Day 1 we started off strong, visiting 2 different service sites that allowed us to use a variety of skills and gifts, from physical labor to conversational skills, everyone had a moment to shine today.

First we went to Soles4Souls, unpacked boxes of shoes and bags of clothes from truck to pallet. We must’ve unpacked a couple hundred or so boxes from these trucks, and watched videos to see this widespread impact that there items would have for people all across the country and across the world.

In between we took some time to relax and connect, doing a fun activity with only a ball of yarn to illustrate how connected we can be to others around us, even in ways that we can’t see at first, the actions we take and the waves we make can affect others in ways we couldn’t imagine.

Our second site in the evening was People Loving Nashville, where we were picking up trash, distributing bags of resources to those in attendance. This is a weekly event hosted every Monday where they give out food, and clothes, with the music and vibe of a neighborhood block party.

We got to see a new perspective and understanding of our neighbors living in poverty and learning their story. We got to talk with a friend who loved showing off his dance moves as an expression of his faith, and it was amazing to see the joy that came from doing something like this.

And we’re off! Yesterday we made our way to Nashville, TN for our week of serving and learning! Our arrival we marked with a beautiful rainbow in the sky. We are excited to partner with Be the Neighbor as we learn about the things that impact rising numbers in homelessness in our country and housing injustice. We hope to make a lasting impact here in Nashville this week and bring back what we learn to make a lasting impact in Indianapolis & Fishers! Of course we couldn’t complete our first day without a stop to Target. Looking forward to our first day of serving today with Soles4Souls and People Loving Nashvile!

Our last day has started… our free day!! We got to sleep in thankfully, 8:30. Two extra hours is a lot but let’s just say I was not used to that before the trip! Haha. It wasn’t to bad though during this trip because everyone had a great attitude for everyone. Before we left, we had our final communion with everyone and talked about what we learned this week. We drove around 1 hour to the Land Between the Lakes. We went canoeing! It was very fun!! Me and Olivia were together and let’s just say I tipped it many times on “accident”. We swam around at the little beach in the park and had hotdogs and s’mores!! Then we headed back to the church. We were all so exhausted and most of us slept the way back!

-Kenzie Moore

After the lake we went back to the church to change and go shopping at the riverfront and get ice cream, bought for us by Sam’s parents, before the baseball game. At the game we got dinner and watched the Paducah Chiefs play and after the game Ben got a signed ball from #13 (Shoutout to Taylor Swift, whose favorite number is 13).

-Izzie Crague

Letting Illinois know that they “suck”

Thursday we woke up for our last work day here in Mayfield, KY. We went to our worksite and worked on roofing the shed (which we finished) and putting the siding on the main house. As we were nearing the end of our work day we all got together and cheered on the people finishing up the roof (Abby, Ben, and Izzie). There was so much laughter in the air and so much excitement for Speak Now TV to come out later that night.

-Selena Reese

We got on the bus to come back from a long but fun work day. When we got back to the church we rested for a bit and got all cleaned up. After that, we had connect time. During connect time when worked in ways we could better our town when we got back. After connect time we made dinner, which was dinner was breakfast for dinner. After we all finished eating, Sam called us in the main room to do prayer partners. We all thought it was time to go to sleep after that but then Sam said we had one more thing to do. We did a drum roll……… and… it was a bake off! We all sat down with our groups for 5 minutes to discuss what we would bake, then we ran to Kroger. We all got the ingredients we needed to BAKE! My groups made brownie cookie bars. After the judges tried all the desserts they left the room to decide which one was the best. When they came back in we drum-rolled and my group won! After that we settled down until 11:00 because that is when the Speak now Taylor’s version came out! We listened to it until 12:00 because that is when we had to go to sleep.

-Olivia Rhoad

Work hard, rest hard. We live by this.

(All napping photos are posted with consent)

Today began with an early morning surprise, a well deserved breakfast of donuts. After a rough wake up we made our way to the home front, prepping for a long, hot day of siding and roofing. The tools were out and the sun was too. We split into two teams to complete all our tasks with half finishing a set of stairs and siding while the others worked on wrapping the shed to prep for siding, and crawling up and down ladders to quickly cover the shed for the incoming rain tonight. We broke for lunch around 12:30 and came back to the site at 1:30 after a well deserved nap. The teams began to work again and didn’t stop until 3:30 when we made our way back to the church (not without a few napping during the drive) for showers and a zoom call to discuss the impacts that disasters have in places like Mayfield. After our quick zoom we began to play a game, in which we gained a better awareness of fairness and how to achieve equality in the game and real life. To finish off the night we had pasta and salad for dinner, a delish meal complete with lots of laughter and fun. To round out our wonderful day we settled in the main room to watch Teen Beach Movie, singing all the songs and laughing through it all.

-Abby Dixon

We had a great day working as Abby said above. After we got back to the church we all took turns showering before we got on a zoom call with Caroline from Week of Compassion and discussed the work we are doing in Mayfield and how we can help when we get back home. After our call we played a game where we were knotted together and tried to get untied which was a struggle. We also played a trivia game about what we’ve done and who we’ve worked with so far this week. Then we had a pasta dinner and had fun bonding and watching the Teen Beach Movie.

-Izzie Crague

A quick morning dance session to get us all awake and ready

Go Frogs!

Our zoom with Caroline

Teen Beach Movie!

This morning we gathered bright and early at 6:20am to share communion. Pausing to mark the middle of our week and the halfway point on our work project, we broke bread together (aka Red’s Donuts) and shared the cup (chocolate milk). It was a beautiful way to start off our day, tackling the mid-week slump head on.

 “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!!! 

-Kenzie Moore

TWINS on the worksite!!

.5 of a .5

Gotta get the babies out of the river!

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.

-Katie Dixon

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!

You can check out our playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Czltn5LtLh9MRiPsbFfAa?si=HTUQ8lnsQviMCb30mrOY5A