Sema

Spring is in the air, and Easter is around the corner! Now is the perfect time to buy Easter flowers from Student Ministries!
Okay, so I have this order form to sell flowers for the Student Ministries Easter Flower Sale, and it looks like there are some pretty sweet flowers on there. Flowers could be an excellent gift on Easter.
If you want to order flowers I need your order and your money by Wednesday the 25th. I can get all of the flowers to you as soon as Saturday, April 11.
Here are the flowers and their price:

Hydrangeas 2 bloom- $14.00
Hydrangeas 3 bloom- $18.00 Tulips 5 bloom- $8.75
Tulips 11 bloom- $16.00
Daffodils- $14.25
Azaleas- $19.50
Hyacinth 4 bloom-$13.50

ps. I really don't like selling stuff on this blog. It's meant to be more of a feedback source for your support, but this is all for the mission trip as well. And since I got all of this information on very short notice, this is the best way that I could think of to get all of the information out as soon as I could. I'm very sorry and I will have more stories about how I'm "moving towards Milwaukee" as soon as possible!
As Always, Thanks for your Support!
-Sema
Sema

This past Sunday was the spaghetti dinner. My specific job (for most of the time) was greeting people as they walked in. At first it was easy. Then it got harder.

It's funny how smiling was the toughest thing for me. It wasn't all that hard, the whole thing was one of the lower-key activities that lead up to the missions trip. Also I do admit I might have lost patience with a certain teammate once or twice, everything else went smoothly.

There are some lessons that I can pull from serving at the dinner that tie in with other forms of serving. At first you may be excited and energized, but that's always the easiest part. When you've been doing the same thing over and over again, that's when even small things, like smiling, take serious will power. But it's a smile that really makes the difference:

In both you, the servant's mood and the servee's day.

I just need to remember who I'm doing it for, even when I'm doing extremely tedious jobs or have super grumpy people to serve.

But because of God's love we press on even in the slower, harder, less exciting times of our service! That's why we all are doing it, right? Because of God's unfailing ever-lasting love.


Thanks to all who purchased Spaghetti Dinner tickets from anybody!

I'm so sorry that I didn't get around to selling more tickets, than I did.

Thanks again for your financial support, and (more importantly) your prayer support as we together, with God's help, are moving towards Milwaukee.

-God Bless,

Sema

Sema
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Okay, so I know you are looking forward to hearing about how the 30 hour famine went!

For those who don't have time to read my full report here is your one sentence summary: I loved it and my view on world hunger has completely changed. Thanks so much for your support!

Okay so the fast started yesterday after lunch. It was potluck night at bible study but both me and Dougie stayed strong! Not eating a thing, even the cheese. I do worship for the bible study, as you already may know, and the first song that I chose to play that night was Hungry. Is that ironic or what? I didn't even realize it until Reena and Nicole pointed it out! But it was so perfect! That night for the first time I went to bed hungry. Thus, ended Friday's fasting. The real day began Saturday, at the church.

When I first got there we basically prepared for the day by breaking into small groups and talking about our expectations. One thing that I totally didn't expect was a new aspect to the fast. Yes, the took our cell phones. Well technically we gave then up, we were fasting from our cells! So no actual footage from the famine, sadly. But as you saw, I do have a clip (although poor quality) of Dougie talking about his experience. I also have one of my Friend Geneva, that I'll post later on. After they confiscated our cells we broke into groups again to go do our service projects.

My group went to help out at Amani, the coffee shop on the north side. We helped clean and organize the basement and I got my first experience being a barista when Tara went down to check on the rest of my group down in the basement. After we helped organize the many Cd's that Tara had for the background music in the shop, she gave us free coffee and tea! Although the Paninis that were cooking looked mighty tasty, we held ourselves back from the temptation!

The rest of the day included talking about world hunger to Reed's mac, playing blindfolded musical chairs (relationship building), and drinking tons of juice, we finally broke the 30 hour fast with communion. Yes, the first thing that I ate after fasting for 30 hours was unleavened bread. After that we did some worship and who would guess the first song that Reed played was hungry! I wanted to start crying! The same song that I played at bible study, last night! Finally we got to eat dinner. We had pasta and I had two helpings, although some of my friends had over four, I was more than content with what I ate!

So now after the famine is over, what do I feel? Truthfully I feed guilty. Why should it be me who has an abundance of food and some kid in Haiti who is starving to death? After communion we had some time to journal, and what I wrote (my prayer) describes my heart the best, I think.

Dear God,

I feel so guilty! How can I eat, even eat for Communion, when my brothers and sisters in you are starving?! They have nothing! Lord I promise to dedicate myself to serving your children who are hungry.

I am hungry for food.

I am hungry for you.

They are too! Lord God, please help us who have both food and You, to share what we have to those who don't yet have. You died for both of us. Us here in America, who have more than we need, and our brothers and sisters in You (as well as future brothers and sisters in You) who are in desperate need. You saved us both, on the cross. You poured out your blood for us all. Lord God, some of your children can't even afford to take communion!

Satan can crush their bodies, but he can't crush their spirit. God, I pray for them to stand strong! Lord I also pray that those who have the materials to cure their hunger and their spiritual hunger, would! God, please give me the strength to remember this hunger that I feel, to remember this famine, and for me to do something about it.

In Jesus's name Amen.

Thank you so much, those of you who supported me on this famine, and thank you all for your prayers. I exceeded my goal with the $80 that I received! That's 80 days that a child will be fed! Thanks again! The checks from relatives that are coming later, I'll give to World Vision, as a separate donation. Together, we can do something about World Hunger!

Sema

Okay, the 30 hour famine starts tomorrow and I am seriously freaking out about it! I'm going to eat a HUGE breakfast of pancakes (thanks mom!) but after that NO FOOD for the rest of the day! I'm waking up early Saturday morning and heading over to the church to do community service and all the stuff that World Vision plans for these fasts. Then FINALLY were going to be able to eat a big dinner that we will prepare ourselves. I seriously hope the main course isn't hamburgers or something or else I'll be stuffing my face with buns for the first meal in over 30 hours! It's all for the starving kids around the globe, its all for them. If I keep telling myself that I think I'll be fine. I think. Anyway I would LOVE your prayers as I'm going through this so keep praying! I have to get at least 60 bucks together to donate to World Vision to participate in the famine. Also for every $2 I donate for World Vision, my church is matching it $1 towards Milwaukee. Thank you! I already have $40 and my goal is $75 but I'm going to get some more donations at bible study tomorrow. Did I already mention for everybody to pray for me? Haha! I am seriously panicking! I hope to post on Saturday night about how it went and everything, but until then; bye! -Sema
Sema
Hey Everybody! This is Sema making her first blog post about the Milwaukee trip! Okay so about this trip;

Every year ACAC Student Ministries offers and organizes missions trips for the Middle and High School students to go on. The destinations of these trips range in distance from Cincinnati all the way to Gabon West Africa! These trips are a great way to involve the youth in evangelistic missions trips! We raise all of the money for our trips on our own, but the church provides ways for us to do so like doing a Spaghetti Dinner and the annual Car Wash. On the trips we do community services and evangelize. We bring God's word into new places and old. We help the community, and our relationships with Jesus and our peers grow stronger. I've been on one mission trip already and really loved the experience. Now I'm looking forward to the coming trip, to Milwaukee!
Last year I went to Chicago with my youth group. In Chicago some of the things that I did were;
  • Gardening and Farming in the community garden on the South Side of Chicago in Eden's place
  • Helped babysit in a daycare for kids who's parents are in court for various reasons
  • Made breakfast and lunch in a local homeless shelter, also on the South Side
  • and visited an inner city youth group and connected with them

I'm sure that I will get to do things similar to the things that I did last year, In Milwaukee and maybe I'll get to do new things, too.

I'm looking towards this trip to Milwaukee for many reasons but above all I want o learn and be prepared to do inner city missions here in Pittsburgh like I did in Chicago and will do in Milwaukee. Also I plan on doing overseas missions in the future and I'm going to start getting my self ready to to that too.

I hope through this blog I can keep people who are supporting me on this trip posted and just to let people who don't know much about my trip learn something. Anyway stay tuned as I keep moving towards Milwaukee!