Philadelphia '10

Philadelphia '10 - Blog

Saturday, July 10, 2010 - Day One

It is hot and humid. After getting our vehicles we drove downtown to Reading Terminal for dinner, but it was closed. We went to Pats/or Genos, the famous Philly Cheese steak restaurants, and since both restaurants had lines wrapped around the block we kept going.

We ended up at J&J's South Philly Pizza, (they have REALLY good pizza in Philadelphia!).” After dinner, we drove to "Gather the People House of Prayer," the church we would be working at all week, and where we would spend our first night. Pastor Yvonne Yates was sitting on the stoop talking to people when we pulled up. "She didn't look like a pastor,” Preston Ganaway said, “she just looked like everyone else in the hood.” She stood up to greet us, and gave us some words of wisdom. “You are here to give the people love, and nothing else,” she told us. “Be careful how you entertain strangers,” she said, “because they may be angels. I bet many of you didn't have any idea that I was the Pastor, did you?”

After meeting the Pastor, her husband Walter Yates took us across the street to the building that they intended for us to stay in. As we walked in, “everyone was kind of taken aback,” says Preston. “Nobody believed that we were supposed to be in here. But despite the conditions, I think we all wanted to tough it out without complaining.”

Checking out the first church building where we were originally going to stay

Devotion the first night, at the school

Nikki trying really hard to cool the place off a little

Kizzy walked outside to ask some of the neighbors sitting on their stoop if they knew where a tea shop was. "I just really wanted to make conversation and meet some of the people," says Kizzy. "We ended up having a good conversation, and the young lady and I made a connection. She said "I have you guy's back." "

After discovering there was no water in the toilet, Judy called the Pastor to see if there was anywhere else to stay, and she put us in the church's school, a former Sylvan Learning Center, across the street from the church. “When we walked into the school we were relieved to find a working toilet, and we were excited to see the giant screen TV and fans,” says Jon Davin Nellis.

Later that night, after settling in, recapping the day and talking about our plans for the rest of the week, we had our nightly devotion:

Scripture: 1 JOHN 1:5b, MATTHEW 5:16

"After Judy talked about the light, I said that God will take you to a place that you could never get through, and he will always be the light that gets you through the darkness," said Lanae Davis. "When I think of light I think of either a pathway or an aid for help." "In terms of God, I think he uses light to stay on the right path and never goes into the darkness," said Krin Ali.

Sunday, July 11, 2010 – Day Two

Although the school was an improvement from the first building we were going to stay in, it was very hot and humid, and after a restless night we all rose earlier than usual, at 5:30 AM. After getting dressed we cleaned the school, in preparation for the Celebration Service honoring Pastor Yvonne's 16^th Pastoral Anniversary banquet in the afternoon. We walked the three blocks to McDonalds for breakfast, and returned in plenty of time to help set up the large tent that was going to be used for the Anniversary festivities, and also for the Vacation Bible School (VBS) that we will be conducting.

The tent was large and heavy, but we had it set up in plenty of time for the early Worship Service. While waiting for the service to start Kizzy played the conga drums and several of us played the percussion instruments that the church keeps in a large box by the door for anyone who feels like making a joyful noise.

The sermon was delivered by Rev. Cleveland M. Edwards, Pastor of St. Jude Baptist Church and also the younger brother of Dr. Yvonne Yates. He delivered an energized, passionate message that had us on the edge of our seat! When Pastor Yates closed out the service, she shed tears, letting us know how grateful she was that God saw fit to deliver our group to her little church during such a special time. She was also moved, and told us that we made history, by being the first Youth Group ever, to ask to be accommodated overnight in her church; that everyone else had been intimidated by the neighborhood.

We stayed at the church after the service, enjoying “water ice” and talking to the many friends and neighbors who were starting to arrive for the afternoon service until it was time for us to drive across the river to New Jersey, where we would be checking into our hotel and joining the other Youth Groups from across the country who would be participating in “Youth On Mission” during the week. After checking in and having dinner, we had an orientation and devotion with two of the other groups (there are a total of 150 Youth working this week!), then returned to our Devotion Room for a Devotion of our own. It is now late and we have about an hour of recreation before we will settle in for a good night's sleep in preparation for our Work Week, which begins tomorrow. Stay tuned!

One of 3000+ murals in Philadelphia, this one on the side of the school where we will teach VBS

Kizzy and Pastor Yvonne before Worship Service

Skip, Chris and Larry working on tent

Preston and Krin working on tent

Kizzy on conga drums before service

Pastor Yates and a Parishioner

Sunday night devotion

"Galileo" and Jon Davin. Galileo is a VBS teacher.

Monday, July 12, 2010 – Day 3

After breakfast, we drove the 45-minutes or so (in rush hour traffic) from Maple Shade, New Jersey into Philadelphia for our first day of VBS. When we arrived, nobody from the church was there yet, so we waited outside of the school for about an hour, because although we had a key to the school we didn't have the burglar alarm code. During this time we talked to neighbors, recruiting kids for VBS, and fed the feral cat we adopted, who we call “Salem.”

After an hour we took a chance going into the school; we figured they wouldn't give us a key and no code if they had armed the alarm system, but we were wrong. The alarm went off immediately and continued to go off, LOUDLY, until Pastor Yvonne and her husband arrived an hour later. The alarm sent a police response team and many, many neighbors.

VBS opened with music, led by Amber Smith, Kayla Wright-Jackson, Alia Craig, and Maya Aggen. Music rang out through the neighborhood as the music team lead the kids in “The B-I-B-L-E, J-E-S-U-S is his Name-Oh, Rise and Shine, Hallelu, and He's Got The Whole World In His Hands.”

Following music we had a video and our bible lesson, which focused on the creation story. VBS begins at 11:00 AM, so after those activities we took the children to their designated spots in the neighborhood to pick up their lunches, and back to the school, where we ate lunch with them on the sidewalk. (Youth on Mission provides us with lunch-making material every day.) The kids eat nutritious lunches provided by a Social Services Agency during the summer.

After lunch we had another song, then moved to the basketball court for recreation, followed by arts and crafts under the tent we raised on Sunday morning.

We drove back to New Jersey after cleaning up, and had a couple of hours of free time before dinner and devotion, and people had options including swimming and resting. We drove to the Cherry Hills NJ mall for dinner in the food court and a little bit of shopping time, then came back to the hotel for devotion, which included a recap of the day. Then we made beaded cross necklaces that glow in the dark. We each made two necklaces – one for ourselves, and one that is to be given to someone who we see the light of Jesus in at the end of the week. Please enjoy the images below of Monday.

Ready for our first day of work at school

Feeding "Salem"

Alia and Amber lead are song leaders with young VBS student

Camille with our beloved Bianca

Chris leads recreation

Rileigh, Lanae and Camille at Arts & Crafts under tent with students

Discussing first day

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

We had breakfast a little bit later than on Monday, because we already had the school set up for VBS. In a torrential rainstorm, we drove through what seemed like rivers into Philadelphia, and taught VBS independently (yeah! now we have the code to disable the burglar alarm!) until the Pastor and her husband arrived later in the morning. We had about twice as many children as we did the day before, because many of our students brought their friends.

We noticed that the tent that we had put up, where we had done crafts the day before, had fallen down, and we assumed that it was because of the rain. We decided to do the first part of VBS, clean up during lunch and set up tables for crafts in the same room.

After VBS was over and we had cleaned up, we got on the subway and took a trip downtown, because we had a tour planned on Wednesday for Independence Hall after VBS, and we had a tight schedule. Parking is very expensive downtown, and we also want to avoid having to find spots to accommodate two 14-passenger vans, so we wanted to plot our course and, while we were down there, go visit the Liberty Bell.

After visiting the Liberty Bell we walked the few blocks to the Reading Terminal Market for dinner, the place we tried to eat on our first night, and had Philly Cheese Steaks. After dinner we caught the subway back to the church where we left our vans. The neighborhood kids were happy to see us so late in the evening, and some of the boys climbed into the van and tried to stow away.

We drove back to New Jersey to our hotel, and had about an hour to regroup and rest before our devotion with the other groups. We learned what the 6 other groups were doing (mostly teaching VBS at various locations throughout the city), where they were from, and their shared their different worship styles. There were groups from North Carolina, Ohio, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

After regrouping, we had just a few minutes of free time before turning it in for the evening and getting ready for our busy day tomorrow.

Trash team cleaning up area around church and school

Neighborhood men asked us to put up tape to block off street so children could play after lunch

Evan, Kayla and Kara during arts & crafts period with children

Preston and buddy Darryl

Taking down the tent

Navigating the Philadelphia subway system

Actors in Independence Park reccreating the reading of the Declaration of Independence

Wednesday, July 14, 2010 – Day Five

We have tripled the number of students in VBS; they like the way we interact with them and that extra love. We have kids from 2 years to 14.

Reflections from today:

Judy: We will really miss these kids when we are gone. I also love the way you guys are looking out for each other. Today, Camille's Aunt came to pick her up for dinner while we were at Independence Hall. Later, after our tour when we were walking back to our vans, all of the sudden Chris stops, whips around and yells in an alarmed voice, “Hey! Where's Camille!?!? Did we lose her somewhere?!?”

Chase: What touched me was when I was talking to Shameer, and he was telling me that his brother is in jail. I asked him why and he said he doesn't know. He told me, “I stopped being bad because I don't want to do that.”

Chris: We had a pretty slamming basketball game going on today at recreation.

Skip Scott: The Pastor's husband asked us to take down the tent and help him get it loaded into the trailer, and it was raining. I really didn't want to be bothered with the tent, but the way he asked, and the light in his eyes, I just had to.

Krin: I really enjoyed doing the rain dance.

Kizzy: I see the light of God in all of those kids. When we show up, they light up, it's like they are waiting patiently for when we come. They want to be there on time. Bianca has the most beautiful smile, she's so happy! It's going to be so hard to leave them.

Alia: When I was playing with Adonis, him and I were clicking today for the first time. He said “will you be my friend today?”

Kayla: I feel like helping these kids has helped me. I haven't always been patient with little kids but I've learned to be more patient. These kids appreciate us being here.

Amber Smith: I just get happy when all the little kids come up to me and ask “what are we going to sing today?” and I just love Bianca, she's so cute.

Evan: When one of the three girls, her friends left to go to another church and I asked her, “why don't you go with your friends?” and she said, “I want to stay with you.”

Camille: It was cute playing with Bianca today, we were with Maya, and she was like, “You're my Mama, and Maya is my sister.”

Kara: I gave Raheem a cross today. I know he is really difficult to deal with, but I know there's a light in him. He was really moved by it. I thought it might encourage him to be good. He is fascinated with technology and he had my phone the whole day yesterday while were in downtown Philly, but he gave it back to me at the end of the day.

Jon Davin: I thought it was really nice that Bianca's Mom bought us 3 liters of soda. We easily could have done that ourselves, but she really wanted to do it for us.

Preston: I was talking to Darryl and he said “you guys are really leaving on Friday?” I said yeah and he said “I wish you guys didn't have to go, you better come back next year!” He had so much attitude on the first day and now he's singing and having fun with us.

I also wanted to say how happy Adonis was today when we gave him those shoes. His whole entire face just lit up, and he threw his sandals and ran to tell his Grandma, “look Grandma, they brought me new shoes!”

Quinn: The basketball court brings so many people! A lot of people just came and watched us play basketball; for whatever reason they congregate toward us. When we had to move those giant heavy tarps, Adonis, Michael and Bianca came back and they helped us carry the stuff! Every day when we have something to do, someone came to help us. And I'm thinking just as we are helping them, how many times each day do we sit around talking about how much they give us. I'm actually getting more from them than they are getting from me.

Andrew: I was with this girl pushing her on the swing, and talking to her about school and college, and how it's important to stay in school.

Maya: Thank you guys for my very happy birthday celebration at Chilis. Secondly I was with Rileigh and we were pushing a bunch of kids on the swing, then Rileigh left me and I was pushing 4 girls on the swing, and there was a girl named Samayja who came over and started pushing the 11 year old just to help me out.

Davis: Instead of playing basketball today I played with Michael, and I saw the light in him.

Larry: I saw the light in all the kids, and how attached they've gotten. I love watching the way they participate in the singing.

Nikki: When you show up somewhere like this you worry, that you're going to feel sorry for the kids but you don't want to. I was over today at the swings with a few guys, and the older sister of two girls was standing next to me, and she said “You guys from Texas?” I said no, we're from Colorado and she said I have an aunt in Texas and she says it's real nice, she says there's no gunshots. That sounds really nice.”

Lanae: We were at the park and Nikki came over with a distressed look, Bea was stuck in the swing, and we were trying to figure out how to get her out because every time we would pull her she was like “ouch!” When we finally did get her out she looked happy and I will always remember her face, because every other time I looked at her she didn't look happy. Today also I was hanging out with the kids and it started raining, the kids all started showing off their stars, and the girl next to me said “I'm going to copy you because I think you draw pretty things.” Each kid actually put their own twist into it. I was really watching them and impressed with how they work by themselves but also in a group.

Bassey: What I enjoyed most today was playing catch with a lot of the kids.

Rileigh: I was walking to the park with Samayja and she asked me why we are all so nice and she gave me a hug, and it felt really good.

Dawn: I really didn't want to go to Independence Hall after VBS today because I didn't feel like walking in the rain, but I really enjoyed it. It was fantastic seeing the very location where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and then we walked out and ran smack into Ernest Borgnine. Judy, Nikki and I also enjoyed freestyling while waiting to get in.

Thursday, July 15, 2010 - Day 6

After Bible School, we loaded commodities into the school that the church gives away to members of the community on Thursdays including frozen fruit and meat. After that we went back to the hotel to clean up and spend some time in the pool, because this would be our last night at the hotel. After dinner we had a devotion with the other youth groups in Youth On Mission (YOM). This time the youth gave their testimonials (the adults gave theirs on Tuesday), and there was a video that the YOM leaders put together of all the various groups at their sites.

Many of the other groups were also teaching VBS (most of them), some were working with Senior Citizens and one group did construction at a Pastor's house, where he planned to hold prayer meetings.

One of the young leaders gave her devotion after the testimonials, and we had many questions about the differences in their theology and ours; some of our Youth talked to her afterwards, then wanted to talk to Judy, but we decided that we would talk about it at our own devotion the next night.

There were many tears tonight, as we realized that tomorrow would be our last day with the kids that we have come to love so much.

Friday, July 16, 2010 - Day 7

Praise God!

On Monday we had 5 kids and today we ended VBS with well over 30. After VBS we went to take a picture on the "Rocky Stairs" at the Philadelphia Art Museum and with the iconic LOVE sculpture in Love Park, then dinner in Chinatown.

We got back to the church after dark, spent a couple of hours playing with our children who had been waiting for us to return, had a long devotional, and as we were settling in for the night suddenly there was the sound of sirens, Harley engines revving, and shouting. Peeking out we saw a procession going down the street, led by Policemen in cars, bikes and on foot, along with TV cameras, and what seemed like every person in the neighborhood. The adults went out to ask what was going on, and found out that it was a "Midnight Peace Rally," which was a prayer vigil to pray for peace in the neighborhood. We went outside and joined in as prayer after prayer was offered in support of a peaceful neighborhood. It has been an unbelievable experience.

Saturday, July 17, 2010 - Day 8

This is to be our only day of recreation, so we were excited when we got up. Pastor Yvonne's husband had prepared a delicious breakfast for us - sausage patties, scrambled eggs, grits, biscuits and orange juice. After cleaning up and spending some time with our children, we piled into the vans to go to Atlantic City for beach day.

We were still pretty tired from all the excitement of the night before, so there was a lot of sleeping on the way over. "Betty," our GPS device, got us lost a couple of times and there was an unbelievable amount of traffic tying up the Atlantic City Expressway, but once we passed the Cape May exit it was smooth sailing.

We spent the afternoon lying on the beach, swimming, and strolling up and down the boardwalk, and got back to the church very late. We were a little disappointed that the children weren't outside like they were the night before, but we had plenty of work to do before retiring, including having our final devotion.

Judy honoring outgoing seniors Andrew, Quinn and Chris at devotion

Sunday, July 13, 2010 - Day 9

We woke up this morning excited to be going home to our friends and families, but also with heavy hearts because we would be leaving the people we had come to love - Pastor Yates and her husband, the neighbors, the parents and, especially, the precious children.

After packing our things into the vans, Pastor Yates led us in a farewell prayer. She then spent some one-on-one time with several of us praying, and talking to us, giving us gifts that will last a lifetime. Some of the kids came out to say goodbye and there were many, many tears and hugs.

Saying goodbye and leaving was one of the hardest things we've ever done. We feel like we have become a part of the Gather the People House of Prayer community, and we have vowed to come back and help them dedicate their new building when it has been completed. We are grateful to Pastor Yvonne and Walter Yates, the neighbors, the Gather the People House of Prayer congregation, and the beautiful children of the community that we were privileged to serve for taking us in and allowing us to share our message. Philadelphia will live in our hearts forever.