Central Church

The team safely arrived to New Community Church and is settled in for an amazing week of ministry. 

The team was able to have a short worship night last night before heading off to bed. What a great way to start off the trip praising God!

The team attended the Sunday service at New Community Church, the church they will be serving with for the week. The Holy Spirit was evident during worship and throughout the service, and the team was able to hear a final sermon from the pastor before he leaves for sabbatical for the next six weeks.

After lunch, the team had time to split up into their groups for the week and finish planning logistics for their ministry sites. Teams were planning VBS, doing a prayer walk around the food pantry, and running to the store to gather supplies.

The team split into four groups to rotate through different ministry sites this week. One of the groups got to kick off VBS with activities surrounding the creation story. We started with some fun songs for worship, then had a station for teaching the story, an arts and crafts station, and a station for games. We got to finish off the morning with recess outside!

Today the green team went to Free N Deed Market. Free N Deed Market is a local food pantry that serves the Dalton Community. The green team helped unload the trucks full of food that had been donated from partnering grocery stores. 

In Chicago today we had three different partners plus our team from Central Church in SD come together to provide dressers for a shelter at a Starting Point Church for recent immigrants. Restoration ministries provided the dressers, New Community let us use their box truck and the team provided all the muscle. 

Half of team blue helped out Miss Gracie today by sorting through 20 bags of donations! We were all greatly blessed by Miss Gracie today as she shared her story and lots of helpful advice for the students.  

After a fun day with VBS yesterday, it was the purple team’s turn to visit PPM’s new partnership with Pacific Garden Mission today. The team split into three different groups: one working in the kitchen serving meals, another downstairs sorting donations of clothes for the thrift store, and the final one to the laundry room to help wash bedding from the 1000+ beds that are occupied overnight. We got a chance to hear incredible life stories from staff members who used to be a part of the recovery program at PGM. After hearing one particular man’s story, the students asked if they could pray over him for continued encouragement and perseverance in his walk with Christ and as well as his recovery journey. It is wonderful to see the hearts these students have for supporting their brothers and sisters in Christ!

This morning the team started off by cleaning up around Needles Park. They are all such hard workers! We also got to meet some of the park district crew and hear their stories!

After we finished our projects for the day, we started sitting outside talking and found ourselves in really deep conversation. Words of encouragement and tears of healing were shared. This students are amazing & the Lord is truly working through them!

The yellow team did a great job at the food pantry where they prepared all the food that was distributed to many people in need. They all went above and beyond helping the clients gather the food items they needed and loaded up into their vehicles. Way to go team!

For their third and final mission day, the green team volunteered at New Community Church, helping out with their VBS/Childcare program. The team planned out a day of activities with the children. They taught them fun bible songs, acted out the story of Jonah and the whale, made a craft to go along with the story, and played games. 

Our group went to two different police precincts to hand out toys and supplies to the refugees who are living there. Some of the refugees were hungry so we went to domino’s to get pizza to hand out to them. 

After a quick detour our team had the pleasure to get the experience of a lifetime seeing the presidential motorcade. 

After a week of serving, the students get to spend their last week touring the inner city of Chicago. First stop was at the BEAN!! Such a great, fun group of students! Praise the Lord for such a successful week and a free day to tour the city!

After hearing people’s stories from various service projects throughout the week, the purple team wanted to buy supplies to create bags for people experiencing homelessness. They chose all the items, packed them up with verses/encouragement written on the outside, and then prayed over the bags for opportunities to hand them out and for the people who would receive them. The team has already had a chance to hand out a few bags today during our recreational day in downtown Chicago!

The Central Church team left New Community Church at 7:30 this morning and is heading back home to Sioux Falls.