Brandon Baptist Church

After getting up super early this morning and getting on a plane, we made it to Miami! When we got here we spent a little time checking out the Dolphin Mall (and eating lunch) and checking out Key Biscayne's beautiful scenery. 

Then, we headed to our lodging location: Bethel Baptist. It's an old bowling ally and is really cool. We met our leaders, ate some pizza, and had orientation. We are ready and excited for tomorrow and the rest of the week!

We enjoyed our Sunday School and Sunday Service at Memorial Highway Baptist. The service and worship were mostly in Creol so we didn't understand much, but the culture of the church and their love for Jesus transcends language. They welcomed us with open arms and invited us into their family. We are excited about the week and that we get to serve with Memorial!

The team was up and ready bright and early for a morning of cleaning and painting at the church. This team is amazing; they finished up so fast and worked so hard! 

After lunch the team headed to Charles Drew Elementary School and worked with the Miami Children's Initiative at the after school program with the kids. Everyone got a chance to hang out with the kids a little bit and then go their classrooms to help with homework and love on the kids. Everyone had a good time.

This morning we had the chance to go to MCI and work in their community center and different programs. They have three Pods outside full of stuff- bikes for their bike share program, paint, tools, costumes, craft supplies, you name it. Overtime they get really dirty and disorganized so today some of us got to clean them out! 

The rest of us painted porches and clean their community gym. We worked hard in the sun, but we finished strong! We are looking forward to tomorrow's projects. 

This afternoon we were back in the class rooms and playing outside. We are starting to remember the names of the kid's we are working with and are able to really build a relationship and pray for them. The love that we see the MCI teachers give these children is incredibly and inspiring. MCI is an incredibly organization doing so much to help break the cycle of poverty and violence in Liberty City. It has been so awesome to see the vast impact they have and get to be part of what they are doing!

One of the initiatives at MCI is to bring color and life to the community by painting bright colors and encouraging phrases and affirmations anywhere the kid's might see. Today we got to go revamp the playground and get it ready for their spring break. We painted games and designs on the side walk, painted planters, signs, and pulled weeds. 

The final product was INCREDIBLE!!

Since the weather was so perfect today, we were asked to organize a field day instead of go into the classrooms with the kids. So that's what we did! We had all sorts of games that the kids rotated through and we had the chance to play with them for three hours outside! We were exhausted by the end of the day, but we had a BLAST with the kids. LOVE MCI!