“Happy 4th of July!” I hear Sam shout at 6:15 in the morning.
I hopped out of bed and I made my way to the changing room.
Once I was ready, I made my way out to the main room. I placed my phone, sunscreen, bug spray, and everything else I needed for the day down at my seat. I got breakfast and then packed my lunch after talking with my friends. Before I knew it, it was time to leave.
Once we got to the Construction sight, I and a couple other girls, got sent to 2nd Cristin church to help power wash. It was so much fun and we totally got soked. After we ate lunch I got back to the sight and help hammer in siding fo the rest the time!
-Grace Link
We got back from the worksite and let’s just say we raced to the shower. Working for 6 hours in the heat makes you want your 3 minute shower badly. Some were prepared to get decked out for the 4th but some of us got things at Walmart the night before to show the patratic spirt too. If you look at the photos you will see our amazing outfits. Olivia was very kind and shared her 4th of July kid tattoos with people. It was team Awesome’s ( Izzy, Kenzie, Selena, Abby) turn to make dinner. We had taco Tuesday! We cooked the meat, two different types of rice, and put out all of the toppings. The meal was really delicious. We had connect time with our amazing three interns. We learned what inequality, equality, equity, and, justice means. We talked in our groups about different situations those can happen in. We watched fireworks out the national museum. They were really beautiful! Hopefully everyone had a great 4th!!!
The morning started with breakfast and we all made are lunches for the day. After breakfast we all had our morning meeting and discussed what we would be doing for the day. After we all got ready we left from the church to a house in Mayfield for our work. Some of the kids worked on putting vinal siding to the house and others worked on chipping cement from the base of the house. A separate project was working on the shed. Ben and Selena worked on adding plywood to the frames of the shed, while the rest of the kids added new wood beams to the roof on top of the old rotting ones. About 4 hrs in to service we all had a lunch break and went back to work for another 2 hours. After work we went back to the church.
-Ben Troxell
After we got back into the AC, three lovely leaders of the second Christian church came to inform us of the terrible events of the 2021 Mayfield tornados. They told us of the horror but also of the hope, kindness, and compassion that came out of the disaster. We discussed how the youth would react to the atrocity and manage our thoughts, emotions and actions if the event had happened to us. We ate a delicious dinner provided by the church and took a quick trip to Walmart. We got all the necessities: taco makings, lemons, and pickles. We hope to be helpful and productive as the week continues.
On Sunday afternoon, our high school youth hit the road for Kentucky for our second and final mission trip of the summer. We will be staying with our gracious friends at First Christian Church of Paducah and traveling each day 30 minutes down the road into Mayfield, KY to build community, both literally and figuratively.
We kicked off our road trip by starting our “Mayfield Mission Trip” Playlist on Spotify! Each person on the trip takes a turn picking a category for us all to pick a song choice to. Then everyone picks a song and adds it to the playlist. Then when we get to the end of the playlist, the next person picks the next category. Sam picked the first category, “Songs that remind you of Summer”… here are some of the songs that were chosen:
-Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles -Sunday Best by Surfaces -I Ain’t Worried by OneRepublic -Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince -Island In The Sun by Weezer -Maz Que Nada by Serio Mendes, Gracinha Leporace -Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift -Starting Over by Chris Stapleton -Paper Rings by Taylor Swift -Wonderland by Taylor Swift -Party in The U.S.A. by Miley Cyrus
Other categories included: “Country Songs”, “80s Songs”, “Taylor Swift Songs”, “Songs that remind you of the color yellow”, “Beach Songs”
With our playlist in hand, we are ready for a great week ahead!
Today was are last day of Mission trip work day today! It was such a fun time but I am going to talk about today. First I woke up with a great amount of sleep but I was still exhausted. I got up changed and then ate a pop tart for breakfast. Then we went across the street to work. We did a lot of things like cleaning the kitchen cooking and working outside to get all of the plants. After lunch we went back made meals for less fortunate citizens. We gave them out and some people had an amazing personality that kept me going. We got done and played kick ball and I almost got hit so many times😂. Then we went out for ice cream and Miriam’s grandparents were super nice and payed for our stuff. We came back had fun upstairs and we got ready for bed chatted and went to bed.
-Lila Dietrich
The day has been amazing. When I woke I got breakfast, which was a donut. After that I got ready and then went to the church to help out. Ava, Harper, and me started cleaning where the plates were. We finished then we had to do more work which was outside. It wasn’t very hot so it was nice. After a while we went inside had lunch and hung out. I had a jelly sandwich and some M&Ms. It was good and it got better. We started hanging out with kids and cooking food for people in need. Everyone was really happy and so was I!! After 4 hours we had dinner that Kate and Pam made for us. It was really good!! I loved it!! We played more at the house (kick ball). Till it started raining. I didn’t play because I fell and literally killed my back. After the game we got ice cream! My grandparents bought all of us the ice cream. I love them. Then we hung out for a couple hours. That was my day!!
-Miriam Brown
Today on the mission trip we started they day working at the church cleaning the kitchen after we finished we cleaned up the landscaping then ate some lunch at the house. After we had finished lunch we went to help at with food and gave it out and finally to finish up we played an intense game of kickball then got ice cream.
Yesterday we went to the Carnegie Theater and helped sort books and clean up the place, and after that we had a WHOLE DAY to ourselves! We spent this time first by eating lunch, then going on a hike! We saw a bunch of amazing things (and we kinda sorta went through a tunnel we didn’t mean to go through…twice.) After that we had pizza and then went to target to gather supplies for a bake-off! During this time the team full of boys played Euchre, and one other boy along with all the girls baked in the kitchen while dancing to music. Overall, the boys had the best tasting food, but everyone one different awards for their dish. It was a BLAST last night!
-Simon Smith
Day three of the our mission trip. We went to Carnegie center. We cleaned and sorted books. Ally, Sam, Libby, and Braydon all went downstairs with Taylor. We cleaned all the tables, whiteboards, and other things. We played a game of ping pong with the little whiteboards. After that we all went home and eat lunch. Then we got on the bus and drove to the hiking place. It was a 1 hour drive. We got there and realized that we went the wrong way. The view was beautiful thought. Then we had another bus ride to the right place. We hiked to the top of the mountain and took a lot of pictures. After that we went to a pizza place and got pizza. The boys played basketball in the rain and the girls watched and did other things. We got the pizza and ran to the bus in the rain. We drove to target and got stuff for our bake off. The boys went outside and the girls were downstairs singing. It was so fun. And that was the end of the day pretty much.
-Ally Berfield
Disclaimer: This donut was not left on trail, we did bring it home with us.
Today for our Tuesday adventure we started the day off early by going to Chrysalis House. There we cleaned the kitchen and scraped the ground, under the serving line. It was a good experience to see how everything worked and how they are helping out to many women . We came back for a break and went to Nathaniel Mission and made food boxes for seniors and made cute cards for them. We also helped pick up trash around their campus and had a good time! We had a special delivery from Pastor Kyle with dinner, the Kentucky staple: Ale 8! We then came back and went mini putt-putting, super fun! Our day was very fun and adventurous! I loved seeing how these places can provide all of this stuff to people how great!
-Harper Riesterer
So today we were up early and ready for the day, first we went to the chrysalis house cleaned the kitchen, had some fun. But then we went outside to shovel mulch yipee! We were out there working our butts off to help, some outstanding helpers were, me of course, Corey taught me and some other kids how to trim the bushes and really pulled his weight shoveling the mulch, everyone did a great job all day.
-Braydon Kerr
Braydon, being an outstanding helper as stated above.
Yesterday we arrived after a three hour bus ride. Today we went to the Living Art Museum and we saw lots of animals and took fun pictures. Then in the afternoon we went to Riding for Hope and helped clean horse stalls and got to pet and learn how to lead a horse it was a great experience and lots of fun.
-Ava Gulden
So today we went to an art museum then we came back and ate lunch. I had a grilled cheese made by Corey, the best driver ever. Then we went to a horse farm and scooped dukes for 4 hours (edit from Sam: we were there for a total of 3 hours and only spent 1.5 hour cleaning out the stalls and the rest of the time we hung out with the horses) then we ate dinner and did a lip singing thing and I should have won but whatever. And tomorrow the group’s “go” word is gunna be purple elephants (I hope.)
Note from Sam: Sorry, this post is a couple days late. Really I just wasn’t ready to admit that our trip was over.
Kenzie (8th grade): On Friday we went to Country Music Hall of Fame. There was a Taylor Swift room and of course we were in there the longest. Then we recorded T Swift songs. Below or above is one of the recordings. Some of us got things at the gift shop. The church treated us to Jeni’s ice cream. Then we had lunch back at the house. We got to the lake and it was amazing. We skipped rocks, raced, showed our swimming off, TikTok’s, and much more. We sadly had to leave. Then we went to a book store for more souvenirs. We picked up Hattie B’s hot chicken for dinner. We all did our cleaning jobs. Then a quick round of catch phase and Mao. Dominic taught us officially how to play Mao. Then we headed to bed. We found out who the sleep talker was during the night but what happens on the mission trip stays on the mission trip. We woke up and packed the bus and started the journey back home. Before leaving the city we made a couple stops the first of which was to visit our friend, Walter, and pick up some copies of the current issue of the Contributor. Then Heather and Christina treated us to Five Daughter Donuts. Then back on the bus we are. BeReal update above or below. Overall best trip ever thanks to Sam, Taylor, and Dominic.
Laila (8th Grade): So my day started of getting up at 8 (we got to sleep in!)and then after that we ate breakfast and went to the Vandeerbilt campus. After went back home to say bye to Brenna sadly:( After that we went to Shower the People and tie dye! Last but not least we went to Safe Haven to pack school supplies!!
Kenzie (8th Grade): We all sadly had to say goodbye to our amazing Brenna. Today we went to Shower the People and tie dyed towels for people experiencing homelessness. I filed up bottles of tie dye and brought them outside to everyone. I love how we all got to use our creativeness on the towels. After that we headed back to our house and ate lunch. We went to Safe Haven and organized and carried school supplies. They had yummy pizza for us for dinner then we continued with organizing. We got on the bus and had our necessary Target run. Then got back to the house and had devotions. We all ended the night with some chores and then hit the hay. Update on BeReal above or below.
Taylor (College Sophomore): Taylor: Day 4! Today we woke up and had the morning free so some stayed back and others went to Vandy. After that we all went to Shower the People to tie dye towels for people experiencing homelessness. After that we went to Safe Haven to finish our day sorting school supplies. We ate dinner there and had some nice conversations. Came back and had a good devotion. It was a good day!
Kenzie (8th grade): We started off to day at the Contributor by serving breakfast to people that experience homelessness. I had the chance to be able to get to know a few of the people working for the Contributor that experience homelessness. We hopped in the bus and headed to the warehouse called Shower the People. We organized shower and hygiene products. We then headed to Mother to Mother where some of us folded baby clothes and sorted them. Others (me included) were carrying boxes and bins full of anything you could think of for a new mothers to load onto trucks to take to the community. I thought it was so amazing how so many people were dropping off donations while we were there for only around 3 hours. One fun thing I would like to share with you all is our BeReals on the trip. Let me explain what is first. It’s an app that gives you a random notification during the day to take a picture from the front and back of your camera. It’s a fun app to see what everyone is up to during the day. Down below are our BeReals so far. Today and this trip has been such a great experience and I’m excited to see what Thursday brings for us all.
Selena (8th grade): Today in the morning we went to the Contributor, and that is a newspaper where people experiencing homelessness were the vendors. We served breakfast, while they had one of their first vendor meetings after Covid. After that we went to the warehouse of Shower the People, and we helped them sort and pack hygiene kits and dental kits. When we finished our lunch on the go, we went to Mother to Mother where they give supplies to low income moms for them and their children. During our Connect time with Hope, we talked about how when you are connected and you do something, everyone you’re connected to is affected by your actions. While we were still connected with the string we made a map of our area, and while we did that we looked for ties to Nashville.
Sam (7th grade): What I found exiting was talking to people experiencing homelessness. I liked listening to their stories and how they are. A card game I found exiting was the game Mao, it’s a really fun game.
Dominic (College Sophomore): So we definitely had an interesting day today for the mission trip. After waking up 30 minutes late and having to rush out of the church, I was positive that the youth would be dead tired, unenthusiastic, and overall not happy to be there, but they proved the opposite. It was amazing to watch the youth jump into their work serving breakfast to the vendors working for the street paper The Contributor, and just forming connections with everyone they met. Afterwards, we took a quick trip over to Shower the People, and organization which focuses on delivering hygiene and dental products to people on the streets experiencing homelessness, as well as providing a place to shower and get cleaned up in a converted bus which now holds 2 functional showers. Although it was slightly tedious, the group worked hard organizing various hygiene products so other groups could put them into the care packages which would be distributed. Our final stop of the day was Mother to Mother, a group which accepts and redistributes products for mothers including diapers, toys, clothes, etc, where we worked for a few hours and filled an entire van and U-Haul with supplies for a trip they are taking tomorrow. To end the day, the group did an exercise in which we were all connected with a piece of yarn, and then drew a map of our home and church to show the importance and consequence of connection. It was a long, worked filled day, with lots of heavy lifting and sweating, but these youth stepped up, even under the circumstances, and took the challenge to heart and did some truly incredible work.
Geist Christian Youth Service-Learning Trip Blog 