Valdosta First United Methodist Church

We all arrived safely this afternoon and started out our trip with some time to hangout and play some sports. We got to meet Pastor Nate and some people from Hope Church, who we get to partner with this week! Pastor Nate shared a bit about his church, which is a new church plant, and we are really excited to be worshiping with him tomorrow! 

Hope Church uses a wedding venue as their space for worship, so we got to help set up the room by taking down tables and setting up rows of chairs.

While waiting for others to finish lunch (which Hope Church cooked for us!), William grabbed a racket and played a game with a boy from the church!

This afternoon we spent some time prepping for our VBS on Monday and Tuesday! We split up into three groups to prepare lessons, games, and crafts. There were lots of good ideas floating around each group and we are looking forward to loving on the kids!

Starting the day off in the Word! Ross led us in a devo this morning about Daniel and the lion’s den, which we are teaching the kids at VBS. 

We are working at the Building Bridges Community Center today. Building Bridges is an after-school education program in the city of Fair Bluff. The community center was damaged in the last hurricane and has been sitting there ever since. We are finishing the drywall that a PPM team started last week, building a mailbox, replacing a toilet, and power washing the outside of the building. 

We started VBS off this morning with a cartwheel tournament! The record is 12 in a row!

Brad joined us this year, and we are so thankful for his presence and leadership on this trip! Being a PE teacher, he was totally able to use his skills to help out with the VBS activities. Of course he had a tug of war rope and of course we had to play!

Ross led the lesson for today on Daniel and the Lion’s Den. He did a great job keeping the kids engaged and making sure they understood! He also had the kids think about how we can relate this to our own lives and how God loves us and protects us and that our stories can impact other people’s lives for Christ as well.

One of Wallyce’s biggest projects for us this week is putting together socks and scrub brushes that Wallyce hands out when she goes to Hurricane Relief events!

Wallyce had a truck full of donations for us to unload and put away in the warehouse. It’s really cool to see the variety and abundance of things God has provided to the ministry to be able to bless others!

When Wallyce found out that William plays piano, she got super excited! She has one piano that needed the keys fixed and another that is a player piano that needs the paper rolled, which he knows how to do. God continues to use our gifts to bless others!

To end our Monday, we went to a local park and had some time to hang out and play and relax after a day of hard work. Some of the girls even used their free time as ministry and played with kids at the playground!

Today we started VBS off with some team building activities! 

While working at Building Bridges Community Center, we noticed the front deck of the house next door was needing a little TLC. So we asked the owner if we could bless them with a new deck. The community of Fair Bluff loves on each other well, this was our opportunity to love on them. 

For the second day of VBS, we talked about the story of the Good Samaritan and loving others. We put together a skit to help teach the story and the kids loved it!

We played a group game of kickball! At the end, Brad huddled everyone up and taught them the chant, “One for all, all for God!” Even in the simplest things, God is showing us ways to plant seeds.

Our craft for the second day of VBS was decorating rocks! We made so many. Some were made for each other, and others we put encouraging things and Bible verses on and hid them around the park for people to find!

Back at Community CPR, Ally and Sarah have been working hard in the kitchen area sorting and packaging up glassware and assorted kitchen items, some to donate and some to sell to earn money for the ministry! 

Another project that was worked on was organizing donated shoes. The area went from a tripping hazard to being orderly lines of boxes!

Today we are at Myrtle Beach playing in the sand and sea. Hoping the rain stays away long enough to enjoy it!

We wrapped up our week this morning. We were blessed to serve and minister to the Whiteville area this week. We pray for safe travels, rest, and a continued spirit of service.