Twin Ports

Street Level Summit

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!

Roller Skating!

Last Friday night Street Level Ministries paired up with the Young Adult Ministry of Believers Church – Duluth, for a night out at the roller rink. We started out at VIP pizza. We hung out, ate pizza, and afterwards walked over to World of Wheels in Superior. We skated, bladed, fell a few times, and, thankfully, got back up and kept going. Overall, it was an awesome night of being with friends and trying something new.

Homeward Bound

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!

“I’ll Be Seeing You”

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.

Construction and Catfish

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! 

The Carpentry Continues

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.