Day 1 - Worship, Homeless Shelter, and Feeding.

WOW.  Y'all, it's been a long, long day!  With many more to come!  We woke up around 5:15 this morning to take a shower and get prepared for the day ahead.  We left at 6:30am to head to Clement's house about 45 minutes away to eat breakfast prepared by his wife and family.  Clement is one of the locals that has been helping this team for years and years.  He is wonderful.  The breakfast was a full spread of authentic Guyanese food.  It was delicious!  After breakfast, we walked across the street to Stanleyville United Methodist Church, which is Clement's home church.  I've been blessed with worshiping in Costa Rica, Africa, Spain, and now Guyana with fellow Christians and it never ceases to amaze me how strong this body of Christ really is.  We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what language we speak or what continent we live on.  Isn't that such a wonderful thing to think about?! :)

After church, we made our way back to the hotel to change and put a few footlockers in the van.  We headed to homeless shelter in the downtown area where we passes out items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, cookies, mints, toilet paper,  and flip-flops.  Pastor Tim and Mr. Jeff placed cross necklaces on them when they finished going through the line.  They were so incredibly thankful - yet, we were even more thankful to be helping them.  Once we were done, we drove down the street to Church's chicken to pick up some lunch.  (Yes Emily, I know I gave up fast food for Lent......but I'm hoping God will make an exception given that I don't have any other option!)  After lunch, we took a MUCH needed nap and revived ourselves before hitting the streets to feed the homeless for dinner.

We got in the vans around 4:00 to make our route around downtown.  Everywhere we saw someone laying on the street or sitting against a tree, we stopped.  We might have only stopped for one or two people, but once we looked down and looked back up again there were normally 20+.  It's always fulfilling to help others, but when you feed those who haven't eaten in days, that's something serious.  Throughout my past trips I have met many people who are hungry, but I've never been given the chance to help them directly.  There was one scenario that took place while we were feeding in the market area that I will never forget -- One of the men that we fed grabbed his "cookup" from us, received his cross necklace, and then walked to the second van to receive his tang juice.  Before he touched his food, he shotgunned his juice then threw the cup on the ground.  Just threw it on the ground.  This country has no means of sanitation, and I definitely already realized that.  But, watching this man litter in front of us after we helped him was unforgettable.

Dinner was ordered from Pizza Hut - and honestly, it was better than Pizza Hut from home.  Ah, delicious.

Here are a few pictures from our day!

Before church this more at Stanleyville United Methodist!  (Lauren wasn't able to come with us this morning because she was sick from a migraine.  Clement prayed over here during church for her migraine to be gone when we got back to the hotel and sure enough when she woke up by the time we had returned it was gone!)

At the homeless shelter today, before the process began! (Me, Tony, and Lauren)

Lunch: a #7-Spicy Chicken sandwich with FF.

On the other side of the sea wall.  Could you imagine this without all the trash?....It's still beautiful no matter what.

 HAY GURL HAY (This is Lauren)

 Miles found this cool shell on the beach.

 This is Pat - my partner for feeding today!  She's showing the "cookup" meal.

 Our full feeding team - van #2.  (Pat, Pastor Tim, and Miles)

 The cookup.

 The cross necklaces.

Hope everyone at home had a wonderful day!  Looking forward to a full day tomorrow at Hope Home.  We start building the playground tomorrow.  Keep the prayers coming and we are praying for all of you as well.  Lauren is writing a blog about the trip as well, you can follow her blog at www.laughlivelovetravel.blogspot.com .  She has been multiple times, so she will have tons of entries for you to read from past experiences!  

See ya tomorrow!