Bethel Lutheran Church

After a few bumps in the road on Saturday, we made it to Whiteville, North Carolina Sunday evening. We are staying at Facts of Life Church throughout the week. Once we arrived we had dinner and sang a few worship songs to round off the night.

Some of us were able to serve at the Facts of Life Church campus today. We helped with a kid's camp, organized hygiene/food distribution supplies, cleaned the church for Pastor Daisy, and even worked to fix some sports equipment. 

The kids here love basketball. When we saw a broken backboard and some spare wood, we decided to try and make a new personalized backboard for the net. 

Some of us went to serve at a summer camp today. We met many kids and spent quality time with them! A highlight of today was an art session where we got to see the kids’ creativity and share our own!

On Monday, a group of us got to work with Ms. Wallyce at CCPR, hear about the community, and the heart for her ministry. We had people cleaning, sorting, moving furniture, and fixing things.

In the afternoon a group got to head over to a community center that is opening in Fair Bluff to clean and prepare it to open. What a great way to kick off the week! 

Our fixed basketball goal is up and running! Of course, we had to test it out with some of our new friends from kid's camp at Pastor Daisy's church. 

We are also having fun playing volleyball, baseball, and jumping in the castle. It is a great joy to work with the church volunteers to help give local kids a safe place to play and hot meals to eat.

Today we are back at Community CPR in Whiteville. We are busy organizing and delivering furniture to those displaced in the last few years due to the pandemic and storms. 

A group of our students returned to the community center in Fair Bluff today for our second day of ministry. We cleaned and sorted through donated craft and school supplies. We also sorted all the books and got them ready for the kids. At the end of the day we helped get a couch and some chairs into to space to create a chill space for this community! 

We returned to the summer camp today. A stand-out memory was assisting the kids as we learned about nutrition, fruits and vegetables, and how to use a knife to cut produce. Healthy habits are important to start early on!

A group of us were able to work in the community garden at Hope Recovery in Wilmington. This ministry welcomes people who are in recovery and is happy to share fresh produce with anyone in need. We even got to try a few new veggies before balancing the meals out with some donuts. What a fun day! 

After a few hard and long days of work, our wonderful partner Wallyce got us a sweet treat. She picked us up some of the best donuts and sweet tea for a perfect mid-day treat! 

Today a special guest let us make music with the kids! We learned about how to make songs digitally and we had a lot of fun in the process!

We painted a sign outside the summer camp building! Now parents and kids will be welcomed to the facility with with encouraging words taken from an affirmation that the kids recite every morning.

Yesterday we served at Facts of Life food pantry in Tabor City. We sorted and made up many bags to give out to the community! After distributing to many families we were blessed with some yummy food. 

Thursday was our Rec day and we enjoyed a great time at Carolina Beach! It was a great way to rewind from a busy week. We enjoyed swimming in the waves, shopping, and some great food.