Hey guys, thank you very much for the prayers. We have really felt them.

Yesterday the Irish man Chris shared with him his experience coming to Christ because of a short term mission trip. His challenge was for us to try to find the Chris’ on and around our work sites. The group that I was working in really struggled with this challenge because where we were working (out in the clothing barn and in the kitchen of the DV center) was away from where the women and children were. Last night and this morning we really prayed that the Lord would show us who these Chris’ were and how we could help them.

Today was truly amazing. God really does answer prayers! But first I shall start at the beginning of the day. Our group headed out this morning into downtown Nashville to see some of the sights and then stop in at the Rescue mission. Ross was quite the taxi driver driving us all over and yet pretty much getting us nowhere. We ended up never getting out of the van but we did see some pretty cool sights including the batman tower (AT & T building), Tennessee Titans stadium, and big bridges. After driving around for awhile we went to the Nashville Rescue Mission.

At the Rescue Mission we received a tour from Nathan Peeples. Three years ago Nathan went through the rehab program for the second time and has been sober and off of drugs ever since. He is now on staff helping other people overcome their struggles. He gave us a tour of all of the facilities and programs that they have there.

At noon we went to the cafeteria to help clean up after the homeless people ate lunch. We were able to get into many conversations with the folks in the lunch room. We heard many cool stories and it was sweet to see rough people open up and talk about stuff that they generally hide. There was one gentleman who had written over seven hundred poems! He read a few to a couple of members of are group and it was phenomenal! He is hoping to get published tomorrow by a publisher that he is meeting with. There was another guy who has been laid off since December because of the auto industry and is now working whatever day jobs he can find. In about a month he is leaving to Louisville to try an find permanent work. He shared many of the struggles that he was going through and was open to anything that we said. After they ate lunch we ate and then had to leave.

In the afternoon we went back to the DV center (Domestic Violence) and continued the work from the other day. However this day we decided to make a commitment that we would find a way to find the ‘Chris’ around our work site. After working for a while four or five of us went looking for people to interact with. We found a group of women and kids that were outside smoking and playing. It was amazing because first off the people accepted us right away and talked to us. We were kind of worried about them interacting with us because we were strangers and they hadn’t really seen us work at all. But the thing that really got my attention was that the two kids that myself and a few others started playing with were both named Chris! This was soooooo awesome because we were trying and trying to find the people that needed us. I thought that it was great that when we were trying to find the ‘Chris’ at our worksite God gave us two of them that were overjoyed to hang out with us. We played football, basketball, and just talked for a while.

After the work day was done we headed on home. At night we headed to our worship meeting. We sang some great songs and had a super worship time!

That is all that I have for tonight. Your prayers are very appreciated. Please keep it up!
-Benjamin Attema

Today my group and I headed out to the Martha O’Bryan Center for another great day of work. Once we got to the center, we found out that they had no power. Therefore, we were unable to work in the morning because it was raining along with thunder and lightning. Judy, the leader at the center gave us some ideas of where we could tour in downtown Nashville. So once again, we got back in the van and headed to downtown for some exploring.

It was ironic in the way that we have been talking about homeless people and how to interact with them when we come across someone who is homeless. About ten seconds after getting out of the van, a man walked up to us and he said that he had no food, and no place to stay and he asked us for some money so he could try and get himself something to eat for the day. When he walked away from us, we realized that the dollar we gave him wouldn’t be enough and we had some extra peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so we gave him two sandwiches and some chips to go along with it. We asked him what his name was and it happened to be Jim. As a group, we told Jim that we would be praying for him and he was very thankful. He told us that praying for him was all that he needed right now. This really opened not only my eyes but also the eyes of my group members. After that, we continued our tour of downtown Nashville walking down the streets and going into a couple stores.

After we were done with our tour, we went back to the Martha O’Bryand Center where we dug trenches for pipes coming from the gutters. Eventhough it was very hot outside, we knew that we were helping people and this made us want to do it not only for the people at the center but also for God. When we took breaks we talked to some of the workers at the center and they were very interested to know about us and where we came from and why we were there.

Our day at the center was very efficient even though we didn’t get to pouring the concrete which we will do tomorrow.

God has really been with us throughout the week so far and I know that he was with us today! Sometimes we don’t quite know why he has us to some of the things we do on mission trips such as digging trenches but we know that He has a plan and it will all work out in the end with the relationships with the people and the community.

Kylie Maxson