 |
| Alden with one of the young Super Saturday attendees |
Two years ago when I
was in 5th grade, I had an awesome experience on a 3 day mission
trip in downtown Grand Rapids. We were told we would stay downtown in a church
and would serve with 3 different ministries in the inner-city of Grand Rapids.
One such ministry was Urban Family Ministries. I thought it would be scary to
do ministry with a bunch of urban city kids. I applied to go on the trip and
was excited to see what God had in store for me and the ways I would see him
work.
The first day of the
mission trip the guys on our team passed out fliers for a community cookout and
the ladies went to Alpha Women’s Center. While passing out fliers we met some
members of the community and were blessed to invited them to the cookout. That
night was a great night for a cookout. We had about 2 hours of prep time and 1
hour of service. The menu consisted of hot dogs, watermelon, baked beans, and
chips. We had 3 positions: serving, plating, and talking to members of the
community. I noticed when I was asking
what people wanted to eat many said “we would like hot sauce on our chips.” I
found that interesting. We had a
powerful moment during the cookout when a member of our team got to pray
for/with one of our guests. God was moving.
The next day we spend the full day at UFM helping with projects around
the office. My group was responsible for cleaning up the landscape. That was a
hard but rewarding task.
During our time at
Urban Family Ministries I was thinking, “Wow, I can’t believe what God is doing
here. This is a ministry that is helping to transform one urban kid at a time.”
Time passed, school
began, and God called me into this field of ministry. I went to the UFM website
and printed out a volunteer application, had a meeting with Alf Clark, and got
to know more about UFM and what it was like serving in the urban setting. I now
serve at Super Saturday and help out in other areas when needed. Volunteering
with this ministry is very rewarding for me. God has worked tremendously in me
and through this ministry.
Praise God for all He
has done!
~guest author, Alden, volunteer
No comments:
Post a Comment