OneEightyOne Student Ministries

We have!  As many of you already know, last year’s mission trip team built a carpetball table for KIDS Inc’s game room. This year, we offered to build a gaga ball pit. The KIDS Inc. team thought it was a great idea, so we purchased supplies and built a portable gaga ball pit… we finished just in time for it to be introduced at Teen Night this evening. Our prayer is that the gaga ball pit will be used tonight, as well as many nights in the future to help KIDS Inc. reach teens for Christ.  We also completed several other work projects, primarily painting the food pantry, scraping paint, sorting and stacking clothing for an outreach event KIDS Inc is involved with tomorrow, and helping to prepare the building for Teen Night.  We delivered a few more bags of groceries this morning,  and the remaining food and hygiene supplies will be left with KIDS Inc staff to distribute as they continue serving this community.  Teen Night is wrapping up as I write this post, we have spent the last 2 hours playing gaga ball, carpetball, basketball, and just generally hanging out with an awesome group of teenagers from the communities around KIDS Inc. We heard a challenge from Jake, the director of KIDS Inc. and the Gospel was clearly presented. We know that God has the power to change hearts and lives, please join us in praying that the teenagers present tonight would be open to the message shared and would also remain involved with the various ministries of KIDS Inc. throughout the year. We have had a busy week! We have been challenged, stretched, and blessed by the opportunities we have had to serve and interact with everyone here. We will be leaving for home tomorrow morning, please pray for safe travels! The current schedule is to have students picked up at 9 PM on Saturday in the youth center. If we anticipate being more than 15 minutes early/late we will let parents know as soon as possible. Thank you for your prayers! We could not have accomplished everything we did this week without your encouragement and support.

We started the morning with several outdoor work projects – the students have continued working diligently, and are accomplishing great things around the grounds and flower beds. No weed stands a chance against our group’s determination!  We also had a group staging and sorting the food and hygiene donations. Because of PHBC’s generosity we were able to give well stocked food bags to over 30 families that KIDS Inc interacts with regularly. THANK YOU!!! We also got to meet two teenagers who are actively involved with KIDS Inc.  They were invited and agreed to ride along in our van and help with the distribution of food bags throughout the community.  We completed a team building activity before dinner and are looking forward to our group devotion and recreation time tonight.  Please pray for unity and strength for our group. This has been a very productive week, but it has also been challenging physically and spiritually.  God is moving, and are so excited and thankful to be witness to the changes and growth that is occuring.

After completing our work projects this morning, we broke up into smaller teams to pick up trash in the surrounding neighborhood. We also took that opportunity to do a prayer walk – thanking God for His provision, and asking for fruitful ministry, encouragement for KIDS Inc staff, and blessing for the neighborhood.  The weather this afternoon  was not quite as warm as we expected, so we postponed indoor activities until tomorrow.  This evening we had a much needed time of fellowship and fun.  We ate dinner at a local diner, Shapiro’s, and then visited downtown Indianapolis. We treated the team to ice cream and then enjoyed a time of worship and group devotions outside.  We covet your continued prayers! Please pray for restful sleep, strength and energy, and that each individual on this team would be open to what God is teaching them.  Praise report as well – two full days of work projects have been completed with no injuries!

We are only halfway through the morning and so far it’s been quite a busy day. The temperature is supposed to rise this afternoon, so we are trying to get the outdoor work done first. We have indoor work projects planned for part of the afternoon.  The whole group has been working hard… many have learned new skills, although we make no guarantee that they are transferable once we return home 🙂 Thank you for your prayers and support!

We had quite a productive day here in Indianapolis! Work projects included mowing and weed eating; scraping,  caulking, and painting the entry way; picking up trash; dusting and cleaning the bleachers; mopping the gym; and trimming shrubs, weeding, and clearing brush. We also had one team make a quick store run – we needed some tools and equipment for more work projects we have planned, and it also takes a lot of food to feed a group of hardworking teenagers!  We bought several card and board games that our team has been playing during free time, we also plan to leave all of the games here for KIDS Inc. to continue utilizing throughout the years to come as they continue building relationships and working with teens and families in Indianapolis.  We are looking forward to a full week of continued service and spiritual growth!

We have had a busy day full of driving then eating, eating then driving, and, most importantly, preparing for the week ahead. We had an awesome opportunity to hear from Jake Medlong, the director of KIDS Inc. this evening. He shared some personal stories of life change he was witnessed while working woth KIDS Inc, and challenged our group to be focused on God and on service.  If you ask Jake, he will tell you “people grow when they serve,” and we hope to fulfill that statement while were are here in Indianapolis.  We would ask that you pray for restful sleep tonight and willing attitudes and cooperative weather tomorrow. We are winding down with some group game time this evening and we have several work projects planned for tommorow. We are excited to see what God will do in and through our group this week. Thank you for your prayers and support!