Every time I think about doing a "way-back-Wednesday" post, it's not Wednesday! But today, I finally remembered on a Wednesday and I have been meaning to post this entry for 2 weeks now. So...enjoy!
A small group of McFarlin high school youth, college kids, and adults traveled to Camden, New Jersey (the poorest city in the U.S.) during the summer of 2008 to work with Urban Promise. Scott took a group of youth there before (I think summer of 2000?) and I had heard for many years about what a great organization Urban Promise was. Well, the rumors were true. It truly is a remarkable organization that helps gets kids off the streets and gives them a hope for their future. We worked with Urban Promise Toronto during the summer of 2009, and this summer, the McFarlin youth went back to Urban Promise Camden. So, I thought it only appropriate to take a trip down memory lane and revisit some of the great memories from the mission trip to Camden--summer 2008!
The trip started with a day of shopping and sightseeing in NYC. The best part of the day? Besides the TGIFridays for dinner, MY BROTHER got to come hang out for the day. It was a blistering hot day, but he was a good big brother and went to every store that the girls (and Pirtle) and I wanted to go to.
Kendall, Lydia, Creepy Elmo, Pirtle, Gracie
I think we must have been getting to ride the 6 or 7 line: "STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS PLEASE!"
Tayler, Nora, Lydia, Pirtle, Kendall, Gracie, Scott
Grace, Lydia, & Jeremy (waiting for an hour to eat at TGIFriday's in Times Square.)
Jeremy, Mark, Schlegel (The best part of dinner was the fact that we had a view of the staircase and watched at least 17 people trip going UP the stairs. Yes, we counted.)
Grace, Lydia, & Pirtle (with out cherry limeade slushes that got refilled once? maybe twice?during our 2+ hour adventure at TGIFriday's)
Lydia, Jeremy, & Stephen (who is now engaged! can't believe it still!)
The Gangster! In addition to working with kids in the morning, we helped paint the Urban Promise Academy where kids go to high school.
Stephen, Schlegel, and Mark. Nice shorts! Those would fit right in in Ukraine :)
Gracie...painting behind the toilet :)
Stephen, just a tad bit frustrated with the blinds...
Hanging out at the Camden RiverSharks baseball game (Tayler, Grace, Lydia, Nora)
One of my little kiddos...Sammy :)
Of course, I could post a bajillion more pictures, but I will spare you :) I know that the group of youth, adults, and college students that went on the Camden trip 2 weeks ago had an amazing and life-changing experience. And for the first time ever, a group of 15 high school kids and sponsors stayed behind to help out an additional week. At Friday (when the group was supposed to head home on Saturday) morning worship, the Urban Promise director jokingly told the McFarlin kids that they should stay another week because the group that was supposed to be coming for the next week's help had to cancel. You don't put an opportunity in front of McFarlin kids and let it linger for very long though...before the end of that day, everything had been arranged for a parent to fly out and meet the correct adult/kid ratio, and there were actually kids who wanted to stay who didn't end up being able to because the 15 spots filled so quickly. Pretty amazing God story I'd say :) I got to skype with some of the kids that week which made me so unbelievably happy words can't even explain. And that, is today's way-back-Wednesday post!
2 comments:
Funny that I'm reading this post this morning, after being in Times Square last night! It was raining last night and cooler but the subway was still stifling.
I can't believe I had to look at those shorts AGAIN. I had almost forgotten... lol
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