More pictures as we prepare to leave Nashville

Hello all! I'm sitting in the parking lot of the library in Kingston Springs, Tennessee and just finished uploading three more days of photos. You'll see:

1. Pictures from our last day in Memphis, including a service project at MAGY (Memphis Area Gay Youth, a local support group for teenagers), a tour of Rhodes College, a visit to the legendary Sun Studio, dinner at Memphis Pizza Cafe, a Redbirds AAA baseball game, and a walk down Beale Street.

2. Photos from a day in Nashville that included a tour of Belmont University, a stop at Woodmont Christian Church, a visit to Las Paletas for incredible homemade popsicles, music shopping in Grimey's Records, dinner at local restaurants, and then a concert by Gabe Dixon and two other singer-songwriters performing in the round. (Fun fact: Gabe grew up at Vine St. Christian Church and his mom is a Disciple minister.)

3. Shots of our first day living and working at Bethany Hills, the Disciple church camp for the Tennessee region.

Click here to head over to the photo gallery, and enjoy!

Day 2 & 3 photos posted

After an insanely busy few days in Memphis, I finally found some time to upload more photos now that we're in Nashville. I'm sitting at Bongo Java, one of my favorite coffeehouses, and combing through tons of accumulated photos. Click here to go take a look in the photo gallery.

We'll be stopping by Woodmont Christian Church this afternoon to see where Jackie Twedell works, then having dinner at Buca de Beppo and stopping by Grimey's Records, one of my favorite places to buy music. Our group should arrive at Bethany Hills around 9 tonight and will be working at the camp all day Friday and Saturday. I'll hopefully have a couple of guest bloggers writing tonight to tell you about the last few days. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures!

Day 1 photos posted

The days have been much more packed than on a typical mission trip, so I haven't had a lot of time to upload photos. Finally got a batch of 20 from the first day posted. Check them out in the photo gallery by clicking here.

Sunday/Monday Recap by Patrick Alland

Sunday night we arrived in Memphis around 6, had dinner, and attended a worship service at Mississippi Blvd. Christian Church. At the worship service there were youth from different states and different denominations. There were youth from Minnesota, Tennessee, and Texas; and there were Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Disciples. The worship's theme was "tearing down walls." It was nice to be able to worship with other youth from different backgrounds and places.

On Monday morning we began our mission work. We got a tour at the Hope House and some of us got to spend the morning there. The Hope House is a non-profit organization that helps children who have AIDS/HIV or whose parents have AIDS/HIV. The Hope House provides a safe environment for the children while their parents are at work. They not only provide daycare, they also have a school, therapy, social workers, parenting classes, and much more. It was great to be able to interact with the kids and we had a good time. The youth who left after the tour either went to the Mid-South Food Bank or went to fix houses in the Memphis area. They worked alongside the youth that we worshiped with Sunday night.

After completing our mission work we went to the National Civil Rights Museum. This was my favorite part of the day. At the beginning of the tour we watched at 30 minute documentary on the Civil Rights movement. After the documentary the Museum took us from the 1860's until present day. We got to pass by the room that Dr. King was in before he was shot, sat on a city bus, and heard clips of newscasts and speeches. My favorite part of the museum was that throughout all the exhibits there were quotes along all the walls. My favorite quote was from Frederic Douglas who said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

First night in Memphis

Hello all, just a quick note to let you know we arrived in Memphis safely. The drive went well, and we participated in a great worship service with 600 other youth at Mississippi Blvd. Christian Church. Worship ran late, so we got to our lodging at Collierville Christian Church just shy of 11 p.m. It's a few minutes until lights out, I'll be posting more information and photos tomorrow. Night!