbor involved in Foster Care, talking with Jonathan talk about Foster Care and Adoption in the United States and what it should mean to the Christian. We planned on making pizzas, which was going well until we tried to remove them from the pan and realized we forgot to spray them. The top of the pizza was delicious though. Thank goodness for Domino's :) Since it was our last night together we returned to our apartment for a very late night/early morning of Wii Just Dance. 

All in all it was a great week of friendships built, the gospel shared and memories created.