Site Visit Report

Mid-afternoon on Wednesday, July 20th, Amy and I arrived in Jacksonville, Florida. As we got out and walked up to North Main Street Baptist Church, home of Words to Works Ministries, there seemed to be utter chaos. Youth were running past us on every side as we wandered around the church and in front of the dorms. We came upon one Sojourner, Crystal Stover, standing at a grill furiously cooking pork chops as fast as she could. She didn’t hesitate though to take the time to stop and ask if she could help us. She directed us to Pastor Nick Phoenix, and we had the chance to talk with him. He invited us to eat supper with everyone, and so we made our way to their mess hall. It turns out Crystal did an excellent job with the pork chops, and eating supper there gave us a chance to interact with some of the student missionaries, as well as two youth groups who were there on mission for the week.
The students shared with us of how they each took turns preparing the food and cleaning up for every meal, and they had other duties they were assigned to as well. In spite of what seemed like chaos earlier, we quickly realized that each person knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing and where they were headed in their preparation for the big block party later that night. We enjoyed hearing stories of how as the summer had progressed the days had just gotten longer and their amount of sleep had gotten shorter! They laughed as we told them ideally they should have eight hours of ministry, eight hours of free time, and eight hours of sleep. Even so, they all agreed there was no way they could relax during free time with so much to be done. You could definitely tell they wanted to use every chance they had to try and influence one more person. However, they were all quite anxious about their upcoming trip to DisneyWorld in a couple of weeks. It was their well-deserved reward for a summer full of hard work!
After supper, we made our way to 7th Street where the block party was to be held that night. Again it seemed like people were running around everywhere, but when you looked closely, they all knew what they had to do to get everything set up in time. What had been an empty parking lot just a few minutes before was quickly transformed into a child’s wonderland with a velcro wall, human bowling alley, other blow-up games, dunking booth, snow cones, and popcorn! About this time, Noland Bullen, an Innovator, showed up and introduced himself. He smiled as he told us he had just come from work at a construction company and showed us his boots turned white and patted his clothes to make the dust fly. He went on to share with us how he had come upon the Answer The Call website and knew he needed to make money over the summer, and then sure enough, that opportunity was available to him as well. I marveled at the fact that as hot and tired as he was after a long day at work, he didn’t waste a second in coming straight to the action to minister once again.
It was also at the block party that I was able to meet Sojourner, Joshua Bowser. Josh had already grabbed my attention at the start of the summer as he wrote in his initial report that one of the things he was sacrificing to serve this summer was time spent with his mother, who had just been put in the hospital with kidney problems. As it turns out, she was in the hospital most of the summer, and it got so bad that she almost died. Josh would always email me with updates on her and requested prayer, but even so, he felt that God wanted him to stay in Jacksonville. It was that night I learned that she had gotten well enough to come home from the hospital the week before, and he had decided to go home to help take care of her. When he got home though there were enough people around to help, and he missed Jacksonville so much that all he wanted to do was go back to Words to Works. So, his dad flew him back out to finish up his service for the final two weeks.
Come Thursday morning we made our way up to Brunswick, Georgia, to visit with Golden Isle Resort Ministries. We met Shawna Arrington at the associational office, and she took us out to see her student missionaries in their various places of service. We first stopped at the local Boys and Girls Club where a youth group from Kentucky was leading a large group of kids in some activities. They presented the story of Adam and Eve and how sin entered the world by using a black light. One of the girls in their youth group had on a shirt that had written on it various sins. To show the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus, they turned the lights on at the very end, and all of the sins disappeared from her shirt. The members of the youth group then broke the kids into smaller groups to answer any questions they may have had. This gave us the chance to talk with some of the summer missionaries that were there.
We met Brett McClelland and Vicente Murua, as well as some local interns who served with the summer missionaries. Amy asked Vicente what he had learned this summer, and he quickly laughed and said, “To expect the unexpected.” He then went on to share of how Shawna had gotten a call at the office one afternoon of a little girl who was crying, yet all she spoke was Spanish. Shawna was able to get Vicente on the phone and asked him to see if he could talk to her. Although fluent in Spanish when he was younger, it took him awhile to communicate with the little girl. It turned out she had been at an activity earlier that day and was crying for one of the girls in the youth group because she did not want her to leave and go back home. Vicente reassured her that he would let her know she had called before their group left and would pass along the message to her that she loved her very much and would miss her.
After visiting the Boys and Girls Club, we went to Calvary Baptist Church where student missionaries Melissa, Mike, and Kallie were working at their VBS. We walked in just as they were finishing up their crafts, and the kids were all too happy to show off the picture frames they had just made. We also had the chance to sit in on their missions lesson that Mike taught and their final time together that day as Melissa reviewed the lesson about “doubting Thomas.” We later learned that Shawna had asked the missionaries which ones had worked in a Vacation Bible School before, and then promptly assigned these three students who hadn’t to work there during the week. Of course they all claimed it had been a learning experience and laughed that they had managed to survive it. It blessed my heart when walking down the hallway of the church between activities I noticed someone had placed down felt paper used for roofing houses and used white and yellow electrical tape to make it looked like a road since the theme for VBS was “Ramblin’ Road Trip.” It was amazing to think of how I had used the same paper two weeks before in ministering to people through World Changers, and that God can take and use any and everything to reach out to others.
After the Bible School let out we were able to meet up with all of the missionaries serving with Golden Isle and have lunch at a local favorite, Captain Joe’s Seafood. It was then that we could really see what a great group of students they were and that they truly got along well. They shared stories of life at the nursing home (one which the association had run, but now uses it to house the missionaries.) They likened their situation to The Real World in that they all had to come together as strangers and learn to live together. Even though they all kidded around and gave each other a hard time and tried to figure out who was the most sane out of all of them, (which they decided they were all crazy), I knew they took the time to lift each other up with the Encouragement Wall at the nursing home that always had fun presents and notes of encouragement. We did take the opportunity at lunch to ask them to finish the sentence, “One thing I did for the first time this summer was…” Their responses ranged from preaching for a Sunday night service, leading worship, doing Vacation Bible School, openly talking with people about Christ on the beach, and ministering in a nursing home.
Thursday afternoon we made our way back down to Jacksonville for one of their biggest events for the summer, Mission Main Street. We drove up and down Main Street with Pastor Nick Phoenix visiting some of the stations that were set up. Some were giving away free food, watermelon, or water. Others were taking prayer requests and doing drama in an effort to reach the community. The same games from the block party the night before were set up again, this time along with pony rides. It amazed me the willingness and enthusiasm of these students to be out doing ministry all afternoon long with smiling faces in the heat. This definitely was a great example of a ministry reaching out to people in the community near their church.
Friday morning we visited a couple of ministry sites in Savannah, Georgia. Our first stop was at The Living Vine, a women’s maternity home. We were able to spend some time with Debra Hanna as she gave us a tour and told us about their ministry. The girls are allowed to live there during their time of pregnancy where they have devotions, parenting and educational classes, and other activities. They have also recently opened up a thrift store, Blessingdales.
After visiting at The Living Vine, we went to the Savannah Baptist Center and met with Sonya Golloher. The two summer missionaries there with her were out at the time with some students helping them to buy school supplies. Sonya did give us a tour of the Center, and they have excellent facilities there for their programs. They do some after-school programs and also have a sanctuary inside the building where they are holding weekly services.It blessed my heart so much to have had the chance to get out and meet some of the students I have been in contact with. I know it may sound silly, but it was wonderful to see that these are real kids. I don’t really know how I had envisioned them in my head, but they’re just like any other I would see in a youth group or a collegiate BCM meeting, only they are the ones God called out to serve for the summer. I had a great time getting to know a handful of them and listen to their stories and their claims at how wonderful the summer had been, many of them much better than they had ever hoped for. It was also great to meet with the supervisors of these ministries and get a better feel for the work they do and the way their ministries are run, and I think that will better help me as I communicate with students in the future as to what ministry is like. It was also great to see so many different aspects of ministry from children’s ministry to women’s ministry, and many others. Summing up, it always rejuvenates me and encourages me in the work that I do when I am able to participate in ministry first hand or see it done on the field. It spurs me on to stay strong in the work that I do, and the ways I can even minister to the people I come in contact with here. Somehow I feel I have had the chance to see the end result of the work that I do, that students have gone and made a difference in the lives of others, and what a blessing to play a small part in making that happen!