Later, we had lunch and then sang two concerts, one for the Ames Hospice House ( the sister facility of yesterday's concert), the other for Hillside Plaza. The second concert was outside in surprisingly cool weather...some of our youth even asked to wear jackets! Ames Hospice House provided lunch for us today and Hillside Plaza had cookies and drinks for us when we were done. The hospitality of everyone in Cleveland has been astounding. We are so thankful and appreciative of their generosity.
In the evening, we headed to Little Italy for some ambiance and good food at Guarinos. We had a delicious Italian meal there and then strolled down the street for some cookies and gelato at a local Bakery. After our day spent throughout Cleveland, we headed back to the hotel. Once we were back "home" we shared some exciting stories about our day and then were led in devotions by Julianna Culbreath and Colter Ellis. Our youth closed the day with some pool time and relaxing together.
The first half of our 2013 tour has been fantastic...8 concerts, two days of mission work and some incredible memories...and we are only half-way there!! As we turn in for the evening, we are very excited about our day together tomorrow.
Mr. G's Photo Corner
Brian asked me to share an experience my team had today:
"Is Waiting Worth It?"
Today I was working with the Catholic Hunger Ministry along with along with Dr. C. Upon arrival the ministry was already lined with people waiting for food. The building was not large and the ministry location was in the basement. Having to park the bus, I arrived late and found three of our girls working....but the rest were in a back room with little or nothing to do. Kendell explained our small group was more than they expected and asked me to stay with this group. Fifteen minutes in what appeared to be a project with not much to do, one of the youth began to lose patience. I was explaining to them to be patient....that maybe this was a "wait on the Lord" opportunity. Five minutes later Kendell sent for me and wanted me to meet the gardner of a small plot behind the ministry that raised 1900 pounds of food for the ministry last year. He had a beautiful vegetable garden and as we walked around he was telling me how disappointed he was in the size in the onions. I took a look and immediately recognized he needed to pull the soil away from the bulb of each onion. He was excited and said he would work on this when we left. (There were LOTS of onion plants). Immediately we recognized an opportunity and Kendell and I sent for our youth. After a quick lesson on how to pull the soil back, how to weed, and some plant vs weed recognition lessons....our youth jumped in and put over 10 man hours of work into that garden. These youth had a BLAST.....I got to teach....and we left a ministry with a beautiful vegetable garden that we believe will have some nice size onions! Yep....waiting on the Lord is DIFFICULT....but in the end...its worth it. Lesson learned!
CR Tour - Day 4 Photos