Monday in Milwaukee...

Well, our first full day of serving was amazing!
We were divided into groups to go to different mission sites - each group is named after a cheese (since we're in Wisconsin and all...)
If I have some time to blog tomorrow, I'll try to get a list of who's in each group - so you'll know more specifically where your child is serving and what types of things they are doing. But for tonight (because I don't have long), I will just give you a brief overview of what went on today.
JT took a group (along with some of the Colorado kids and one of their adult leaders) over to a thrift store in the morning, then to a daytime care facility for those with Alzheimer's in the afternoon. It was surprising at how quickly the kids warmed up to the Alzheimer patients and how - at the end of the day - they couldn't wait to go back to that site.
Vicki's group (also with some Colorado kids) went to the "Family House" where they pulled weeds, painted fingernails for the elderly and played Bingo. The highlight of their day seems to be, however, when they were taken inside for lunch and their host put in "Beauty and the Beast" for them to watch as they ate!
Shelly's group (with CO) went to Gingerbread Land (a housing facility) where they cleaned out some storage areas, mowed, dug trenches, etc. Shelly apparently spent half of her day on a scavenger hunt for a wheelbarrow and a tank of gas...but I'll save that story for her!
Karen's group (with CO) went to an Intergenerational Care Center for kids and disabled adults and also to Scott Christian Youth Center, where the kids did some work while Karen showed off on a pogo stick...
John's group (with CO) went to the Scott Christian Youth Center in the morning where they cleaned up a room (that Karen's group apparently made messy in the afternoon) and then went to Head Start in the afternoon to hang out with kids.
My group was all La Croix students...so we had 2 adult leaders from La Croix - me and Windall. We spent the whole day at Village at Manor Park, a huge nursing home. Our kids did everything from bowling, preparing/serving coffee, playing cards, bingo, wheel of fortune, transporting residents back and forth to events, etc. I was amazed at how great the kids did and even more so at how much it meant to these nursing home residents. They loved our youth and were sad to see us leave at the end of the day!
At the end of the day, after dinner, we went on a prayer drive through the city. We learned some horrifying stats about the poverty in this area, then went to a church where we had the opportunity to tell the entire group what we saw at our mission site today. Then we prayed as a group over all the various sites.
After the prayer drive, we ended up at Leon's Frozen Custard...which was really good...but does NOT compare to Andy's. Just sayin' :-)
I'm going to upload the pics I have from today...along with some from Shelly's job site. I don't have any yet from the other sites. Once I get those (from other people's cameras), I'll upload those as well. We were not allowed to photograph the residents at the nursing home, so those pics are limited too.
Anyhow...check back in a while - I'll link the pics for you...