It begins.

Hello again from 'Common Grounds' coffee establishment! I am back at my "regular table", now armed with bug-spray. It has been an incredibly long and informational two days. I'm going to catch you guys up and throw in some pictures to make it more interesting. There's also a surprise at the end. Don't look ahead. It's too good to ruin.

I got settled in after our last post and met my fellow interns. There are ten of us from all over (Texas, NC, South Dakota, Missouri, China, Louisiana, etc.). We've been together ever since. It's been great to get to know people from so many places. Side note: I have the thickest southern accent I have encountered. I've never been 'that' person thats noticed because of the accent. No complaining though. It makes me think of home.

On our first day, I woke up at 5AM with the rest of the interns and went to "My Brother's Keeper" Homeless shelter and helped serve breakfast to about 20 men and women. We introduced ourselves, ate breakfast with them, and heard some of their stories. The manager, Anthony, shared a devotional and then we just hung out until about 7:30.

We then started our orientation at the main office called the "Jubilee Center" which is a few blocks from our house. We did the standard get-to-know-you stuff and got loads of paperwork on the openings for ministries, what's required of us in terms of Bible studies, service projects, small group participation, church visitations, and volunteer hours. We got tours of several of MissionWaco's facilities on both days and there are some pictures later on.

We met Mackenzie, the director of the Childrens ministries at MissionWaco, and toured their place. She took us to lunch at a eclectic, organic place called "Food for Thought" where the employees wore Toms and the feel was really cool.

That night we went to the Meyer's Center which is a part of the MissionWaco homeless shelter and led a 'chapel service' for the homeless men coming in for a place to sleep. A lot of them were the same from the breakfast that morning and we had more of an opportunity to speak with them. Something startling that came up during our time was that over half of the men in the room have served in the military. Over HALF...and they are homeless. It bothers me that our country would send those men to Vietnam and Korea to fight for this country and then they end up homeless and on the streets. I don't even know why but I couldn't believe it.

Then after our first day, all the interns went out to Thai food which was a first for me and it was really great. And expectedly, we went to Wal-mart and got groceries and stuff for the house.

Today was more orientation, and we took the "Other Side of Waco" tour that MissionWaco puts on for visitors. We saw the 'projects', the Habitat for Humanity homes, and the rehabilitation homes and half-way houses. Just making us aware of the issues Waco has with poverty and addiction. We learned why Waco was in its current state of poverty and community disparity. We met Gabe who is the director of the Youth ministry for MissionWaco. And he is so cool. He began his career as a drug-dealer at age 11 and served time and even witnessed murders throughout his childhood. Now he's working with teenagers just like him that are in gangs, carrying guns, and all that. He took us to lunch at this BBQ place (which was so bad compared to NC, but I didn't tell anyone. Haha)

We continued on with orientation and then ate dinner at Carlton's house who is one of the managers of the Meyer's center that's a shelter and social services center for the homeless. It was a good experience of asking him questions about the people that come in there and how he follows them once they leave.

Let's look at some pictures:

So basically from my understanding, Waco flourished as a prominent city in Texas until about the 1960's, then the rural movement took away a lot of it's established citizens. It was just explained that the 'tide just changed' in neighborhoods and the government and organizations couldn't keep up with the decline.
There was a huge tornado that wiped out half of the business district of Waco and lots of businesses left as a result.
It is just now starting to proactively build itself back up. The community leaders are working hard to build better housing, recruit companies and businesses and rebuild the city.

Here are some pictures of delapidated buildings left behind when an entire college just picked up and left:

The college just left the buildings there to ruin for 30 years. The windows are all busted out and there are vines growing up all over the buildings. It was startling to see because for me, it was just imagining what if GWU just up and moved, leaving behind all of the old brick buildings. It would look like this and Boiling Springs would ruin. Waco is now working on cleaning the buildings up and using it for public education buildings...30 years later.

There is a conscious effort now in the city to rebuild and revive the community. And that's what I'm here for. To see an active Urban ministry work in an area desperately in need. Waco is #11 in the nation in poverty per capita levels. And Waco has over 100 churches in the area. MissionWaco's job is to mobilize the churches in the area to take care of the poor like Jesus required.

Now on to something cheerful, our HOUSE: I'll take you on a tour, just like you were walking with me to my room.

There it is. Both doors go to the same place...so I still don't know why there's two. You can see my car behind the fence!

This is the guy's apartment in the backyard.

Lovely kitchen.

Through the kitchen, is the dining area....where we store our bikes. Haha

Our very "frat-house" feeling living area.

Up two flights of stairs, those double-doors lead to my room. And behind it, are two other bedrooms for 5 other female interns.

There's my bed! Looks a lot like college, but there are two other beds in that room for my roommates. (Notice the Office calendar & pictures of some of you!)


Here are a few pictures of the facilities through Mission Waco:

The Children's Center, where there will be a Summer Day Camp where some of us will be working:

This is where the "Work Groups" come to stay. This is groups from all over the country (Youth groups, men's groups, freshmen classes from colleges) and volunteer with MissionWaco for a week doing missions (like M-Fuge):

These are pictures from inside MissionWaco's secondhand clothes store called "The Clothing Line". They take donations and sell them to help support their ministries:

Funny "All about Waco" Game

The Warehouse of collections

The actual store


Okay, I said there was going to be a surprise. So here it is:


I live down the street from this:

Now, what is this? It's DAVID CROWDER'S House!!

Basically, I live in Crowder's neighborhood...like two blocks away.
How cool is that? The interns have been developing schemes to hurt ourselves on our bikes outside of his house. We think he's on tour though which sucks.

There's a church in Waco that the David Crowder Band plays worship music for...so on the off-chance that they're in town, we hope to make it there during one of our church visits.

There's so much more to tell, but I'll wait til later.
Please pray for me in the next few days as we make our specific assignment requests. Pray the God directs me in an area that will challenge me and really use my gifts. Pray that He would give me energy and patience with people.

This weekend we are going to Houston to do some incredible service learning and missions work. I'm not even going to tell you what we're doing. You'll just have to wait but I'm SO excited!

Thanks for reading. Peace to you