Week 6: Holy Redeemer - Monday

   During Agape today we went around the community collecting food for the food bank. we started in the morning with walk and knock  were we went door to door collecting donations. Every group had a different neighborhood that we went through. We learned patience when people would not answer the door or tell us to leave. In the end it was a character building activity. We came back to Sacred Heart and dropped of our donations and had lunch. After lunch we then went to different grocery stores in our groups. At the grocery stores we handed out flyers and if people had something to donate they would drop in the cart. We seemed to be more successful with the grocery stores than walk and knock. Over all we gained a ton of donations. Everyone who participated was enlightened. When we put the donations in the church basement we noticed how successful we had been and ended up making 300 dollars in just cash alone. Seeing the levels of generosity throughout the community was very encouraging.

-Tara

   VBS (vacation bible school): Today was the first day ever for Agape to do a VBS at the migrant camps.  It was a great experience to interact with the all the kids and see some of the same kids from last year.  When we arrived at the camp, we walked around the buildings and sang songs from church so the families would know we had arrived.  Once we had a fair amount of kids come to where we had set up, we played multiple group games such as the name game, dodge ball, and link tag.  We performed a two-part skit consisting of the birth of Jesus and the story of Adam and Eve.  Later in the day we had the kids perform the skits by themselves with their own twist.   With Noah's guitar playing, we taught the kids a few of our favorite songs from church.  Not only did we play games, perform skits, and sing songs, we also did some crafts.  We made the trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) into a triangle with popsicle sticks, a "stained glass window" with tissue paper, and made treasure boxes. We also handed out a bag to each child for them to take home and keep.  The children at this particular migrant camp care for each other as if they were their own brothers or sisters.

-Hannah

   Once everyone returned from VBS and grocery store tabling, we all helped unload the donations from the walk and knock and tabling at grocery stores, and we had a dinner activity.  The activity was separating everyone into families and having to go through a food bank.  The food bank simulation was quite difficult because the people working there only spoke German.  This gave us an idea of how migrants feel at food banks.  Also, it was pressuring to because we had a time limit to collect, cook, eat, and clean up our food.  After dinner, we played a game called walk the line.  During this game two of our leaders would read a statement.  If this statement was true for you, you would walk to the line and back.  Afterwards we watched a video about if we had a mini Earth with only 100 people living in it.  It gave facts such as how many people had which religions, which lived in poverty, etc.  If you had a bed, a closet with clothing, a refrigerator, and a roof over your head, you were wealthier than 75% of the world's population.  Overall, the focus of the day was Knowledge and Understanding. We concluded the day with reflection and a prayer.