High School Mission Trip 7

Getting Close!!!

Today we packed up camp at Cass at about 7 o clock AM. We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast. We proceeded to Cedar Point to spend an amazing day riding coasters. Nobody got sick, and nobody passed out, but everybody had fun. While driving to IHOP Marcy was really excited to drive through Fostoria. She kept saying something about a glass factory. We stopped at IHOP for a celebratory dinner. Today was my birthday (Sam) so they embarrassed me by having the waiters sing to me... After leaving IHOP we drove directly into a storm.... So, we stopped at McDonald's to wait it out. After about 45 minutes we reloaded the car, and drove the final 1.5 hours to the hotel. We received our room assignments and prepared for sleep. If you cannot tell, we are blogging a little bit late tonight hehehe. Tomorrow we will drive the final eight hours back home.

We can't wait to see everyone, and sleep in our own beds...
Thanks for all the prayers

Daniel Riekena & Samantha Figg

Detroit Mission Trip: Day 6

Goodbye,
Today was our last day working for the Cass Community. In the morning, we woke up and ate at the Scott Building like usual, but whenever we showed up they surprised us with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. After feasting, we progressed to the warehouse where we assembled tire doormats with tires found on the street, one of the many innovative ways they clean up the city. We then joined the people who live in the Cass center for lunch. We had the opportunity to learn some of the people's stories. We finished our day at the church completing the powerwashing of the showers. When that particular team returned, they smelled of a curious combination of gasoline and bleach... We then set up camp for the last time at the activity center and donned our swimming suits. We drove the 7 minute route to Rev. Fowler's house. We swam, ate hotdogs, and made smores. We then had our final Michigan devotion with Rev. Fowler, Gladys, Geneal, and Tashon. We all hope to see them again when they visit Missouri later this summer. Tommorow we head to CEDAR POINT to spend a day having a whole lot of fun. We will get up super duper early to load the van and make it in time for the park to open.

Thanks for all the prayers
We will see you soon

Daniel Riekena & Samantha Figg

High School Mission Trip ~ Day 5 ~

Hey Ya'll!
Tonight we are finally not blogging from Kendra's phone, so we can actually do a detailed blog. (Even though Daniel doesn't want to...) We began our day at the Home Depot, secretly buying plants for the side flowerbed at the Scott building. When we arrived (an hour late...oops), they were excited to see that we had purchased them flowers. While one group put in flowers, the other group loaded the truck we would take to the church, and biked in their green gym again. We spent our morning broken up into several teams which pulled weeds on the playground, painted the hallway, moved body bags out of the haunted house in the basement (which is a famous fundraiser for Cass Community Center), powerwashed and bleached showers, cut and replaced rusted locks using bolt-cutters, and caulked windows. We ended our evening spending time with some of the youth from the Cass church. We learned a few of the students stories, and told them a little about Missouri. They wanted to know if all we had were cows... (Yes.) We then mingled during dinner, and followed it up with a friendly game of basketball. Some of the students went to the playground with the smaller kids. They really enjoyed the face time with the students. We didn't want to leave the kids. One of the cooks from Cass gave our group a DELICIOUS cake to take with us!! It didn't last a half an hour. We are waiting for the sweaty boys that played basketball to get out of the shower so we can do devotion and go to sleep at a decent time...
Tomorrow we head to the tire shop to make mud mats.

Thanks for all the prayers

Daniel Riekena & Samantha Figg

High School Missin Trip Day 4

Opa!

Today we returned to the Scott Building where we split our troops. Half of the group did landscaping on the front of the building. Gladise (the woman we worked with) was thrilled to have our help. The other half of tje troops were sent back to the kitchen. There we cooked many pizzas from scratch. There may have been a flour war..... The pizzas we had cooked we ate for lunch. They were amazing! We finished the afternoon creating electricity on the bikes in their green gym and creating order out of chaos in the warehouse. We then ate at Pegasus. We saw flaming cheese and men who didn't speak English. Afterwards we ventured to Rev. Fowlers house to swim in her really sweet pool. Tomorrow we will be working in the church across the street from where we are staying.

Thanks for the Prayers

Samantha Figg & Daniel Riekena

High School Mission Trip Day 3

Day 3 consisted of a lot of trash. We arrived at the Cass Community Center to begin our day in the kitchen. We created about 1200 sandwiches, wrapped them individually, and bagged them. Denver enjoyed plying pranks with some of the workers, and the boys found jumping out of the truck onto a load of paper quite enjoyable. We then ate dinner at the church and learned new basketball tricks from their youth intern. We really enjoyed all of the people at Cass and are excited to spend the rest of the week with them.

All Prayers Are Welcome

Daniel Riekena and Samantha Figg

Mission Corp ~ Detroit ~ Day 2

Hello!
This morning we awoke at 6:45 AM to leave Auburn, IN and head towards Brighton, MI. We worshipped at the First United Methodist Church at their contomporary service. We were heartily greeted by everyone in the church. We ate at Lucas's Coney Island Restaurant. They have world famous hot dogs (and really good chili unless you ask Emmy...) Then we piled back into the two vehicles to trek to Detroit. We spent time circling the Cass Community Center deciding which building we were supposed to be in. We met up with Faith Fowler, the pastor, were she described the situations of the people in Detroit. This is going to be an eye-opening experience. We visited the Canadian border, the National Michigan Boat Museum, and Hitsville U.S.A. We ate in Mexican Town at a restaurant named Los Galanes. After the delicious sopapillas we toured downtown Detroit. Then we drove back to the Cass Activity Center. We set up camp and will do devotion and games later this evening. We are going to try to upload some picture...

Thank you for all of your prayers

Kellin Ferguson, Daniel Riekina, and Samantha Figg

High School Mission Day 1

We departed Chillicothe at 6:46 a.m. and arrived in Auburn, IN at 5:30 p.m.--but it was 6:30 here. Here's what we did in between: Driving....Driving....Sleeping....Driving....Eating....Driving....Swinging....Sliding...Driving...Driving....Driving....Driving....Stopping....Taco Bell...Swimming....Upset Stomachs (Taco Bell)....Devotion.

We were really ready to exit the vehicles when we arrived to Indiana. Tomorrow we will set out for Michigan for church and then tour Cass Community Center where we will be serving for the week.

All Prayers Welcome :)