Baltimore Part Two

This is going to be long - - just a warning now.

Sunday we were up bright and early. We headed to the hotel that the choir team was staying in to take showers. Then we came back to the church for service. It was a completely different and humbling experience from any that I have ever had before. Our team of 19 more than double the congregation of this new church. It was a very sweet experience. Dan spoke on sin that morning and it was a great sermon and something I really needed to hear. After the service we had lunch and talked to the members of the church. It was fun getting to know them. Later on in the afternoon Dan talked to the team about the Village Church, their history, and the area of Baltimore we were serving. Then he handed us some fliers and sent our out. We went around the streets of Hamden telling people about the sports camps and kids fest that the Village was hosting for the next week. Later that afternoon, a few of us made a trip to Wal-mart and a grocery store to get a birthday cake, lunch stuff, and some clothes and such for Brian(who left his bag in BG). Wal-mart was a fail, it was not a super store as we hoped, Brian grabbed some shirts and stuff and then we went around the corner to get the groceries. Then we headed back to the church, put everything away, hid the cake, and headed to Cafe Hon for dinner with the rest of the team. After eating dinner, I ran back up to the church and lit the candles on the cake for Jenniffer's birthday. We surprised her with the cake and a card after dinner. Then we spent the rest of the evening getting things ready for Sports Camp and Kids Fest and practicing music for Kids Fest. During the middle of practicing our songs we had some interruptions. When we had been at Wal-Mart, Brian had picked up a package of plain t-shirts, there was a misunderstanding with the sizes and instead of an adult L they were a Kids L. It was funny and you really just had to be there. It was a great day!! :D

Monday was our first day of Sports Camp. For our first day we had about 40 kids show up either from the Rec Center, from the Family Center, or on their own. The students that we brought with them handled everything wonderfully. The adults were able to step back and just watch everything play out. For our first day we taught Basketball. The team split the kids up and ran drills with them and taught them the basics of the game. Everything went rather smoothly and it was a blast getting to see our students go to work!! For showers that day we went to the pool and showered there, it was interesting and difficult with only one shower for 9 girls, but we made it work. That afternoon we headed to the inner harbor for dinner and tourism. Once we got there we split off into groups for dinner. Matt, Leslie, and I headed to The Cheesecake Factory for our dinner. It was wonderful!! :D After dinner we headed to meet with the team, some of us went to ESPN Zone and played some games for awhile. After spending some time there I headed next door to Barnes & Noble for some coffee! Yum! Then we headed back to the church for a good nights rest.

Tuesday was the first full day of ministry, we had our sports camp in the morning and kids fest in the afternoon. We taught soccer at the sports camp. It went really well. After sports camp we took showers, I was in a group that went to Dan's for showers, then we headed back to church for lunch and then the Kids Fest. We only had 7 kids show up, but our students loved on them and made them feel like they were at home. It was great to see them minister to the students and in turn their families. That night for dinner we drive an hour away for dinner at a crab house with the choir team. It was a crazy night. The drive there and the view on the bay was beautiful!! I loved it. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and relaxing. After dinner and some pictures, we headed back to the church for some rest. That night we ran down to Royal Farms (a MD version of a FiveStar or 7Eleven) for some drinks, snacks, and we grabbed a movie at redbox. The girls settled into their room with Congessions of a Shopaholic :D I love that movie.

Wednesday we got up again for sports camp, we did soccer again. It was another great day. :D After lunch we went for showers again. I went to a girls apartment with some of our students. She was a really sweet girl who is a grad student at Johns Hopkins. We got to talk with her and watch some Food Network in the process. Then we went to the church for lunch and to get ready for our last day of Kid's Fest. Again we had the same 7 kids, but it was still awesome!! That night dinner was cooked for us by some of the members of the church. We had some wonderful corn on the cob, salad, rolls, BBQ chicken(for those meat eaters out there), and some root beer floats. It was delicious and great to have a home cooked meal.

Thursday rolled around and it was our last day in Bmore. We got up and had sports camp that morning. We played Whiffle Ball and Kick Ball. It was a ton of fun and bittersweet to have to leave all of the kids that we had spent all week with After this we headed to the church and grabbed some lunch and our shower stuff and then we went to the hotel where the adults were staying for our showers. Then we headed back to the church. I took a group of students to Charm City Cakes aka the place where Ace of Cakes is filmed. :D It was fun. While we were doing this the other students got everything set up for our Block party. When we got back we helped finish getting everything ready and waited for people to show up. Before long we had kids and parents showing up and begin enjoying all of our games and food. It was so much fun. I had the opportunity to paint several girls nails and had fun doing it :D We wrapped up after 8 and then loaded the trailer to get everything ready to leave in the morning.

Friday rolled around rather quickly and we packed up and headed out bright and early. It was a long day and I was so ready to get back to BG.