From April 13 through the 16th, a group from the Church spent their time serving in the Madison community. These missionaries committed three and a half says to spend together serving. Each day started with quiet time in God’s Word and it continued with service at a variety of places throughout Madison. Each day ended after praising God for what He did during the day, and worshiping together! Here is a summery of the trip written by Sarah Oberdeck and Kylie Cook.
The trip started on Sunday by getting to know one another and praying over the Madison community. Groups went on a scavenger hunt to find iconic Madison venues and pray. We wanted to pray first for the community where we will be serving. We prayed for firefighters, teachers and students, children at the hospital, coffee shops, college students, athletes, libraries, the Capital and so many more!
God was present throughout every aspect of the trip, from the very beginning, throughout the planning and until the very last day. God blessed our planning by providing people that were able to use their gifts to contribute to the trip. Thank you to all of the lifegroups and individuals that provided delicious meals for us! Thank you to all of the people that helped organize and serve us in so many ways.
We served with Allied Drive Food Pantry, Porchlight homeless shelter, Carenet Pregnancy Center, Middleton Outreach Mission, Sunny Hill Nursing home, Agrace Hospice, Project Linus, International Friendship Center, Food Pantry Gardens, St. Vincent DePaul, Goodwill, Shut Ins of the church and a neighbor of the church. We learned about so many needs throughout the Madison area.
Each organization that we served with has a very limited budget and they have very basic needs that we could meet through donations of time and supplies. Check with your lifegroup leader on items that could be donated and places to serve!
We learned how to be compassionate like Jesus, confident in who we are as Christ’s children, the courage to share our testimony, and the joy of serving as a community in our own community. We all grew in our relationship with Jesus, from people who were on their first mission trip, to those who have been on several. God taught us lessons on how to be humble, how to trust Him, how to love our neighbors as ourselves, and how much fun it is to serve!
Our prayer for the participants is that they would continue to live every day as a missionary in our community. Thank you for coming on this journey with us!
Kylie and Sarah
