Serving God by Serving Others! July 4th and 5th

(The Statue on the alter at St. Paul Lutheran Church.)

(Katie Petzenhauser and Angela Jolly with some of the children on the waterslide at St. Paul.)

(Some team members during the water balloon fight.)

(Marking Bibles.)

 

(Eliie Menz displaying one of the care packages.)

Yesterday, on the 4th, we had a fun but productive day. Everyone went to St. Paul for church in the morning except the group that attended church at St. Phillips, and later joined the rest of the team at St. Paul. St. Paul hosted a water carnival in our honor including a meal, water slide and a 30 person water balloon fight. Once the festivities ended, it was time to get back to work.

After we arrived back at the hotel, we started sorting items for Skid Row, marked thirty Bibles that will be distributed at Skid Row, and finished preparing for next week’s VBS sessions. We assembled care packages for Skid Row with different health items including shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, a razor, and a washcloth.

(Pictures of the mural wall.)

Today, we had a work day at St. Paul which the entire group took part in. The church wanted us to clean out the garage and paint it, paint a mural on the wall along the alley, and till up the ground to make a garden for the LWML. The mural is titled “St. Paul The Lighthouse”.

Serving God by Serving Others! Events of July 2-3

(The whole team at the beach.)

(Everyone except for the St. Phillips' group at Faith Lutheran Church Friday Night.)

UPDATE: The little girl from St. Phillips is still in the hospital. After having another seizure late in the night, the doctors ran many different tests looking for answers. She was eventually diagnosed with an ear infection. The latest update is that the infection caused her extremely high fever which in turn caused the seizures. Her temperature is back to normal and she is currently on antibiotics. Please continue to keep her and her family in your prayers. Thanks.


Faith Lutheran Church had a family night last night which our entire IOWAY group was invited to. The whole team went except the small group that worked at St. Phillips Lutheran Church. The events included games with the congregation, singing in the church, just relaxing and meeting different members of the community. Today, the events continued starting at eleven and they included organizing and cleaning the craft room, sweeping the church and interacting with each other and members of the community. We enjoyed multiple games also including water balloon toss, Wii games, and card games. A free meal was served to everyone in attendance. The meal included hotdogs, chips, sno-cones.

After the event at Faith, the team went to the beach at El Segundo for a little fun in the sun and relaxation. It was the first time two team members had ever put their feet in the mighty Pacific. The waves were huge and we all had a great time! Following the beach, we had a superb meal at the fabulous Sizzlers restaurant. Our group seems to be bonding extremely well.

We also started a series of videos in devotions today called “Answers in Genesis.” Ken Hamm is the founder and CEO of this very educational series. He lays out the facts of the Bible in a simple way that everyone can understand.

Serving God by Serving Others! Events of July First

(Cody Clausen and Derek Rothe cutting wood at Faith Lutheran Church.)

(The recyclables at St. Paul Lutheran Church that were recycled, making roughly $250 for the church.)

(Sonia Reeve And Cody Clausen standing in front of the truck waiting to unload the food supplies for the Manna House at Faith Lutheran Church.) 

And the answer is…… 15,000 steps by Sonia Reeve!! If you are looking for the question, it is the previous day’s post.  Tune in tomorrow for the walking winner of July second.


The workers at St. Paul Lutheran Church sorted recyclables today and the workers raised roughly $250 for the church, because aluminum cans, glass and plastics can all be recycled and are worth so much per pound. They also were able to clean out the garage to enable a new door to be put in as well as cutting down dead tree branches to make the area look better.

Today at Hope Memorial Lutheran Church, the group had an unfortunate eye opening experience when they saw a homeless woman eating day old pizza out of the dumpster behind the church. The church elder said that sometimes another lady takes showers in the church’s lawn sprinklers. The Team continued their experiences by canvassing as well as planning for Bible School next week.

The group at Faith Lutheran Church had multiple work projects this week some of which were reorganizing the Manna House, digging up sod so the church can put down astro-turf, chopping wood for disposal, and unloading food supplies for the Manna House. The group showed their muscles by unloading food supplies that` consist of 1750 lbs. of onions, 1330 lbs. of carrots, 74 gallons of water, and 315 gallons of Fuze fruit juice. This is part of the continuing outreach to the community around Faith.

At Christ Lutheran Church today, the team continued to canvass the neighborhood passing out flyers inviting families to come to VBS. They then moved on to preparing for next week’s session by practicing skits and songs. Afterwards, they studied the scripture about the flood (Genesis 6-8).

The Events of Day One

(The group from St. Phillips acting out the second skit of the day.)

(Pastor Laurent of St. Phillips who will be acknowledged next week in Houston.)

Before hitting the streets of LA, each person received a pedometer to see how many steps they took throughout the day. Tune in tomorrow to see the winning total of day one. : )  Each group headed out to their assigned churches and either started canvassing or preparing for the actual VBS sessions. St. Phillips started their sessions today, because the former pastor is being acknowledged for being the oldest living African-American pastor in the United States next week in Houston, Texas. St. Phillips is a church in the Compton/ Watts area. The church is next to a nursing home with tall fences surrounding the property. Once through the gate, everyone on the team (Paul Nahnsen, Katie Petzenhauser, Angela Jolly, Kodi Hawthorne, Andrew Reeve, and Ellie Menz) sensed the love of God in the people they met. It is a unique situation because there is such an age range, age one literally to the dear lady Ernestine who is 91.


The theme of Camp VBS is Truth Train. The lesson for the first day is Creation which emphasizes the truth of the Bible versus the theories of the big bang and evolution.

The following are reactions of Iowans on their first mission trip on the events of today:

• Kodi Hawthorne at St. Phillips Lutheran Church:

“My church is awesome! I could really feel the love of the people at the church even though it is in a really tough neighborhood.”

• Colleen Petzenhauser at Hope Lutheran Church:

“I was surprised on how few supplies these churches have but yet these churches do the best they can with a joyful spirit. On another note, the dogs scared me too while canvassing.”

• Payton Kalambokidis at Christ Lutheran Church:

“At first, I was a little nervous but then I got used to the environment and things got easier. My church is pretty small but the people and the building are really nice.”

• Baker Cambridge at Christ Lutheran Church:

“I was kind of nervous because I didn’t know what to expect or really know the people in my group, but after meeting them, I became much more comfortable.”

After working at their churches, the teams returned to the hotel for some relaxing and swimming, followed by the famous Ralph’s shopping trip and evening devotion.

WE MADE IT!!

(We made bracelets out of fishing swivels, fish charms, and crosses to represent that we are fishers of men)

We made it!!  After getting to know each other at Ruby Tuesday's and becoming fishers of men last night in our devotional (pictured above), we set off today to start our adventure to the city of Los Angeles.   Everyone made it safely and we are planning to begin sorting the various supplies for the next two weeks.

IOWAY - Summer 2010

Join IOWAY's summer 2010 team as they travel to Los Angeles next week. Updates from the team will be posted throughout their two weeks serving God by serving others.