It is such a blessing to have students that care about their community and wish to serve God through loving and serving their neighbors. It was also a joy to serve the many families who benefited from the festival, and teach our students about inner city ministry.
As we were setting up for the festival, a few of our students seemed to not really understand how such an event really benefited and served the community. They thought that, while a fun thing to do, it didn't really feel like that necessary of a service project. It was a great opportunity to talk with them about city life, poverty, and quality of life. Many inner city or low income neighborhoods have little community life. There are few restaurants & businesses, and no festivals and family friendly activities. So coming alongside members of a community as they seek to brings neighbors together, is a real gift to such areas.
It was great to see our students thinking about these issues, and I am so thankful for my own experiences on RUF service projects and missions trips (particularly my trip to the south side of Chicago) for teaching me about these issues.
In the morning we helped spread the word around the neighborhood about the event, and organize parking. Our job was also to decorate each of the stations of the festival including a hay ride and tent for making lanterns out of recycled materials:
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| Our lovely Hay Ride! |
We helped children create their lanterns out of water bottles & paper mache:
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| My beautiful example lantern: an owl! |
I wish I could have gotten a few photos of the kids as well, but I was a little shy of taking pictures without parental consent to post online. Our student's smiling faces will have to do!
Grace & Peace,
