Knoxville Day 2 & 3

Hello! It’s good to be able to post these awesome blog posts from our youth tonight.  Apologies to everyone about missing a post last night.  We had a thunderstorm roll through Knoxville yesterday afternoon which knocked out the wifi here at the church we’re staying at.  So here are the posts from yesterday and today! Enjoy!

Knoxville Day 2

“Today I went to Project Live. Project Live is when you go and help people keep up their home or lawn.  So we went just to help the old and disabled that could not do these things for themselves.  While there, I saw God in a woman named Marilyn. She was so kind and loving. She offered us drinks and snacks and she was just caring about us and what we did, even though we were there to help her. The other place I went to was a place called Random Acts of Flowers. Random Acts of Flowers is a place is where they take old flowers from memorials, grocery stores, weddings, and funerals and make beautiful flower arrangements. We helped find the good flowers in the arrangements to make new arrangements. They used the flowers to put a smile on people’s faces.”

• Kamden Ridgell

“Today I went to a place called Global Seeds.  It is a home for middle-eastern refugees, mostly from Iraq. They help these people get their licenses, learn English, help them start businesses, and more! I trimmed bushes and moved things to make the place more welcoming for these refugees. I also went to the VMC or Volunteer Mission Center. We played bingo with people. The people we played Bingo with were homeless and they don’t always get fun opportunities like we do. So today we played with them.  I saw God when the people won bingo, and their faces made me feel so good and made me know that God loves everyone no matter what.”

• Grant Shafer

Knoxville Day 3

“Today I went to Beardsley Farms and I got to help pull weeds and pick Basil. Beardsley Farms is a project started by the University of Tennessee that aims to give food to smaller organizations in the Knoxville area that otherwise can’t afford some of the fruits, herbs, and vegetables that they grow.  I saw God in the people who donated their time to help out when they told us that they gave it to smaller organizations because the larger organizations get more stuff.”

• Evan Mahaley

“Today I went to Random Acts of Flowers which is a big building where people can come and bring their flowers when they are dying or they don’t want them anymore and the people that work there will take the flowers and put them back into arrangements and give them to people who are sick or to people who just don’t usually get flowers. I saw God today in the people who worked at Random Acts of Flowers because they take most of their day away from their families to help other people. We also had free time today and we went to the Zoo and Market Square. At the zoo we saw many different animals like a Red Panda, Owls, Tigers and Gorillas. Market Square is a place with a ton of different shops and restaurants. For dinner we ate at a restaurant called Trio, and it was delicious!”

• Grace Shafer

“Knoxville has definitely been a little hot and humid this week 🙂  I can’t really believe that it is already Wednesday and tomorrow is the last full day.  The week has definitely been full of God moments and it has been amazing to see God work in these young kids.  It totally renews my faith.  As we get older life simply seems to become more complicated, but to see the pure joy of watching these young kids serve the neighbors of St. John’s of Knoxville.  It reminds me to stop and enjoy the simple things in life.”

• Kristin May