Day 5 - Trinity Episcopal Service & The End of Orientation

Morning came a bit earlier today as we prepared to sing at Drew's church.  We met for breakfast at 7:45 and everyone seemed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for their first opportunity to sing in a worship service.

After breakfast, Jim presented today's FFP award.  The Fun and Flexible Person award went to Kimberly M.  They had the opportunity to get to know each other a bit better when everyone else went to the Harry Potter movie and they stayed behind with Drew to purchase the food for lunch on Sunday and for the hunger awareness meal.  Jim said that none of them had enjoyed grocery shopping that much in a long time and that he was thrilled to have gotten to know her better!

The whole group piled into the vehicles and we made our way to Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, VA.  It didn't take long before we had arrived just as the early service was letting out.  We all started making our way toward the church, admiring the architecture and posing for a few pictures before heading in for rehearsal.

 The current sanctuary was built in the 1950s to model churches in Europe from the 16th Century.  The acoustics are amazing and we were grateful for the opportunity to share our mission through music with them.  Here are some pictures of the inside of the church and the choir practicing before the service started.

The service was a great opportunity for some of the Voices of Youth to experience a worship service someplace other than in a United Methodist church.  Drew did a great job of preparing everyone for the differences and how to follow the liturgy as the service progressed.  The sermon was on the Wheat and Tares parable found in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.  The priest talked about being a young child and going to his friend's field where they would blow the dandelion seeds all over.  They thought it was a ton of fun but his friend's father did not think so because it was a weed.  Then he mentioned taking hollyhock seeds and tossing them along a path as a child.  Later on in his lifetime he went back and the path was covered with hollyhock flowers.  While his mother had not thought of it as a desirable plant, he thought it was beautiful.  Using these two stories, he encouraged the congregation to be like the hollyhock seeds, spreading the love and light of Christ out into the world.  It was an important and definitely relevant sermon for the Voices of Youth: Awakening the UMC to Mission choir to hear before heading out on our trip to the Dominican Republic and throughout the Virginia Conference.

The worship service ended with the choir singing John Rutter's version of "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" and then everyone had a chance to mingle at the coffee hour.  Drew was pleasantly surprised by his parents and nephew who had come to join us at the worship service!

While Drew, his fiance Alli, and some of the others prepared our lunch, the rest of the group enjoyed some time relaxing on the beautiful church property.  We discovered that you're never too old to enjoy a good church playground or a good photo shoot.

We even had time enough to play a game of Zoo.  You never know what type of animals will come out with this game, whether there is a mosquito, narwhal, or chinchilla.

Drew and Alli then served us a wonderful cookout lunch and as soon as we finished, we cleaned up and headed back to Shenandoah.  Everyone changed out of their concert attire and headed to the chapel for a rehearsal.  Jordan worked on some voice placement for the choir while we awaited Drew's return.  Once he arrived, the choir began working on songs for the tour they had been waiting to practice until after the worship service.

The rehearsal went quickly and afterward, Katie and Jordan talked to the group about creating their own testimony to share during the Virginia tour.  We discussed the best and worst speakers we have heard and what it was that made those speakers stand out.  As a group, we came up with things that definitely should be included and those things that should not.  The most impressive answer came from Preston when Jordan asked what the purpose of having the testimonies in our service was..."to awaken the United Methodist Church to Mission"!  We surely hope that our experiences will inspire others to take part in their own mission in whatever that may take shape.

Now that everyone had a good idea about how to prepare for their testimonies, the family groups broke off for a little bit just to check-in and see how things were going.  Having the support of this small group has proven extremely useful already for these groups when we've received difficult news.

Soon we were getting back into the vans and heading off to our next location for dinner.  When we arrived, the meal wasn't quite ready yet so we played Fruit Basket.  This provided yet another chance for everyone to learn more about each other.  Devin sat out due to her toe injury and took several interesting pictures for your viewing pleasure...

While the rehearsal, creating your testimony, and family group activities were taking place, several of our adult staff were preparing our hunger awareness meal.  We were thankful to Braddock St. UMC for allowing us the use of their kitchen and classroom to complete this meal.  After our game of Fruit Basket was complete, we were asked to line up in order of our shoe size.  Drew led us to the classroom where the meal was going to be served and asked us to count off from 1-5.  We all received our numbers and then waited anxiously to see what would happen next.  At one point everyone started singing "Stand By Me" and talking about other topics to keep our mind from getting to worried.

Drew informed everyone of the one rule, that no one could leave the room until the meal was completed and then called each group in one at a time.  He started with group 5 first and worked his way down to group 1.  Each group had a different meal served to them and their table setting and service reflected their socioeconomic status.  Here is a brief description of each:

Group 5 - Nice table cloth and folded napkins with a place setting for each person.  There was a centerpiece set out and a waiter to serve the group.  They enjoyed a five course meal consisting of soup, salad and garlic bread, pasta with meatballs, sausage with peppers and onions and tiramisu for dessert.  The group was offered a variety of beverages including water, lemonade, sparkling grape juice, and seltzer water.  They even enjoyed a lemon sorbet to cleanse their palate between courses.

Group 4 - Family style meal with a nice table cloth and informal place settings for each person.  They had salad, bread, and pasta with meatballs.  Their beverage choices were water or soda and came in solo cups.  Their food was set out for them but then they served themselves during the meal.

Group 3 - McDonalds happy meal or salad.  It was placed on the table for them when they arrived.  No place mat, just a simple table and chairs.

Group 2 - Soup kitchen meal.  This group's meal consisted of items that they might receive at a local soup kitchen.  They had the soup that was leftover from Group 5, coleslaw that had been donated to the church that day, and lemonade.  They went up to the counter to receive their food and sat at a plain table with chairs. (Note:  No one in the group liked coleslaw so they luckily benefitted from the kindness of some of the other groups to share with them).

Group 1 - This group was asked to come in and have a seat on the floor.  There was no table and no chairs set out for them.  They were not served food.

This activity produced some strong reactions and really challenged the youth and adults to think about hunger and poverty in the US.  Eventually all of the groups ended up sharing but it was the groups with the least that started sharing first even though they had less and were served later.  Group 1 needed food but at first really struggled with needing to ask for help.  Group 5 wanted to help but wasn't sure about the best way to do it.  If you know someone in this group, ask them about what they learned from this meal because they will definitely have something to tell you!

After the meal, everyone helped clean up and then we drove back to campus.

Jenn and Katie had planned a scavenger hunt and the family groups were ready for the competition!  Each group received their first clue and jumped to a quick start.  Here are some pictures although they didn't turn out too well as it was quite dark at this point.

The Orange group won the scavenger and once everyone had returned, Jenn and Katie provided the youth with some water balloons to battle with and cool down.  Finally worn out from the long day, we retreated back inside to finish packing a for an evening devotion.  Chad encouraged us to have faith as we begin our travels, knowing that God is with us and has a plan for us.  We answered any last minute questions and concerns and then headed off to bed to get some rest.

As we fly out to the Dominican Republic tomorrow, please be aware that the blog may not be able to be updated daily.  Check back every few days to see if we have had access to the internet in order to post some updates from our trip.  The comments from our last post were great, keep them coming.  Also continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel and serve the people of the Dominican Republic.  God bless!