Street Level is taking a break from our normal scheduled programming on April 29th, and INSTEAD will be on campus giving away free coffee and hanging out! If you’re on the UW Stout or UW River Falls campuses – stop by from 4-8pm to get some free coffee from The Blind Munchies Coffeehouse and to hang out with us!
Last weekend Street Level convened at Believers Church – Duluth for the Street Level Discipleship Summit. It was a two-day event aimed at uncovering the battleground of Christian faith. Sessions split between Friday and Saturday encouraged attendees to examine their three adversaries: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Breaks between sessions allowed our groups from Menomonie, River Falls, and Superior to get to know each other while exploring Duluth. The views, the city, the food – all excellent but the lakeshore was where we met for a group picture before wrapping up the weekend. It was a joy to host this group!
Street Level is having its Spring Summit this weekend April 5-6) in Duluth!
Participants from UW Stout, UW Superior, and UW River Falls will gather in Duluth for a weekend of teaching, fellowship, and worship. This is our twice a year gathering aimed at those who want to go further in their walk with God.
Appreciate all who signed up! It’s going to be a great weekend!
Our morning started off on the train arriving in Chicago. The conductors announcements and lights let us know that we were nearly there. Everyone scrabbled to collect their bags not forgetting to grab the goodie bags that Mt. Olive church sent us home with.
The group split up to get the church van situated for the road trip back. The rest of the group marched towards the best, nearest, and open coffee shop. After getting caffeinated we pilled into the church van and car and drove out of Chicago.
It’s been a whirlwind of a trip, filled with good food, lots of laughs, and hard work. Thanks for holding down the fort while we have been away!
Finishing up our last day at Mt. Olive included cleaning the bed barn, pairing some comforters and sheets for deliveries, taking down our beds and mattresses, and enjoying fried chicken for lunch with a couple more stories from the guys that have been working with us this week.
We piled in the vans shortly after and headed for Memphis, which included a drive past Graceland. This evening we’ll be catching the trains back to Chicago for our last leg or the trip back home.
Thanks for all your prayers during this time. We’ve been blessed in our time here and by all of the folks we met.
This morning the group split up to serve in multiple different areas. About 6 people went to a Food Bank in Boonville where they helped distribute food to over 200 families. Another group of 3 was able to deliver 1 bed in Tupelo. 3 people went to collect additional mattresses from storage and brought them back to Mt. Olive Baptist church. The rest of us helped to organize the work shop and storage garage.
Once the team re-convened, the race to construct as many beds as possible was on. After today, our last day working in the shop, we have constructed 200+ beds in our time here in Mississippi. We were able to make one more delivery of 2 beds to down town Baldwin. Thus, we were blessed to be able to deliver a total of 19 beds to families in the northern Mississippi area.
We closed out the day by going to a buffet to get catfish, shrimp, and all sorts of southern food! We can’t believe the our time in Mississippi is almost over, but we are excited for a couple of adventures still to come.
That’s all for now folks!
Today we continued our work with the team from Mount Olive Baptist Church making bed frames and trying to put a dent in the generous amount of delicious southern food provided for us. In the afternoon some of our team assisted the church with Wednesday evening meal prep and delivery for people who can’t leave their homes.
For dinner we visited Wayne, the director of the Baptist Student Union at Northeast Mississippi Community College. Wayne made us dinner and homemade ice cream, and we had good conversation with him about his work the past forty years in campus ministry.
Greetings to our friends & families of the north!
Today we embarked on many endeavors from multiple areas within the land of Mississippi. After lunch, six of us delivered 11 beds to some homes today with the help of some of the guys from down here. Both crews had some very excited children who wanted to help get their beds ready, so we had some great little helpers!
The other group for today continued to power through bed-making and we got 50+ beds done in each of our first 2 days. I’d say that’s some good soup (but not literal soup)! At the end of our work day, we had a delightful pizza dinner and learned some fun new sayings from the pastor (some of which are listed below).
A few of the new word terminology’s we’ve learned are as follows: “full as a tick on a cur-dog” (aka a stray dog), “the crud,” “working as hard as a government rented mule,” and “fine and dandy,” “yur’n,” “spadge,” “slugs/slug-burger,” and “y’all”… We hope y’all enjoy some of the fine new vocab we may take home with us!
Farewell for now & we’ll see y’all next time!
Today, the group woke up early to prepare for the first day of working with the bed ministry. We all gathered in the fellowship hall for a southern style breakfast (featuring chocolate gravy). Once we were done with breakfast the group headed out to the bed barn where we began our day of learning the process of making beds! We were joined by several volunteers from different churches in the area who showed us the ropes of how to use the equipment. A few of us went out to deliver some beds (with Dan) to a family with four kids that needed them.
The group ate lunch with the volunteers from the bed ministry and had fellowship with them. After lunch, the group continued to work in the shop till dinner time. To end the day, the group gathered in the church’s basement and did a group devotion along with discussing how the first day went.
P.S. Who knew chocolate gravy existed?
Today Street Level started the day off with a hearty, southern style breakfast, followed by a short presentation on the history of Beds for Kids.
Later that morning, SL attended Mt. Olive’s regular Sunday service by Dr. C. Directly after, we were able to join the congregation for the dedication of the “bed barn” where the beds get made each week.
After, we piled in the church vans and went to Tupelo to gander at Elvis’ humble birth home, take pictures by his statue, and then get some soul food at Aunty B’s. On the way back to the church to get even more sweet food, SL stopped at a somber civil war sight.
The day was finished with good ole’ fellowship in preparation for the work week ahead.
