After our 9 hour drive from Detroit on Saturday, we arrived safely to our second location in St. Louis. This week we partnered with Temple House and the St. Louis Temple Corps to learn about ministering in your community. We got to meet our host Sara Johnson upon arrival and had a good night of fellowship with Temple House and Lt. & Capt. Holloway at the City Museum.
On Sunday, we were able to worship at the Temple Corps. We witnessed a farewell ceremony for Lt. Chelsea Barnes and a welcome for their new intern and summer cadets. Aika had the chance to share her testimony during the service. For dinner we all gathered at Sara’s house for a some delicious tacos and fellowship.
Monday was a great day of physical labor for the Lord as we cleaned up the Temple House Gardens and moved a gigantic amount of mulch into the garden while it rained, and rained, and rained some more. We definitely couldn’t have done it without Major Gail’s and Sara’s help and encouragement.
On Tuesday, we traveled to Ferguson to visit the Ferguson Empowerment Center where The Salvation Army partnered with the Urban League to build a center that models reconciliation for divided communities. There is so much history of tragedy and hope in this city. One of the provided programs we got to participate in was the SPARK Academy, a safe space for young kids to learn about depth, responsibility, community and spark. We got to join the kids on a field trip to the local Salvation Army thrift store where they had a budget of $5 to buy anything they wanted and see how the thrift stores help the ARC ministry. We had a blast shopping with them! In the words of Veronica (the program director), we did a GOOD JOB GOOD JOB, G- O-O-D J-O-B, GOOD JOB GOOD JOB.
In the next few days we participated in a Popup Park event, finished our big garden project with Temple House, helped set up for a Juneteenth celebration, and helped a local non-profit, Perennial, with organizing some of their donated material. We truly admire the work that Sara, Adina, the local officers and our new friends at Temple House: Future, Casey, Jervias, Meosha, and Madelyn, do to serve and minister in their community. Please continue to pray for these young adults who dedicate a year of their lives to living in community and serving the people of St. Louis.
We’ve made it to Black Hills, South Dakota and can’t wait to minister to the children attending camp this week.
Until next time, Central Team