MINI-OUTREACH Tucoma, Washington

-Seattle, Washington home of the Space Needle (on the right) and GREY'S ANATOMY!

Hello again everyone! So I'm SUPER behind on updating as u can see. This happened over 5 weeks ago, and yet it seems like yesterday. So here it goes....

This was one super crazy week. We left Sunday morning at 6am. For Seattle. We left early because we wanted to make sure we got through the passes and also people wanted to get there in time for the Superbowl. Anyhow, it was one long drive. 3-15 passenger vans (one of which had a trailer attached with all our luggage inside) and another vechile driven by our cooks (YEAH we brought the cooks from the base with us to cook our meals!!!! They are one of our leaders parents.)

So I got to ride through more of Montana, Idaho and into Washington. It was about a 10 hour trek in all. We got there later than we wanted to and missed the Superbowl. Big deal!!!

We stayed at Pugent Sound Christian Centre, which is a four square

church in Tucoma, Washington. Tucoma is about 30mins. from Seattle. It was really big and also offered some preschool like programs during the day. We stayed in 2 classrooms, girls in one, boys in the other. So we were all one big happy family.

The schedule for the week was:
7am Breakfast and pack your lunch
8am Worship
8:30 – 10am Lectues with Anna Smith (a leader in SBS)
10am – 5pm Various Ministries
5pm Dinner back at the church
after dinner various ministries

It was like that every day, except Friday which was our day off. More about that later.

Lectures this week was Inductive Bible Studies which means we dove into the Bible discovering the background and understanding the specifics. Inductive Bible Studies involve Observation, Interpretation and then Application. We looked at the book of Philippians.

Helping out at the various ministries was really fun. I will go through them all day-by-day. This is going to be a long blog, so it back, grab a drink or snack and ENJOY!!

MONDAY

We met Miles Musick, who is founder of New Beginnings home in Puyallup, Washington (5 miles east of Tucoma). New Beginnings home is a ministry for unwed mothers to offer them a place to stay. There is also an adoption agency too. Both of these ministries are through YWAM. After we heard about the background of this ministries we went out and helped them with various jobs (painting, cleaning, building selves, yardwork, etc.) I went to the adoption agency and stripped wallpaper from a bedroom and also did some cleaning.

Monday evening, we went to REACH at Calvary Community church for pizza and worship. REACH is a evening service for college aged students. Mackenzie, Tyler, Jami and Justin all shared their testimonies. Really good! They did an awesome job and made all us DTSer's proud!

TUESDAY

My group (Scott, Claire, Andrew, Jami, Toast, Angi and Shaun) stayed at Pugent Sound and prepped for painting the office. We also patched some wallpaper. This was tons of fun because we basically took over the office and got to hang out with Mile's daughter.

Tuesday night, we split into groups to do some street ministry. I went in the van to the University District and walked around with Toast (NOTE: his real name is Christopher, but everyone calls him Toast) and Angi. We met a homeless man who was trying to get money from cars driving by, so we stopped and talked to him to try and figure out his story. He was a really interesting character and we gave him a few bucks on the condition that he didn't spend it on alcohol.

WEDNESDAY

FISH Food Bank (FISH stands for “Friends in Service to Him”)
http://www.fishfoodbanks.org/ -a really good website about this ministry

We helped unload a truck of food at two locations, re-stocked their shelves, bagged noodles, sorted clothing and did bags. We did

approx. 120 bags in an hour. A bag contains:

• 1 can peas

• 1 can green beans

• 1 can of tomato sauce

• spaghetti noodles/soup noodles
  

• 1 can of peaches

• 2 little bags of romin noodles

Each person that comes gets one of these bags and then they also get to pick some other things at the front. Since we finished early, we had a bit of fun!

Toast and Scott built a 'tomato soup' tower! It went from the table all the way to the ceiling and was over 120 cans I think! The smiles and laughter of the people volunteering at the food bank was PRICELESS!! They even had a leave it for the people that came in the next day.

Wednesday evening, I went to the Crossing. The Crossing is a community service organization which provides for the homeless in Tucoma. It is an awesome ministry. In their building, they have a lunch kitchen, washer/dryer, hair cuts, clothing, showers and fellowship. Everything is free, the only condition is that they pray for you. Wednesday evening and Sundays, they push the clothing aside and have a church service. This service was awesome!! It was on Song of Songs 2:8-13. The speaker spoke that we are called to step outside our comfort zones and follow Him. SO GOOD! After a time of prayer and worship, we were encouraged to pray for others (who were not DTS). I'm not usually one that is comfortable praying for others, but the words seemed to just flow out of my mouth! It was sooooo encouraging for me! A huge confirmation of what God is doing in my life and just how big he is!

THURSDAY

My group got to go to the Crossing and I got to see it in action as I described it above. We also got to go on their mini-bus to do some street ministry. Due to the lack of time we had, we went to a park near by. We did a prayer walk around this park and then came back for lunch. In the afternoon, I helped Claire paint words on the intercessory room that is also located at the Crossing.

Thursday evening, I went to the MOSAIC service at Bethany Baptist Church in Puyallup. Again, it is a service for college-aged students. We just got to enjoy the service which was awesome!

FRIDAY

Free day in Seattle!! We parked near Pike Place Market, which is a public market on the waterfront. Amber, Hannah, Angi and I just toured around the market for the day. I will put pics of the market up in the next post, since this is getting really long. For dinner, our whole team ate at Red Robin and then back to the church to pack up.

-Seattle at night

We left super early Saturday morning, because we had to take the long way back home. The passes we went through were closed due to tons of snow and avalanche control. It was a 15 hour drive home through Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana! We had to go south first before going east. It was the longest time ever in a vechile, but surprising, it went super fast. I read almost the whole book “Under the Overpass:A Journey of Faith on the Streets of America” by Mike Yankoski. Super good book, I recommend it for anyone!

SUNDAY

I just slept back at the base to get ready for the next week!

Thanks so much for reading! Sorry it was so long, but this was such an awesome week for me! Stay tuned for next week RELATIONSHIPS with Ron&Judy Smith, the founders SBS (School of Biblical Studies).