At last, the final day of Mission: Iowa 2010! Note that this isn’t the final blog entry for the trip. Expect more entries this week, including a wrap-up from today, additional photos in new posts and added retro-actively to older posts, some video footage, and posts for those who went on the mission trip to share some of their experiences and personal stories with you. But for now, let’s get to today…
Our group is down to thirty-seven people after last night’s departure of Bob and LouAnn back to Chicago and Derrick and Jenna back to Minnetonka, as well as Elizabeth and her daughters, Kate and Morgan, departing early this morning. We packed up as quickly as we could, rearranged all the furniture, cleaned every table, vacuumed every carpet, and loaded every suitcase as we departed Living Water UMC for a final time. The group is weary after a late night of goofing around to top off an exhausting day but we’re already at work as I write. That’s right – you’re getting a real-time update this morning.
I’m writing this blog at the McDonald’s in Marion, IA across the street from the Wal-Mart where approximately a third of our group are shopping for school supplies for children and youth in need. We got this job from Pastor Melissa, who was our handler during last year’s trip. She no longer works with flood relief and now does more community involvement action projects. Still, she has plenty of jobs for us today, some similar to last year’s duties (the Wal-Mart shopping trip, for example) and a few extras.
Chris, Chris, Steve, Hattie, Nick, and Sam are at First UMC right now, planning a Sunday School lesson about the Good Samaritan and they’ll deliver it at approximately 11:00am. Meanwhile, “Team Move,” led by Eric and Parker, is moving box after box of provisions and supplies for First UMC’s community outreach efforts. A large truck from the HyVee grocery store pulled up a few moments after we arrived and they were already unloading it by the time I left. Wright, Eric, Pat, Marlys, and others are digging potatoes out of a community garden and when they finish, they’ll return to the church with veggies in-hand and pack them away with carrots and other assorted goodies. The Daves took a crew out to an apartment being used by First UMC as a ministry center and are doing carpet tacking to help repair a ruined floor. Loretta took the largest contingent to Wal-Mart for school supply shopping. I’m hoping they stop by when they’re done with photos from their trip.
We plan to eat lunch in the park at the center of downtown Marion at around noon and depart by 1:00pm. The drive is a really smooth one and something tells me most vehicles will be filled with mission trip workers, young and old, dozing if not outright sleeping. Everyone but the drivers, anyway.
Well, no photos from Wal-Mart. Instead, they need me to swing by and offer my car to help take back all of the school supplies: eight carts worth! So no photos and not many details but I’ll fill in the gaps later. That’s all for now, dear reader. I’ll try to blog once more tonight to fill in the gaps on any stories from today. Thank you for reading of our witness to the people of Cedar Rapids and Marion, Iowa. Remember: you can do this, too.
Regards,
-nm
The final mission trip photo gallery is below. Click the pic for a larger version:
Sounded like a great mission! I’m so glad you guys were able to go and help build Cedar Rapids back up!
Much love & blessings,
Katelyn