New York City Mission Trip 2008, Baby!

June 7-14, we and 5 other brave souls took our Youth Choir up to NYC for a mission trip. We worked in the Bowery Mission, a shelter that provides food, clothing, showers, shelter, and hope through Jesus Christ to the homeless community there. Located in Lower Manhattan (just blocks away from Little Italy and Chinatown), it's doors have literally always been open (24/7) since 1879! This was an amazing experience for us and for all the youth we took. We got to work alongside the men that the Bowery serves in the kitchen, the clothing closet, the shower program, the worship services, and the outreach program! We all learned to really appreciate food, rest, and cool air from wherever it comes! I will upload some pictures as soon as I can with commentary, as most of them, in the words of Ricky Ricardo, "need some 'splainin.'"

This is Jennifer, Beth, Elizabeth, Caroline, me, and Kelli in the food pantry on Monday. They were organizing and labelling fools! :0) Here we are taking a break on our makeshift chairs! (2 big cans of tomato paste really do the trick!)

This is the food line. Each day, we served 2 rounds of breakfast, 2 rounds of lunch, and we often served dinner also! This was one of my favorite parts, because you really got to interact with the people!

Here are Julia, Casey, and Carol helping Marshall in the kitchen. Those grilled cheese sandwiches were AWESOME! And the ravioli was even better!

Katie, Martha, Kristen, Laura, Casey, and Julia celebrate the Swedish Fish and orange slices were got for dessert at lunch on Tuesday. Gummi treats always make for a good day!

Martha, Laura, and others working hard to organize the clothing closet. The amount of donations that came and went every day was unbelievable. Here, we organized the clothes into types and sizes so that they would be ready for the shower ministry later that day. During the shower ministry, men could come in, eat lunch, take a shower, receive new clothes, and even get a haircut if they

wanted!

Jerri folding towels!

This is me, Kathy, Caroline, and Jennifer working on re-stocking the closet on Tuesday!

This is Byron and Aaron working super hard, carrying down hundreds of boxes down three flights of stairs with no air conditioning! All of our guys were superheroes on Tuesday!