Service Day at Kinloch

Wow! Today was an eventful day! Beginning the morning with eggs and sausage at the hotel, we embarked upon our journey in service. After sitting in the bus while waiting for proper preparation, we got instructions and began our work project located in Kinloch, Missouri. Kinloch is the poorest town in St. Louis County. The community of only 700 is working on developing land and cleaning up their social environment. We split into three groups. The first group went to a daycare and cleaned bathrooms, closets, classrooms, and toys upon toys. After completing the projects, we got a chance to play with some of the kids at the daycare. Boy, was it amazing! The kids were literally hanging off of us, and as we left, they asked "Are you coming back?" It was hard to say no! The second group traveled across town to the city playground. This playground was put together by thousands a few years ago. The local church, Kinloch Church of God, will be hosting Sunfest Summer Camp for the local children next week. At this playground, we got ready for the camp by picking up twigs, glass, and even pulling a trashcan out of the slide. After completing this, we delivered flyers announcing the camp to over 100 houses and apartment complexes. Many of the youth were nervous at first, because we were unfamiliar with the town and scared what the people would think of us; however, we met some very wonderful and thankful people and it went a lot better than we thought. The third group got the messiest job by far! This group was put in charge of stacking tires that had been dumped in a field by people not living in the community. After putting the tires in stacks of five, a company would be able to come pick up the tires and pay the city of Kinloch for them. Although we came back in garbage bags to cover up the dirt all over our bodies, we stacked over 2,000 tires! After completing our service projects, we traveled to the Kinloch Church of God, where the local ladies fed us! They prepared spaghetti, breadsticks, and salad for us. After finishing our meal, we performed an empromtu show for the ladies! We sang a few songs for them, said our goodbyes, and headed back to the hotel for some down time. After showering and scraping off mud, we got back on the buses and traveled to the arch! We took an hour to explore and view the Arch museum, then, after singing on the steps leading up to the arch, we once again got back on the buses and headed to SWifty's for another Italian meal-lasagna! Then we faced a "Roadblock," which entailed crafting beaded suncatchers in the shape of crosses to give out at a retirement home tomorrow. We definitely saw the impact a few awkward teenagers can make in a community that needs it so badly! Without a detailed intenerary, we can no longer fill you in on our adventurous tour, but we hope this has given you some clue as to what we're doing! Due to our wonderful tour planners and chaperones, many, if not all, have learned to have faith that whereever God takes us on this tour we have truly been able to see that EVERYWHERE is "WHERE JESUS IS!" With goodnight and "I love you's" from us all, we hope you have a wonderful, relaxing week, and we will see you on Friday!Love,Sarah Shea and Jennifer Olsen