Thursday

Today we took a walking prayer tour of China Town.  It was tasty too with a stop at a Chinese bakery!  Next we worked a shift at St. John's Hospice - not a place for the final days of life but a place of help for the homeless.  We worked serving  lunch. but the ministry includes one night shelter, transistional housing, nursing and social work services, shores and a clothes closet.  After lunch we went back to the aftercare program and worked with the kindergarten and 2nd and 3rd graders.  The older group finally got to film their "Happy Healthy Me" video that they are sending to Michelle Obama.  It was hard saying good-bye - but great knowing they appreciated having their "mentors" for the few days we came.  Keep praying for Amanda's health -she doing so well with our team as is Aaron.  Kyle leaves us Friday night.  Tomorrow we go to serve a wheelchair bound community and have our urban plunge time.

Somehow I deleted one of the previous posts - sorry about that.  Watch for more pics and team member reports tomorrow.  Scroll back to the last couple of posted because we did several all in one sitting the other day.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. Via Jesus, 2013 Philly Team

From the kids. . .

From Jonathan (J-money)
Yesterday evening we visited the subway station. I was in a group with Brent, Kyle, and Allie. At the subway station we met a lady name Maria. She used to be homeless. She talked about how God worked in her lives. She asked us to pray for her and her husband to be together forever. We gave her a lunch. She said my hair looked like Michael Jackson . We also met a lady named Ella. She was from North Carolina. She went to private school. She said that she never stayed in a school for long. We gave her a lunch also. She lost her bible so we gave her a new bible. It was a great thing to see how God works in people's lives.



Hello it's RJ!!! Today we cleaned up the streets. It was a lot of work. The highlight of my day was being at Honnickman learning center. I taught two children, Tyleem and Jahkee. They were so much fun to teach, even though they argue a lot... They tell me that they are still "Homies." They were very energetic and I enjoyed playing football with them. I am glad we were able to influence the children and I will miss them very much.


Cole "Do it with a smile on your face or don't do it at all!"

Pictures from Street Clean-up Wednesday Am

Today we worked with Ray of Hope an organization that works to clean and maintain care of streets in Philadelphia and helps low income seniors with home repair and maintenance. One shop owner asked me If the kids were paid and when he found out they gave up their spring break to come serve in the city he was amazed and touched. It ended up he is a Christian from Armenia who took two of the Bibles to give the next couple of folks who are struggling in life that come into his shop. Our team worked so hard and the results were amazing.

Day 2, AM

After a laid back morning of enjoying each other's company, and some devo time, we headed out.
This morning our team spent a few hours sorting toys for the Salvation Army. Our contact Chris had us sorting toys for boys and girls and boxing them up by age groups.They will give out the toys this upcoming Christmas to families in need. They hope to distribute these to over 16,000 families.

Keeping up with who is keeping up to date

One of the cool things about the blogs for our various mission teams is to see where some of the page views are coming from.  Obviously, there will be a lot from the Philadelphia region and views from the where the other teams are.  But we also have the following:

Northern Ireland blog - 4 from Costa Rica, 2 from Czech Republic, 30 from Germany.

Boston blog - 3 from Germany

Philadelphia blog - 2 from Germany, 1 from Mexico

Jamaica blog - 37 from Germany

So visitors? Thanks for checking in.  Would love to hear from you.

Jack Savidge, TKCS missions coordinator

Romans 10:15

God is our sustainer! With prayer Mrs Tuley is working on a twisted ankle. Please keep her and our team in your prayers as we head out to the Salvation Army and the Honnickman Learning Center.

Philly Day One

After our family prayer circle we spent the afternoon doing team building, devos, and packing. The girls were amazed that it's possible to miss getting the ball in the basket as many times as Miss Brougham achieved! And we all discovered with hard work creative thinking you can move a group of 11 across the gym floor stepping only inside of five hula hoops. In Philly we met the awesome CSM director Brittany who will be our host in the city this week. We ate family style at a Thai restaurant. Yes, our students were brave and tried everything and discovered they liked a lot of it! We ended the night with a driving Prayer Tour of the city. We learned that Philly is one of the poorest cities in the US. Many of us realized how hard it would be to actually be bedding down for the night under a bridge as we huddled together praying for the people of the city next to a rumpled mattress and partial couch in a very dark, icy breezy underpass. Tomorrow we serve with Salvation Army and Honickman Aftercare program. Thanks for your prayers. "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine..be glory."

Commissioning Service

The mission's commissioning service was a great way to send off each team!  Thank you to everyone who could make it to support team members as they prepare mentally and spiritually to go and serve.
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"