Wednesday Continued!

While Austin and the others were picking up trash, the other half of the group continued passing out children's books in a Shaker Heights neighborhood near where the Robertson's live.  The group was able to pass out quite a lot of books, and made some good potential contacts for Mark and Heights Presbyterian Church to follow up with.  They especially enjoyed two brothers who kept fighting over the same books from the wagon, (captured mid-fight below!) and each ended up taking close to 15 books each!

The team then enjoyed a unique experience at a restaurant called The Fix, which specializes in soul food and Creole-style cuisine.

Unfortunately, due to heavy rain at exactly the time of our VBS, we were unable to finish our time with the kids at Luke Easter Park.   Instead, we walked to get ice cream and half of the team went to experience Wade Oval Wednesdays, a free concert in university circle.

It has been a great (but hot) week so far...the kids have all been awesome, and have worked really hard.  Mark has been really impressed with all that they have been able to do.  Thanks so much for following and especially for praying!

Brett

Wednesday Afternoon!

Dear Harvest homies,
                Today I picked up trash along some neighborhood streets. It started pretty darn good...I was with Mrs. M and Mr. L and Carson and Natalie and Micah and Allayna and Katie. We started at Pastor Bob's building, which you read about yesterday. Then we split up and one team went down one side of the road and the other team went down the other side of the road. There was a ton of trash.  It was super hot!  Hotter than the Sahara. We walked probably 2 miles picking up trash. Here are some of the things we picked up:

• empty vodka bottles
• flaming hot Cheetos wrappers
• beer cans
• beer bottles
• McDonald's wrappers
• A diaper that I had to pick up
• swag
• Wendy's wrappers
• Burger King wrappers
• Cds
• A dead skunk
• broken bottles
• a shoe
• 3 socks
• 1 shirt
• 1 scarf
• we picked up a bag that smelled like dead human with maggots crawling all over it
• paper
• cigarette cartons

A neighborhood kid helped us pick up trash, which was really nice to see. We got a lot of compliments on how it was nice that someone is cleaning up their neighborhood. Some lady actually gave us 20 dollars because she was so appreciative. It was nice to see how God was changing the community using us even though we barely made a dent in the pollution.

Austin

Wednesday Morning!

Hello all! This morning we visited the Hope Center for refugees.  We saw
adults taking classes in  ESL, citizenship, and job training.  The center was not as busy as it usually is (due to Ramadan), but there were plenty of kids to play with and watch.  I mostly played soccer with them and got pulled into the Messi-Ronaldo debate.  I spent the majority of my time with a boy named Akeroam whose mother was a Moroccan immigrant.  Like the others, he really enjoys playing soccer in the yard on the property of the Center.  There were several other kids there that had roots from nations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Nepal, Somalia, and more.  Franzisca and Elise loved working with babies in the nursery along with Mrs. M and Liz.  We also helped the kids with crafts, and led them in songs.  The skit team also performed their VBS skit for the kids, and Mark Robertson taught them from the Bible.

Carson

Tuesday Night!

Day two of the backyard bible club went really well!

We went there after the cookout at Mark Robertson's. Many of us played soccer, some of us made crafts, we had snacks and had kids laughing a lot at the mysterious skit.

It was well attended and the kids really wanted us to stay. It is good to know that the community is getting help and that the kids are getting attention they normally don't receive at their homes.
After everybody was exhausted and all the kids were ready to leave, we all spend a couple minutes to clean up the park. Spending time with kids has really brought us closer to the community and it has been a great joy spending time with everybody.

Elise & Franziska

Tuesday Continued!

The other group that didn't end up working at the church (Micah, Carson, Natalie, Allayna, Austin, Mark Robertson, Mark L., Mrs. M and me) headed out into the Buckeye neighborhood to pass out books to some of the kids (most kids in the neighborhood come from a home where there are no kid's books).  So we filled up a little wagon with books for kids anywhere from 2 to fifth grade and wandered down the street. The idea was for us to look for kids that were playing on the street or knock on doors that had kids toys in the front yard and offer to have the kids pick out some books. Usually though, we would end up talking to the parents or grandparents sitting on the front porch who would pick out books for their kids or call their kids from inside the house to come see. It was really fun to see the kids trying to figure out which books they wanted and a couple of them tried to take more books than they could even carry. This was such a cool way to be able to help out the neighborhood and we were even able to invite a few of them to the VBS so maybe I'll see them again tonight.

After lunch, the same group headed out to pass out flyers for Heights Pres in Shaker Town Center and Shaker Square which was a little bit more scary than just giving books to kids, but most people were pretty receptive and had several people say that they were interested in coming which was super encouraging. It was a lot of fun and also a really great day of learning how to get outside of our comfort zones and start conversations.

Katie L.

Tuesday Morning!

To whom this may invoke feelings of interest, we ventured to a bar today. The bar was in a very worn down condition (it was built in the mid 30's) as was the store-front, and apartments which were all connected. Pastor Bob was the man who invited us to come help work on the property. He is planning to buy the building for $500 and is currently leasing it for $1 a month. He plans to name it Meeting Place Church and turn it into a church, coffee house and medical and counseling services. We helped with painting walls, cleaning the sidewalk and scrub wood baseboards. While we were doing this, the rest of the group was passing out books around Buckeye Street. When we stopped for lunch, we went to Bob's house, and discovered we forgot some of the lunches we had packed earlier that day. So of course the leaders went and got pizza. Next to Bob's house was another house he had bought for $500 and turned it into a learning center for kids.  Across from that was another plot of land which he

turned into a community park. From there we went back to the bar and worked on that for another hour, and then from there we went to Pastor Robertson's house for a BBQ. ( id rather be swimming)

Josh & Jackson

Monday Evening!

After the evangelism we went to Luke Easter Park and helped Pastor Robertson with his Backyard

Bible Club.  We each did something different, and some of us floated and helped out anywhere they needed it.  We had a kickball game, a snack station,  a skit, and a craft station.  The kids really enjoyed the crafts, and also enjoyed the skit.  We had a pretty good turnout for the first day with about 25 kids.  It was very successful and the kids were very enthusiastic about it.

Sam

Monday Afternoon!

Hey everyone, it's Aaron,

Yesterday, we had 5 teams break off and go around different parts of the Case Western campus doing evangelism. Basically what we did in evangelism is going up to people, introducing ourselves as being with Heights church, and asking them some questions about Jesus and their faith.

My group consisted of Josh, Katie, Mrs. M. and myself. We got to talk to about three people, one of which was a Hindu. We asked her about what she knew about Jesus, and then asked her a little bit about her religion and what her beliefs were. She said that Jesus was considered one of the many gods, instead of the one and only God. She mostly followed Hinduism for the morals and lessons. It gave us a chance to learn a little bit about how different people live their lifestyle.

We met two other people who were Christians themselves. The first lady was a very religious person. She said that the work we were doing was much needed, and went on her way. The second lady was also a Christian. She said she was also religious and needed a little bit more assurance. We talked with her and then went on our way.

And I guess it was practical that we "found" an ice cream place and it just so happened to be about 90 degrees outside, so that gave my team a mental boost.

Stay cool,

Aaron

Watch Party!

The blogs for Monday afternoon and evening are forthcoming, but are delayed due to the group staying up late and going to the Cavs watch party at Quicken Loans Arena!  Though the game didn't turn out as we hoped, it was truly a cultural experience to cheer alongside fans that represented the gamut of Cleveland's diversity.

Monday Morning!

Natalie:  HEYYO! So today started with some Starbucks. Then Pastor Mark took us on a tour around
Shaker. It was cool to see the diversity within one area of a city. There was a small square with little shops and restaurants in the middle which was a cool place to see. So anyway, after that Mark took us back to the cars and we drove to the park where we are going to be doing the Bible camp.
This morning we played a game of kickball and ---hold up! Allayna has something to say.

Allayna:  As we were playing a few kids would join. These 3 girls came over to play and one of them didn't want to kick so I sat next to her and talked to her and invited her back for the Bible camp. She took me to her uncle to give him a flier and ask if they could come back. Anyway, that led to Natalie and I making 3 new 'sisters'. Okay, back to Natalie---

So basically it was Mercedez, Shamaya, and Jysphire (Jay-fire). When I saw Allayna come back with Mercedez from talking to her uncle, I went over to hang out with them. And of course, cause well I'm me, I asked them if they liked to sing. And they did!!! hah. I was so excited. SOO then they performed for us and then I performed for them---


It's Allayna again. I just wanted to add that they thought Natalie and I were sisters which is kinda funny. But yeah they sang us songs they sing in their church choir, which was very cute, but then they  started dancing and showing us cheers. It was so funny. They also did things like playing with Natalie's hair and saying "you have curly hair and don't care". And they told my dad about weaves and wigs and told him they would teach him how to grow his hair. Sooo they are bringing a weave for him to wear at Bible camp.---

Natalie back.  So, basically it was super cute and fun, but aside from our little circle, the rest played the big game of kickball and we got a lot of kids to come join which was really cool. Quite a few of them told us they would come back for VBS later (Including our new sisters). Oh by the way, as we were going to leave they ran back and pulled us aside and asked us if we could be their fake moms. Short story shorter, we settled on sisters. So thats that. ALSO side note- it is so crazy hot. Allayna loves it. I mean I'm not gonna complain, but a couple degrees cooler would be cool. haha get it? cool.  Thank you for your time.

-Natalie (and Allayna) (but you already figured that out) (I guess I should put... Natallayna)

Enjoying the Acoustics!