Riverway YTH

The team has safely arrived to New Community Church in the Chicago south suburb of Dolton. We are are all settled in and ready for a great week of ministry. 

We were blessed by the amazing church service and worship this morning at New Community Church. Pastor Dodd preached a great message from Exodus and we celebrated Father’s Day and Juneteenth. Today’s service was held out in the parking lot as they often do in the summer. The weather was perfect and we even got to enjoy a church BBQ lunch as we fellowshiped with many new friends. 

We spent the afternoon preparing for our ministry work that starts tomorrow morning. A group decorated the children’s rooms for the VBS, another group went shopping for paint supplies and also decided to spruce up the church entrance by doing some weeding and planting some flowers. 

On Monday our group split up into three teams. One team headed to the food pantry to help with building shelves and some clean up and organizing. They did an awesome job and the pantry is ready for food distribution on Tuesday morning. 

Today one of our teams spent the morning working with the Dolton Park District. We cleared a lot of brush from a path that will now allow the adjacent neighborhood to easily access the park.

Our painting crew finished their project and the girls discipleship group was able to utilize the new classroom today. 

Today we had some of the group help unload a truck full of food at the churches grocery store-style food pantry! We helped stock shelves and prep everything for people coming to get food!

Free-N-Deed Market is a part of the American Association of Single Parents which partners with New Community church and Praying Pelican Missions. This week our group from Riverway has made a huge contribution by helping to prepare the market and assisting all of the guest at the food distribution today.

Our students did an amazing job helping and getting to know the guests at the food pantry today. They met several people and helped them pack and load up their groceries. 

Today we are taking the train to downtown Chicago for some fun and great Chicago food. We are still on mission and we have packed several lunches to distribute to people in need who God puts in our path today. 

Friday was the last morning at New Community Church. The team woke up, got ready, packed up, and did devotions before heading out. It was so fun serving with New Community and the City of Dolton!