We are here and safe and sound! It rained at the beginning of our journey but slowly let up as we made our way to Miami! We were able to check out our new lodging at Bethel Baptist Church. Compared to last year where we had to get up at 5am every morning to pack away our stuff to make room for VBS - to this year being able to spread out and wake up at 7am for devotions, AMAZING!
Our evening consisted of Pizza Dinner, meeting other PELICANS, to going to church to reunite with past friends. So excited for what this week holds and can't wait to see how God uses each and every one of us!

This middle school group brought such joy to Parkway in 2011. Derrick and I were shocked to see that some of the young men had grown a foot since last year! Derrick was sharing stories about all the hard work and dedication that was presented last year and tears came to my eyes. Knowing that these students a year ago made relationships that will again be watered for growth in 2012.....real PARTNERSHIP!

This morning the team arrived at Parkway eager to work and to continue building the relationships that began last year. We began by splitting off into our groups for the day, which included VBS and beginning a landscaping project. Some of us were even willing to step out of our comfort zones and work in other areas that we wouldn't normally. But, God gave us the strength we needed to work hard and to stretch ourselves in more ways than we could imagine. The first day of VBS started off great, and some of the kids from last year even remembered some of us! The service project team worked on digging us some plants and painting some landscaping bricks that we will be using. At lunch, we were treated to a wonderful Jamaican meal by Reggie, our chef for the week. After lunch, we continued with our service project, we can't wait to see the fruits of our labor everyday. The VBS group switched to doing a sports camp in the afternoon, playing soccer, football and lots of other games. At the end of the day, we returned back to our host church to change for a night out for dinner. We enjoyed dinner and some shopping at Aventura Mall. When we returned, we had a meeting with all of the Pelicans and were able to share some of the ways that God was challenging us this week. We are continuing to look forward to discovering God's plan for us this week. Thanks for all of the prayers coming our way from home!

A few of the girls work together to work on the landscape project at Parkway Baptist Church.

Emily works with one of the VBS students during craft time, Relationship building is one of the best parts of serving here in Miami

This morning after breakfast and devotion, we headed back to Parkway where we continued our VBS and service projects we started on Monday. Today's theme for VBS was "true riches." And as we were teaching these kids the lessons, we were reminded that our riches are the treasures that will be stored up for us in Heaven. The kids really seem to be clinging to the message everyday, and we couldn't be any luckier to get to be he ones that deliver God's word to them. Another group continued work in the garden, and began painting a fence for the church.

After lunch, we had a great time with the kids making tie-dye t shirts in the afternoon. We had an awesome time helping the kids create their own design. Each kid had a partner who helped them dye their shirts, which created awesome one on one time to get to know each other. Before dinner, we all congregated to the sanctuary for "Parkway's Got Talent," an ongoing talent show that is put on the the kids at church.

All of the Pelican teams serving in Miami joined us for dinner at Parkway where we feasted on jerk chicken, meatballs, rice and beans, veggies, and salad. After dinner, we all combined for a youth service at Parkway. We had great worship music, played games, and some students shared testimonies. We had a very special time where we broke into groups and were able to share our story for 7 minutes. It was cool getting to know some other Pelicans and some of Parkways youth on a deeper level. We enjoyed a quick message from Bob about being bold in Christ. We then returned to Bethel to rest up for Wednesday. We are looking forward to the week, and know that God is on our side!

Girls showing off their t-shirt they made!

Alex and Ethan working hard to paint the fence at Parkway.

Lake Magdelene UMC is hard at work in Miami! Today we continued VBS at Parkway Baptist Church. We also continued working on our service projects. After lunch in the afternoon, we went with the VBS kids to the bowling alley, where we had a great time of fellowship with everyone. Tonight we headed over to Cosmopolitan Church, another PPM partner for a youth service. We had a great message delivered by Paul, a youth pastor from one of the other Pelican groups. He reminded us that we can come to church, but that we also have to come to Christ. Thanks to everyone for their prayers!

Today we got to mix in some work and play. We started off as usual working hard at Parkway with VBS, painting and working on the garden. The team is continuing to work without ceasing and continuing to build lasting friendships with the kids' staff and volunteers here at Parkway.

In the afternoon after lunch, we treated ourselves to a movie at the Aventura Mall. The group saw Madagascar 3, and had a great time laughing with each other. We then headed to the beach for dinner at Taco Shack, which a lot of us who came last year were looking forward to the delicious tacos and fun atmosphere. We feasted on a dinner of tacos, rice, beans and corn. We had some fun playing ping-pong and just enjoying the nice beach weather.

After dinner, we headed to the beach and had a combined service with all of the teams visiting. We had a meaningful and powerful time of worship, scripture reading, and prayer. we had a time to share what God has been doing in our lives and prayer requests for the churches were are serving with all of the groups. It was inspiring to hear the work God is doing at other churches in Miami and in other people's lives. We are feeling truly blessed after the service. Tomorrow we begin our final day in ministry here in Miami. Pray that we reap God's harvest after the seeds we have sowed this week!

On Friday we completed our final day of ministry at Parkway. Our day consisted of VBS, and teaching the kids the last "truth" of the week. We wrapped up our service projects, eager to see the fruits of our labor.

In the afternoon, we had a little fun with the kids playing with water balloons. We had our celebration service at Parkway in which we were able to thank the church for having us. We were presented with a framed group photo that Bob plans to hang in the youth room!

After a final delicious meal at Parkway, we headed back to Bethel for our final evening together. We are Tampa bound on Saturday morning, but we thanks God for the favor he showed our group this week!

A group photo of both Lake Magdalene and Parkway Baptist Church

Kids hard at work through the week.

A silly group photo at Hollywood Beach