Thursday, July 29, 2010

Stories from Atlanta

Finally got all of my school work caught up from last week! That was a challenge!
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So much happened in Atlanta last week, it was an amazing experience. As I shared before, Monday was spent in the city, working with the homeless. Coming from a rural area, homelessness like we saw in Atlanta is completely outside of our realm of experience. I was so impressed with the members of our youth group, who gladly chatted with the men and shared the Good News with them.
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Two of our days were spent at an apartment complex outside of the city. Nestled in a suburban area, back a little road, and you were deposited into an entirely different world. You see, this complex is entirely populated by refugees from 19 different countries - the most war torn areas of the world. The children mobbed us! Some of the kids did not speak English, but all of them knew the language of play. Our job was to spend time playing with the children and getting to know them. What a joy that was! It was completely impossible to tire those kids out, and a few of them actually climbed on the bus with us. When we lovingly removed them from the bus, they stood on the back bumper determined that they were not going to lose us. It was heart wrenching leaving that place as the kids ran alongside us, waving and asking us to come back. I'll not easily forget the time we spent there.
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The apartments and their occupants are served by a wonderful man of God, Mr. Bennett. Mr. Bennett is a missionary from Nigeria. His deepest desire is to see souls won for Christ. Talking to him was absolutely amazing! He had such insight into the plight of these refugees and had such love for these kids and their parents.
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More to follow tomorrow.

1 comment:

Susannah said...

You're doing a very good work here... loved your story of being "mobbed." And heart-wrenching to leave! ღ