Off to a good start!

Day One.
Monday was our first “regular” day during the trip. Once we woke up, and after we ate our breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon and a banana, we headed to a local favorite coffee shop called Gypsy Bean. Overall, everyone loved it! After Gypsy Bean we took a short driving tour of Cleveland. The area where we are staying is very run down with about 40-50 houses within a square mile radius that are in foreclosure. But on our tour we got to see the downtown area, including the Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland Clinic (which is HUGE!!!), the Cleveland Orchestra Hall, Government buildings, sports stadiums and other places that give us an indication of how prosperous Cleveland once was. It was like being in two totally different worlds. It was good for our students and leaders to see the difference from one neighborhood to another.

After our tour we went to the West Side Market for lunch. They are celebrating their 100^th anniversary and so much of the Ohio City area (the area just west of downtown Cleveland where we are staying) has been cleaned up. There weren’t nearly as many homeless as in years past because they have been chased from the area…which makes me wonder where people who have no home go when they are chased from the places they once considered “home”.  We then took our group photo in front of the market, which I am working on uploading. 

After lunch we went back to the Family Ministry Center (FMC) and prepped for our cookout. We sent teams to three sites, and total we have about 80 kids signed up for a Backyard Bible Club on Tuesday...but that number will likely grow from one day to the next. 

After our cookout we came back to the FMC and had a time of debriefing. All of our leaders were able to give similar feedback: our students were great with the younger city kids. They played, connected, listened to, and had fun with the kids who came from the local areas. We didn't have to ask anything of them more than once and it was a pleasant experience. We all were very proud of the way our students stepped up and we look forward to seeing them step up more and more. 

That leads us to today. We will be prayer walking and then doing our first actual day of Backyard Bible Club. Pray for continued boldness and that God would work through and in spite of us to reach this area!

Josh