Atlanta- Beyond the Background: Day 5: The Bridges

Dear Parents and Church supporters,

This is Michael and I am very excited to tell of some of my experiences here in Atlanta. I'm sure that the others in my group have explained how our days went, so I am going to tell of a couple of personal experiences that I had.

On the first day, I got to meet and pray with a man named Mitch. He had just had someone break into his Brothers house, shoot him in the shoulder and take some of his things. We prayed for protection for him and the rest of his family because the men were never caught. Also on the second day, we took the van into the ghetto of Atlanta and even saw the building where the largest heroin sales in the East coast take place. Despite the gloomy haze that seemed to hang over that area, there were many people on the streets that came and accepted a lunch and insisted that we pray with them. Then again today, i was privileged to meet three little hispanic kids who were more mature than I probably was at that age and also very responsible and kind. I love them dearly and will keep them in my prayers.

As a group we thank all of you for your loving prayers as well as financial support. This trip has definitely brought me closer to God in many ways!

- Michael Alsum

So far our trip to Atlanta has been a very powerful and eye opening experience. Today we went on the Bridge Route where we got to spend a lot of time with some of the little kids who live in a large apartment complex and many of the people who live under the bridges next to where cars are going by all the time. Today was the 2nd time we went on the Bridge Route. It was very powerful because we got to see children that we had just talked to on Monday. All the kids grouped around us and asked many of us if they could go on our shoulders. It was a great experience to go walk around town and hand out lunches to the homeless people and then pray for them. It was surprising to me that many of the homeless people know and love God and in many cases instead of you ministering to them they will start teaching you about God's love. I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support given to us to make this trip possible.

-Zach Hendrikse

Today we had the chance to go on the Bridge Route again, which goes to three places. The first is at a little round about parking area near the corner of a busy intersection where lots of homeless people come to get lunches and prayers from all of us. It's cool because almost all of them come mostly for the prayer because their faith is strong with God. The second stop is at an apartment complex where lots of children of 16 and under (mostly little kids) come out to play and have fun with us. We get to talk to each other, sing little kids songs, and pray as a group. It's a very cool experience to watch all of these kids sing along to songs that state that Jesus is our Savior. The third stop was in a parking lot where people come to get lunches and prayer as well. We then walk to a nearby bridge where we go to hand out lunches and pray to homeless people that live under there. To see how much they have makes me think about how greedy we are because they are thankful for what they have and we take a lot for granted. Throughout the whole route we stopped frequently to hand lunches out to people on the side walk because we want to form a relationship with everyone so they get to hear about Jesus.

-Josh Huenink