Work Day Two Salvation Army

Today I headed out with Anthony & Elise's group, the aqua team, to Brooklyn to the Salvation Army. Upon our arrival, we split into 3 teams to organize the food pantry, prepare and serve the meal, and clean the chapel.

The tables we prepared.

In the food pantry

Prepared to serve the meal

Organizing!

After we prepare the meal, about 150 homeless & impoverished members of the Brooklyn community came and received a free meal that we served to them. After serving their meal, we were able to sit and hear about their lives and their stories. It was a time of great fellowship and encouragement on both sides of the table.

In the afternoon, the hot pink team, lead by Brett & Mrs. Tucker, joined me at the Salvation Army to do some VBS with the after school program kids. The center provides an after school program for free for women who need to work longer hours. The kids come to the center and play and learn and receive dinner as well. 

Some members of the hot pink group immersed themselves in the street culture of Brooklyn...

When the children arrived, we prayed with them over our VBS & began a great afternoon!

We sang songs

and played games

and same some more songs!

Then Ian read a Bible story about the love of Jesus

and we made a craft highlighting the fact that God is Love

After we left our worksites, we all met back up at the Brooklyn Tabernacle for a special meeting with Jim Cymbala. He spoke to our group about his church and about its purpose and welcomed us to their prayer meeting that evening. The meeting was nothing short of spectacular. With reverent worship and prayerful hearts, the Lord prepared our group to experience the power of His Holy Spirit and the evening was moving for many people. Cymbala spoke about the Church at Smyrna in Revelation and about the persecution of Christians in our time. His message was powerful and passionate. But the most impactful part of the service was the prayer. We prayed for individual prayer requests sent to the church, missionaries to a Navajo village in Arizona, mothers of children ages 5-17, and for Christians persecuted around the world. The evening ended with tears and a spirit of joy that had come over our group. 

And to wrap up a great day, we travelled back to New Jersey where we celebrated Denver's "20th" birthday!