Monday/Tuesday (1-06-20, 1-07-20) Good-byes and Transition to back home

Goody-byes are always tough.  Our group got up at 6:00 am to pack up and head out shortly after 7:00 am.  The kids that take the bus to school get up at 5:30 am so they are ready to wait for the bus shortly before 6:30 am. We said our good-byes to most of the kids as they waited for the bus.  We then went down to eat breakfast and say our good-byes to the moms and ladies downstairs.

It was a long travel day, but the conditions were good and we are very thankful for the safety God provided us and for the many other answered prayers (we all stayed healthy!).  I am writing this post Tuesday afternoon as students finish their papers.  We were able to get together for some pizza and reflection before students sat down to write their reflection papers.  A day off tomorrow and then, the second semester begins!

I can't begin to explain what a blessing it is to go on this trip every year, to get to know the students at a deeper level and join them in prayer, reading God's word and doing God's work.  We learned so much!  The goal moving forward is that this trip doesn't become just a fun memory, but that we take what we've learned and move forward to make a difference in our own school, church and community. Thank you to all who lifted us up in prayer!  Please continue to do so!

~ Mr. Hendrikse

Sunday (1-05-20) Church at the Garden and time in the city

Today we were listening to a sermon about love and how we should love someone that we don't even know yet. When Pastor Seven was preaching we all could see the Holy Spirit working in him and working in the people who were listening to him. The most powerful part about the sermon was when we were all given a piece of paper that had weird shapes on it and Pastor Seven told us to look at these four dots on the picture for 30 seconds, then he told us to close our eyes and tilt our heads up a little. When he finished counting we all closed our eyes looked up and we could see a picture of Jesus’ face. After we did that he stated that even in our darkest moments we can still see Jesus because of all the love he shows us and that is why we should never stop loving God no matter what we go through. After the sermon, we left for the Coke museum and it was absolutely amazing! They had so many different antiques from so long ago and there was also a zone that showed us the history of how Coke started, it was pretty cool. The last part of the Coke museum was the tasting section and there were one-hundred different Coke flavors to try, some of us tried all of them and most of us were full after fifteen tastings. After the Coke museum, we went to this restaurant called the cookout, then we headed back to the church and now we are going to have Bible study, pack our bags, and go to bed for a great ride home tomorrow.

~ Bryden Doyle

Today was a pretty interesting day. We woke up and started off the day with a great 2 hour church service that was really inspiring. Then we went to the Coca Cola museum and got to try coke from all across the world. After that we tried a new restaurant called The Cookout and they had amazing burgers. Lastly we got some of our stuff ready so we could leave in the morning and went to sleep.

~ Rob Fellerer

Group shot before church:)

Pastor 7 - Today's sermon was on love

Kim with Rocky

Talking after the service

Waiting for lunch:)

Hittin' the city

Striking a pose

The Coke Museum

The secret formula of Coke

Our view from the top of the parking structure (12th floor:)

Eating at the Cook Out (Not far from Georgia Tech)

Saturday (1-04-20) - The Bluff Route

So today is Saturday and it was a very eventful Saturday. On our routes today we had the community along with us to help so we had a lot more people with us. This touched because there was a bunch of people from the community there and what struck me was that they don’t have to come on the routes but they chose to by themselves no one was forcing them too. This was cool because these particular people care a lot about what 7 Bridges does and they want to help out any way they can. Today as our fun activity we went to to dinner at The Varsity and ate dinner. It was in downtown Atlanta and had a overview of the highway and you could see the Olympic torch from the Olympics in 1996. After that we drove around and I took pictures on my phone of downtown lights. We also went to the coke museum and took more pictures. In all it was a cool experience in the eyes of someone who lives in a town of 2,000 people.

~ Javier Claerbaut

This morning, after breakfast, we could journal and be in the word for an hour. At about 10 we got dressed and ready for going on route. We had the opportunity to serve with members the community. We chose to go on the bluff route and not the bridge route. We stopped at the house with many children and another house further in the neighborhood. There were quite a few people there too. Then we went to a community of apartments. There were some older kids there and it was neat to see some of the volunteers interacting and playing basketball with them. After that was the parking lot of 868, a night club. There were not too many people there, but one of the most impactful things to me today was seeing a man walking towards us who was bombarded by five or seven people who were almost throwing gloves, hand warmers, socks hats, and lunches at him. He looked dazed and confused at first and had to take it in for a second before responding to if he wanted prayer. I think he walked away feeling loved, and I hope he felt blessed and highly favored too. The last stop was the yellow apartments. All the kids rushed out for lunch and for people to play with. We played with the kids when we got back to the Garden until Bible study. The group was able to close the day going to dinner at the Varsity with Nick and Jess, and drive around looking at the night lights of downtown Atlanta.

~Jotham Bernier

Check out a few videos of the day (there's a few more down below as well:)

Stand up and Shout It!

Prayer on Route

The 7 Bridges Faith Statements

Blessed and Highly Favored

Game time Saturday morning

Annie and Jermiah

Elliana and Keeiah

Avy and Jamar

Rocky...one of the cutest kids!

The cutest:)

After a rainy Thursday we went out and got some cheap ponchos for the anticipated rainy Friday.  Well, we didn't go on route Friday, so we had to at least try them on Saturday morning for a poncho pic:)

Eric sharing a brief word of encouragement before route on Saturday morning

Nick, going over all the rules and expectations before route

The Bridge Route team leaders

Elie handing out socks to some very appreciative men



VIDEO Blessed with a song at one of our stops

Annie and Jocelyn opened our group in prayer at this particular site

Our last stop

 

The healthiest meal, no, but it was tasty

Just having fun

Team shot with Nick and Jess

Good friends:)

After eating we decided to put Jav's new phone camera to the test.  We found it took some pretty remarkable night time photos!

The olympic torch

Annie didn't believe Rob's foot was bigger so they had to measure. To be fair, Rob did have his shoe on:)

Taking our positions for our 9:00 pm team Bible Study