the challange

last week we all agreed to give someone a meaninful text from the Bible as encouragement. It seems easy enough, but it gets hard when you have to think about who to give it to, what to tell them, then the actual doing it. I'll be honest I did mine the afternoon before we met again. I waited until the last moment possible. Why? Who knows. I want to get better at this. This week we must give of something. Give of something that is important to you, that has real meaning. Whether it's money, time, trust. Just give it. I'm almost finished acoplishing this weeks goal. I wonder how next week will go. . .

genesis

Last Sabbath, a couple of us girls and Chaplain Sonya went to the homeless shelter in Atlanta called "Genesis". It was a really neat experience cause I've never gone to feed the homeless before and I was  excited to do it for the first time. We got started cooking, which was neat for some who had never really cooked pancakes before, and got ready to serve. There wasn't a huge amount of people to feed, so it was easier to get to know the people on a more personal basis. I went to go sit with this single mother with four kids, all under the age of seven. The second littlest one couldn't talk yet, so she'd just eyeball me and unsuccessfully shove applesauce into her tiny mouth. The second oldest one, who was about three or four, would do nothing but talk about how weird I was for putting applesauce and peanut butter on my pancakes. the eldest would help feed her baby brother. The kids were so cute and clung to all the girls like velcro. The adults were appreciative of the food, except for the only complaint I heard which was the fact that there was no meat. I'm glad I went.

Jenny Camp

Homeless Experience.

On Sabbath morning a small group of girls led by Chaplain Sonya went to a homeless shelter in Atlanta called "the Genesis." We went there so that we could make breakfast for the people staying there. So at 8:30 on Sabbath, we were on our way, loaded with pancake batter, eggs, apple sauce, peanut butter, and syrup.

Once we got there, we unloaded all of our supplies. Then Chaplain Sonya gave a devotional thought about how we were not there just to cook food, but to have fellowship with the people there. She said that it was okay if we took a break from working to talk to someone because that's what it's all about: fellowship.

We started off by setting everything up and then we finally began cooking. We started flipping pancakes and scrambling eggs, and before we knew it there were people coming in to get their breakfast. Most of them had kids, and the kids were so cute! The people were very nice and it was a lot different then I thought that it would be.

It was a really good experience to be able to help people by serving them, its something that everyone talks about doing, but usually forgets even though it is something that Jesus did all the time. He was always helping people that other people shunned. It was good to be able to share the love of Jesus with other people without even having to say his name.

-Chelsea Chamberlain