Final Update

Everyone is awake and fed. We will be on the road at 8:15 am and barring any unforeseen Sunday traffic, we will be back by 10:15. See you soon!!!

-Eric

Saturday Night Update

Hello blog followers. We have finished another great day in Pittsburgh. Though the kids have worked hard and we've stretched them physically, mentally and spiritually, things have gone very smoothly. Everyone is now getting ready for bed and packing their bags to hit the road in the morning.

Here's a recap of today's events.

Morning- After breakfast, we headed out to North Pittsburgh to serve with Living Ministry. They are doing some really cool things in a residential area with homeless people. They've got a program designed to help them get housing, get back on their feet, all while being discipled by the staff members.

Our team help with their facilities. They have two houses. At the main house, we pulled weeds and helped with the outside. The second house is going to be converted into a grocery store, which is a huge need for this neighborhood. We busted up the concrete basement floor and carried out the debris.

Then, other kids were mixing new concrete to be poured for supporting the basement beam that supports the house. Needless to say, they worked hard and got some important work done for Living Ministry.

Afternoon- We headed back to the hotel for lunch and Missions Training session 3. I talked about the physical and spiritual need in the that is all around us. I talked about sin and how it has effected the world and that we have the only antidote; Christ! We need to share Him with our words, actions and lifestyle.

I gave them some practical tools to help them share their faith with others and challenged them to Pray, Give and Go.

We asked them to Pray for the world and for missionaries. We asked them to Give money towards missions. We asked them to Go on the 7th grade trip next year. These practical steps and the challenge to care about the unsaved people the are in contact with on a regular basis are the ways we want this trip to continue as a regular part of their lives. We're so excited to see the fruit that will come.

Evening- Kennywood! The icing on the cake! Good times were had. Now, here are some students' takes on the day, followed by some pictures! Check in Sunday morning for a final post about arriving back home. Thanks for reading the blog and praying for us!

-Eric

"I have learned so much already on this trip. Today, we learned about spiritual need. I really felt God showing others love through us. Our service site today was at Living Ministry; we helped with breaking/tearing up concrete floor in a basemen of an old house. God helped us see what we needed to do, and accomplishing it at a good pace. We were all touched when we heard about a woman named Monica's life, and how she lost everything until she found Christ. Today we also had some fun visiting Kennywood. I had a ton of fun riding the Sky Rocket first, along with the Phantom which came later. We all enjoyed a great day serving Christ and having some fun along with that. Personally, like my sister that went on the 7th grade trip, I really don't want to go home."

-Madison Williams

"Today, we worked at Living Ministry. They are right now working on building a grocery store. We were helping tear up concrete. We also went to Kennywood!!! The top 3 roller coasters were Sky Rocket, Phantom and Thunder Bolt. We have been learning about how the world is and if we care enough we can help change it. My favorite thing today was helping at Living Ministry."

-Jonathan Shaw

"Well, today we went to Kennywood, which was awesome and we pulled up a floor and weeded at an abandoned house before we went. I rode the Sky Rocket, Volcano, and Phantom's Revenge and ate a funnel cake. But then on the way home I tell asleep and when I woke up I was at the hotel and started coughing really bad. Then I ended up throwing up a bit which wasn't fun, but I'm ok now and I WON'T LET IT RUIN MY FUN TRIP! Goodnight."

-Faith Hopkins

"In the morning we all pulled up an old basement floor. It took a lot of work and sweat!!! But is was still fun. We got to help soooo many more people than we thought!!! Oh yeah, the house that we worked on is going to become a grocery store and it will make a HUGE difference in the neighborhood!"

-Leslie Kolb

"Today we had to get up really early, never mind, sort of early. We went to this homeless ministry place called Living Ministry, and weeded and carried cement like beasts, and we sweated and made cement molds which we go no credit for. Then we went to Kennywood. Someone puked. Someone dropped a cell phone from a roller coaster and it shattered. It was disturbing. Then we went back to the hotel and went to sleep."

-David Herr and Micah John

"Cement Beasts" at Living Ministry

Cement Mixers

Weed Pullers

Living Ministry

Kenny Wood

Friday Night Update

Hello friends, families and those praying for our team. Another blog post from your blog host, Eric Hays.

We've had a great day and there is much to tell. I'll try to keep it brief and get to the kids thoughts and pictures. Here's the breakdown.

Morning- We had breakfast and hit the road to serve in the name of Christ. Jarrod led half the group to the Pittsburgh Project, a great ministry that is helping transform a rough area of Pittsburgh by the power of the gospel. Our team worked hard in the hot sun pulling weeds to make an area where kids play safer and cleaner. It was great to help support a great ministry in any way you can. If you'd like to learn more about what they do, check out their website. http://www.pittsburghproject.org/

I led our other group to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. We had a great project that Mikayla will describe for you later, but the kids were amazing. They worked so hard to help make food accessible to hungry people. The Food Bank does great work to feed many thousands of people in Pittsburgh. It was great to partner with them.

I want to let you know that both groups really impressed the organizations we served. They've been so respectful, loving and enthusiastic about everything they've been asked. Jarrod and I are proud to lead this team.

Afternoon-We had some lunch and then dived into Session 2 of missions training. Jarrod challenged us to look all over scripture to see the calling of the people of God to share love and truth with those who don't believe, from Genesis through Revelation. The main thought we wanted them to grasp was that loving Jesus means caring about the things that He cares about, loving what he loves. Scripture tells us over and over, He loves people. He cares about the lost being found. He left them with this question..."Why should we care?" We'll pick up from there tomorrow in Session 3.

Evening- We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe at Station Square and then ventured up Mount Washington on the Duquesne Incline. We had a good time exploring the city and connecting as a team.

Here are some thoughts from students...

“Today we went and visited the Pittsburgh Project. We helped pull Special weeds called knotweeds. The purpose of the Pittsburgh Project is to help people and clean up the neighborhood. The leader’s name was Brett. It was a lot of fun just knowing that we were helping the environment and spreading God’s word at the same time.”

-Jeffrey Warner

Today, we went to help out Brett, who works at the Pittsburgh Project. We helped him by weeding out Knot weeds at an outdoor amphitheater to make it look nicer for the community, while hoping to spread God’s word at the same time. It was a great opportunity and I had a great time.”

-Olivia Carpenter

“Today we separated into two groups. My group went to help the food bank and another to help change a hill by pulling weeds which were very hard to pull up. That group did a great job.

The food bank is not a Christian organization, so it was important to show Christ in us. We scooped and bagged rice cereal and provided over 3,000 bags for families in need. One of the workers names Dora was really nice and said we were one of the most enthusiastic groups they’ve had. It changed us by showing how many lives we helped change. We learned so about missions and we are having fun doing it too. We were not only helping families, but doing it for God and that was a big part of my day.”

-Mikayla Veness

And now, the pictures...

Pittsburgh Project Group

Food Bank Group

Hotel Fun

Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe

Leslie's Birthday Surprise

Dusquesne Incline

View from the top of Mount Washington

Thursday Night Update

Hello family and friends. We're off to a great start here in Pittsburgh. In our first of three sessions of missions training, we had a world experience. We split the group up into countries, representing the whole world. Each country was served a dinner that goes with that country. For example kids in the India group ate some rice and curry. Needless to say, many kids did not find what was on the plate in front of them to be too appetizing.

Then, the American table got pizza, chips, cookies and lots of it! As they ate, the kids around the room were jealous. They threatened war on the Americans and did not think what was going on was fair.

Jarrod proceeded to discuss the issues of poverty in the world. He described the disparity between the rich and the poor of the world. More importantly, he talked about the cause of our physical problems. Sin.

The world we live in is broken, and the symptoms are physical and spiritual. Students got to see that we can be a part of the solution, not just healing the symptoms, but sharing Christ who is the defeater of sin. This will be the springboard for the rest of the weekend. Pray that kids will get excited about partnering with God in sharing the good news with friends, family, their neighborhood, their country and the world. Eventually the American groups shared their people, so don't worry, everybody was fed.

Here are two examples of students' view of the night.

"Tonight we have had a wonderful experience as a group together. We had a little get together talking about how people live around the world. We had a discussion about how different countries get their servings of food. For example chinese people only get a small serving of food. Turkey got the same as china. Thats not much! America gets as much as they want and I don’t think thats fair to others. Now there’s something to think about."

-Steve Callaway

"Tonight we had an awesome time. We got to get in groups and tried new foods. So many people are poor and they need our help! We also learned that a whole bunch of people need us to teach them about Christ. A lot of people don’t even know who christ is and it is our job to teach them. As Americans we get so much when others barely get anything. ( including maybe even just a table or in our example food!) This experience has taught me a lot and i look forward to the rest of our trip!"

-Katie Sullivan

The goal of the night was not about guilt, it was about recognizing how we've been blessed. God has blessed us, and now calls us to be a blessing to others. We're excited about diving deeper into these concepts as the weekend goes on.

Tomorrow, we will be serving in the morning, learning more in the afternoon and exploring the city in the evening. Check back late tomorrow night for an update. And now, here are some pictures.

We're Here!!!

Hello everyone. We are here in Pittsburgh, safe and settled in. In a few minutes we will start session 1 of our missions training. Kids will be challenged to see things from a global perspective. Check back tonight for the details and some pictures.

-Eric

Welcome!!!

Welcome to the blog for the 2011 Ehko Pittsburgh Trip. Our trip is leaving Thursday June 30! Check in here for pictures, stories and updates of the trip. As you read, please pray for our team! Feel free to comment on the blog posts.