Friday: Fun In the Park

It's Friday!  This morning we had a good old southern breakfast. We have a team here this week from Ireland, so one of the interns decided they needed to experience grits.  Quite an experience it was, and we can't wait to tell you all about it when we get home.

After breakfast, all of the teams came over to First Presbyterian Church, where we have been sleeping, to have the last poverty lesson led by the people from Covenant.  We had a time of worship together, and then split into our individual teams to discuss how we can relate what we've learned with what we've done this week.  We have all enjoyed this series and it was great to be able to tie what we did this week into these lessons.  One thing that we have learned is to not go into a community looking for what we can fix, but to look for the gifts and resources that are present.

Before lunch, we all drove to a park and our team vehicles drove to the neighborhood, where we have had BBC, to pick up the kids.  We had four kids from this week come to the picnic.  They arrived at our park, and we had an opportunity to play with them before lunch.  After lunch, we had the opportunity to hold one last Bible lesson with the kids.  We sang some songs, reviewed their Bible verse for the week, and the gospel was presented one more time.  The kids were much more involved today and seemed to be attentive to the lesson.  Please pray that God will continue to nurture the message that has been shared this week.  After the lesson we played kickball with the kids and drip, drip, dunk (like duck, duck, goose, but with water).  The kids all had a blast and made new friends with kids from other BBCs.  We were also thankful for the amazing weather that God granted us today.

Here is what Austin wanted to share about today, and how God has been working in the kids:
"Today at the park all the teams, the one from Alabama, the one from Ireland, and ours, we played a friendly game of kickball with the kids from the Bible camps. The kids had a lot of fun playing with all the big kids; running around the bases while we all clapped and running into home plate. It was strange to think that just a few days earlier, some of these very same kids were too shy to do something as simple as sit on a tarp with us. This change in behavior really showed me how much God can change the comfort level in children, especially those who were raised in an environment that poses a constant threat."

This evening we had the night out on the town, which was a fun evening for all.  We had a wonderful dinner at The Terminal and then went for ice cream at Clumpies.  Coolidge park is right behind Clumpies, so we walked to the park where we had fun riding the carousel and walking the pedestrian bridge across the Tennessee river.

Tomorrow morning we will be aiming to leave here between 8-9 am.  Please pray for safety and good traveling conditions as we drive back to Raleigh tomorrow.  We are excited to see everyone when we get back, and tell more of how God has been working in Chattanooga this week!