Day 5 - Half Way Through

Jefferson Library

I am a little shocked that Wednesday has passed and there are only 2 more days of mission work left! It feels like yesterday that I was handing out room keys to our students! It's incredible to see how much the Lord has used us over the past few days and I'm excited to finish out our week strong! So now for a few quick stories.

The Blankowski group went to the Armed Forces Retirement Center today and were able to play games, talk with, and just provide company to such brave individuals. Lizzie Bell shared with the group today that she was not looking forward to going to the center because she recently lost her grandfather--the last grandparent she still had. But God has his hand in everything, and she ended up talking with a man who had lost all of his children. She said it was like she had come full circle and could see so clearly how The Lord is good and provides for the broken hearted.

The Dixon/Perdue group went to Seabury at Friendship Terrace, which is a retirement home, on Monday. I know we just wrapped up Wednesday, but this story was too good not to share! Meredith Mosley, Evan Ross, and Holly Swaldi worked in a woman's home who had hoarding tendencies. The girls worked for several hours to clear paths through her house so she could easily navigate from room to room. Meredith said that she was reluctant to do it and was unsure why she'd volunteered in the first place. But after seeing the work that she, Evan, and Holly had done and what a blessing it was to Ida, the resident, it was clear that God led Meredith to volunteer. The Lord is so faithful!

86:12 got a much-deserved night off. We celebrated several people who had birthdays that week with cupcakes and listened to some of our esteemed sponsors sing their hearts out to Justin Bieber and Larry Parsley serenaded us with "The Circle of Life". I've also never heard all the harmony and echo parts of "Bohemian Rhapsody" sang by one person like John Lookabaugh did tonight. We love our leaders! We had a group share and prayer time as we get ready to finish this week of missions strong! Continued prayer for us would be wonderful, as always!

Capitol

Jefferson Library

Capitol

K-Rod Family Group

Looka-Rut Family Group

Archives of the United States of America

Inside the American History Museum

Watch out for that puddle!

Highlighter Yellow shirts are good for more than just fashion ;)

Our Fearless Leader (with his matching sneakers) got us all to our final destination....

The White House!! 

And as if we still hadn't gotten enough walking in, after dinner they were all as active as ever!

Hacky Sack!

Day 4 - Lincoln Memorial

Wow, what another awesome day in Washington, D.C. It's so obvious how The Lord is moving in this city through our students!! Like yesterday, I was able to hear a few stories from the day!

I got to hang out with the Lookabaugh/Rutledge crew for the day, who informed me that their name is actually "Rutlabaugh" instead of "Lookarut". We made healthy lunches for homeless in DC and delivered them to homeless men and women. We saw the sad reality that the homeless population of the city is very looked down upon and disrespected, but treated them like any other person, often having solid conversations. We also worked with the oldest social services group in the city: an organization called Central Union Mission. It's been around since 1888 and was originally made to serve Civil War veterans!!! They are focused on the gospel and have a huge amount of services they provide--everything from food to summer camps! We helped clean their warehouse as they prepare to move to a more centrally located building in the city!

The Eberhardt/Steadman (the Steadyharts) family group did manual labor at three homes for elderly men and woman who lived independently but needed help with things around their houses. One home they helped in was for a woman who was a higher up in the Navy and one of their chief advisors. Not to mention a pro-bowler! Thought I don't know her name, Davis Deloach assured me that she was one of the most well accomplished people he'd ever met and it was a blessing to get to hang out with such a strong woman and help out someone who has given so much to our world!

The Sims/Corley family group (also called Los Niños Locos) went to a clothes closet, called Interfaith Works, where they organized clothing for people looking for job interview attire but can't afford to buy it. All of the clothes are donations and the clothes that aren't used are sent to Africa. In addition to organization, the students took inventory and helped shoppers coming in! Sara Sims--the mama of the group--told me that incredible leadership was shown to get all the inventory taken care of in an efficient manner. She also said that Jack Lookabaugh excelled at being a shopping assistant by being both helpful to the clients and also very engaging!

At 5, we had a concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Though the sun was pretty brutal, our kids handled it exactly how we knew they would--like total pros. We got a lot of onlookers and even some dancers and clappers during our gospel song. The senior class went out for their senior dinner, but they missed the flash mob of dancing at our nightly meeting put on by myself and our other two interns, Nicole and Landon.

Wednesdays are traditionally the toughest days because everyone is exhausted and it's the middle of the week,  but I'm excited to see how The Lord uses our weaknesses to show how strong he is! But if you think about it, throw some prayers our way! We can always use it!

Note from Photographer: Pictures in Clothes Closet and Warehouse from Corley/Sims (Ninos Locos) group

Working at the Clothes Closet

Counted 4,363 pencils for Jesus!

Lincoln Memorial