SMT Central – Update #2

Report #2 Detroit, MI and Omaha, NE
Week One 
We spent two hours making and preparing 2,000 bologna sandwiches on our first day in Detroit. This was for Bed and Bread trucks that go out every day and give food to the people of Detroit. We then split up into groups to go with the trucks to serve food in different areas of Detroit. It was really difficult to see so much poverty. The food we served to adults and children might be the only food they would get all day. Captain Jamie took us to different areas including the Canadian border on a mini site seeing trip after our day in the food truck. Also we saw many historical train stations used in many movies. We spent the next day in the shelter cleaning and painting it to get it ready for women and children to move in sometime in the future. The men of our team went to help receive a furniture donation from a law office in town. We attended a Bible study with the men and women at the Harbor Light. It was a great time of learning about the Bible and hearing the questions they had. It was not a required event but it was packed and people were participating. We handed out Bibles to the clients who arrived without one. It was touching how excited they were to receive a Bible. We went to the Monroe Harbor Light the following day and met with Envoy Steve. We toured the facility and learned all about it. We went to GFS to get the food for the cookout with the clients that we were running that evening. We then went back and set up for the grill out while Honey and Sami attended a knitting class with Captain Deb. They tried to learn how to knit but also had some good ministry time with the clients in the class. Dinner was a cookout that we served for the clients at the Monroe Harbor Light. It was a fun time of getting to know all of them. We also had a game time with classic outdoor games like 3 legged race, sack race, and a new one we called Oreo face game. After the game time and grill out we served them banana splits. We had been worried all day that it would rain because the weather forecast said it would. The rain held out till we finished with our banana splits which was perfect. Friday we went on a hike with the clients of the Detroit Harbor Light and McComb Harbor Light. We got to hear lots of clients stories and we able to really get to know them while hiking together through a state park in Detroit. When we returned to the camp site we roasted hot dogs and had testimony/devotion time that the clients enjoyed and participated well in. We finished the evening with some s’mores. Saturday we got the morning off and spent the day sight-seeing in Detroit. We saw the river walk and the bridge to Canada and took lots of pictures. We saw many landmarks in the city and took more pictures. Captains Deb and Jamie suggested we eat at a Polish place that was on Diners Drive Ins and Dives for lunch. For Dinner we had Middle Eastern food where Jerry and Honey tried to teach us how to compliment the meal in Arabic and we failed. The mess up made the dinner more entertaining. Sunday we arrived early to the Harbor Light to pack the gifts for the male clients for Father’s day. We joined in on the Harbor Light Sunday School. Then we attended their very lively Sunday service which was a blessing to each of us. Isaac, Haley, and Sami performed the song How Can it Be. The rest of the team participated in other parts of the service. The choir/praise team invited us to join them in one of their number. It included us dancing with them which was a fun time of worship. We finished the week with the Winklers and the Alips (divisional officers) at our farewell dinner. We said our goodbyes and headed out to Milwaukee!
Week #3
Monday-Friday we led Vacation Bible School at the Omaha Kroc Center which included Omaha citadel corps. The theme of the week was the I Am’s of Jesus. The themes included The Good Shepherd, The Bread of Life, The Light of the World, The Way, and The Resurrection. On Wednesday we led a Prayer and Praise night for the Kroc and the surrounding corps. We averaged about 50 kids per day. It was a fun time of teaching the kids about Jesus and getting to know them. At the end of the week Haley got a pie in the face for World Services. Throughout the week we had a money war for world services. If the boys won Haley got a pie in her face and if the girls won then Jerry got a pie in his face. Sadly for Haley the boys won. We raised a total of 110 dollars for world services throughout the week. The kids also got to learn all about what The Salvation Army does around the world to help people. It was a great first week of VBS.