We arrived at Bethal Evangelical Baptist Church around 4:00 pm. We had a quick orientation meeting before enjoying a quick dinner of pizza. After dinner we left to join Parkway Baptist church for their Sunday school celebration. This is the church where we will be doing bible school and our service projects. During the service each age group performed a skit or read scripture.

The main event was a performance from “Sugar and Spice,” which is a preacher that puts on puppet shows for children. We were able to enjoy the magic and comedy show. He did a great job. After the service we were able to Socialize and enjoy and home-cooked finger foods before returning to Bethal for the night. When we returned we had a short meeting discussing the next day’s itinerary.

The journey began at 8:00 am when we arrived at Parkway Baptist Church. The first thing we did was move things out of the foyer so we could paint the walls. After that we were able to build flower beds around the palm trees in the main court yard. Lunch was provided by Noel and Reggie. They are volunteers from the church that cook amazing Jamaican food.
After lunch we were able to help beautify the trees by painting the trunks white. The day ended with an outing to downtown Miami. We went to the Bayside market which happened to be right across from the Miami Heat arena. We were able to spend time relaxing and souvenir shopping.

What a great Tuesday! The group split into two groups: half conquered work projects and the other half put together an amazing VBS program. The work projects included painting stones to put around trees, planting shrubs and flowers, and organizing the storage area at the church. Vacation Bible School ran smoothly and included skits, water-balloon games, coloring, and nail-painting. After working hard all morning, we enjoyed a delicious lunch of Chicken pasta and Tilapia. The afternoon was filled with more VBS fun and working hard on the projects we had started in the morning. Some of our team members sang in the evening youth service, and we learned a lot from the message about Shadrack, Meechak and Abendigo. When we returned home, we were able to enjoy a few rounds of bowling! To God be the glory for an amazing Tuesday in Miami!

The day at the beach was amazing.

Wednesday kicked off with Vacation Bible School and more service projects. It is amazing to see how the relationship are forming and growing the group stronger each and every day. The group has been able to use their strengths to work as one body of Christ. After lunch, we headed to Hollywood Beach and soaked up some happy rays of run. We were also able to walk up and down the boardwalk and do a little shopping as well. After a few hours in the sun, we headed to the Tack Shack and enjoyed delicious tacos while fellowshipping with one another. After dinner we headed back to the beach and had an evening service where we shared how the Lord was working in our lives during the week. It was so great being able to hear everyone's stories! GOD IS GOOD!!!!!!!

It was evident that God was moving in our lives. We were able to pull together as a group and finish a huge service project. We painted and set almost 200 concrete garden borders. We had a great time playing with the kids and building more relationships with the youth and members of Parkway. The cooks of Parkway prepared an excellent lunch including tilapia, and steak and vegetables. The night included going to a Haitian restaurant where we were able to eat some of the local cuisine. We were also able to sample some Haitian soda. The night ended with a message about Paul and how we can finish the race here in Miami.

On thursday night we talked about Paul and how he ended his mission work well and we were motivated to do the same thing. So rather than doing service projects we were fully focused on building relationships. Jenny was able to lead the activities that really grew us close as a group. We made t-shirts that we were able to sign and put our hand prints on them for keep sakes. During the celebration service the Parkway youth were able to show their talent by singing some songs and doing some skits. Pastor and the Camp staff for Parkway shoed their appreciation by giving each of the team leaders a picture of all the kids and PPM groups. We were also able to share our God stories and many of the Parkway youth talked about how the relationships meant so much to them. After service we help setup tables for the heritage festival. The last PPM meeting was all about affrimations and their were so many for the week because there were three amazing groups united under God's glory.