Old School...

So, I was going through the massive amounts of files on my computer... and I found these two videos... they are from my freshman year of college... the videographer is my roommate Lauren...

Everything you need to know is described in the video... however, I am wearing a night guard, so it is hard to understand me... and I have included a script below.

Script-

Britt- Give it a commentary
Lauren- HA, I don't know what to say.
Britt- So, I thought... I thought it was a brilliant idea to stick these reusable ice cubes in my Gatorade bottle.
Lauren- but it wasn't
Britt- It turns out, it wasn't such a bright idea... cause now, I can't get them ouuu however..
Lauren- she got that one out
Britt- I got this one out
Lauren- and she went uhhhh
Britt- and I shouted OHH *surprised look on face* and it is... come over here and look at the time... it is 1:46 in the morning.
Lauren- *choked laughter*
Britt- It's my goal to get these three, 1-2-3, out of this Gatorade bottle
Lauren- oh my
Britt- if you have any suggestions, please let me know...
Lauren-oh my goodness... how did you get the other one out?
Britt- Ihihi don't have a clue... I was beating on it, and it came out...
Lauren- *Choked laughter*
Britt- *inappropriate grunting noises*

I don't know what the rest of it says... until I say okay cut it off... and lauren says do I push the button?

Here is the second video... this one shows some mild success...

Script-

Britt- We're really close on this one... oh man.... it's coming out again

Lauren- *choked laughter*

Britt- Alright guys, we are gonna get this... here we go... here we goooooooo

It's gonna come out I swear...

Lauren- *actual choking*

Britt- YESSS!

Lauren- *has fallen to the floor* you... *more choked laughter*

Britt- I got it out!

Lauren- Know what it looked like?

Britt- turn it off...

Just so you know... I got all of them out... we had a video of that as well but it was not nearly as exciting...

-Britt

While We Were Yet...

On Good Friday, Crosspointe Church held an event called The Approach.  Since my family and I used to attend Crosspointe we had been to similar events before... and we decided to attend this one.  

The event was obviously focused on Good Friday... and it was amazing. There were drawings up all around the room, and areas for meditation and bible reading... along with an area for communion.  The last element hit me really hard, on three projection screens there was a continuous stream of words describing our state of being when Christ died for us.  My brother Ray took the time to write them all down, and I wanted to share them with y'all.  

WHILE WE WERE YET...

sinners, lazy, judgmental, cowardly, guilty, unbelieving, full of doubt, addicted, shameful, gossips, greedy, jealous, full of rage, envious, divisive, cheaters, liars, adulterers, thieves, lustful, gluttons, full of hate, unforgiving, perverted, untrustworthy, wrong, vindictive, disinterested, apathetic, impatient, unkind, violent, superficial, ungrateful, selfish

CHRIST DIED FOR US! 

Detroit Day 5- Wednesday March 4th

Detroit Day 5-- Last Day!!!

To start this particular blog off, I have to explain something. We signed up for ministry sites the night before we actually set off to those sites. As a driver, I actually got to sign up first, that way, the rest of the team would know how many slots there were for each site. So the night before Day 5, I signed up for a ministry site, but they ended up not needing me as a driver at all for that day... so I got switched without my knowledge to go to Angel House... Angel House is a ministry in Dearborn. Dearborn has the largest Muslim population outside of the Middle East. It also contains the largest mosque in North America.
Here's my thinking... God planned that. Of course He did!! I had just met with three Muslim girls the day before, and I realized I knew nothing about their religion. And then I got moved over to the Angel House ministry, to learn even more about the Islam religion. Now, I just need to listen more carefully for what He wants me to do with what I learned.

Angel House Team with Angel House "Head Lady"

So, since I was going to Angel House, I had to wake up to GO this morning. We left at 9am for Angel House, luckily I didn't have to drive because I wasn't really awake yet!
When we got there, we got put to work... that's how I like it! I got put in the childcare room... since I work in children's ministry, I thought it would be a piece of cake... yeah, I thought wrong. It was crazy!!!! We had the kids for a couple of hours, but it definitely felt like days. Remind me of this when I talk about having kids...
Anyway, I made it through childcare... mostly because they had a cheat sheet with some Arabic words, such as No! After the mothers picked up their kids, we got in some Angel House vans and headed to the largest mosque in North America. Now THAT was an experience.

Inside the main room...


First of all, I never thought I would ever step foot in a mosque... I just didn't seen any reason that I ever would. So, I had no idea what to expect. We had to wear scarves on our heads (but not fully covered... because we do not believe what they do) and we had to take off our shoes. We walked in the equivalent of a sanctuary and saw a few men praying. Inside that room, there were inscriptions on the walls and the floor was covered in a rectangle like pattern that looked like prayer mats. In fact, I believe that is the intention of the carpet.
We then walked into the bathrooms where there were stools placed in front of spouts where they wash their feet before praying.

Inscriptions...


Actual Prayer mat, stone they press their heads to, and prayer beads...


As explained above...

After the bathroom, we moved upstairs to watch a group of students (from the Muslim school next door) in the main room. The students all filed into the room and onto a "mat" on the carpet. For a while we watched the students chat and horse around. Then the Imam came in and led the group of students in prayer. There was singing and chanting (along with standing and kneeling/bowing) in a follow the leader sort of fashion.


Our Team in front of the largest mosque in North America


We left before the students were done with their session. We headed to another mosque where we actually sat down and talked to an Imam. It was.... uh... interesting to talk to the Imam. Some of the things he said were outright lies (as in I could tell they were)... some were lies about the Christian beliefs... and some things just sounded ridiculous. Then, other things he said... made sense. It is hard to say that because I don't believe them... at all... but if I had been unconvinced about my salvation or I knew nothing of the Islam religion/Christianity... he would have been convincing. I think it's good to recognize that, because I truly understand how much of a danger it is...

the Imam we talked to...


We left the mosque and headed back to the Angel House. There we learned a LOT about the Islam religion and we even discussed things that the Imam said or alluded to. Again, I won't discuss them here because I do not believe them but feel free to ask me in person.

For dinner, we went to a new location for some SOUL FOOD! The dinner was amazing!!! I also had "greens" for the first time... and they actually weren't bad. I need to get out of my comfort zone more often and try new things ;D

Room set up for Soul Food Dinner


We then went to a Church service (being that it was Wednesday night). There was a pretty awesome dramatization about the walk to Calvary. At the end of the service, the pastor asked everyone to take the post it notes we got as we walked in and write down our trespasses and the things we haven't given over to the Lord. He then asked us to walk to the front to and put them on the cross. I really 'enjoyed' that visualization of my sins on the cross... in fact, it really helped me give them over to God.

Back at CCF, we had an awesome shaggin' and song session. Had issues uploading the video... will try again later.
It was a late night, but an amazing end to an amazing day!



The next morning, we packed up and headed home.
Amazing trip... one I would love to experience again!
-Britt

Detroit Day 4- Tuesday March 3rd

Detroit Day 4--

This morning the team went to Evangel Ministries. There we heard an amazing speaker, I only wish I could remember his name... ugh! Either way, props to the speaker! He talked about the story of Jonah. He told us that we are Jonah and Detroit is our Nineveh... the city we didn't want to go to... WAY different than our home towns... maybe we even fought God when He told us to come to Detroit.
Then the speaker pointed out that Jonah needed Nineveh just as much as Nineveh needed Jonah. He wanted us to think about that as we worked at our ministry sites. He asked us if we believe we can start a revival? Why not? What is stopping us?
The last thing that he mentioned was that the bible says God called Nineveh a "great city." So while our modern day Nineveh's might not be great in our eyes, they are in God's. Think about it.

After his message, we broke for Wayne State University. It was evangelism time!!!! When we first got there, we met with the Metro team and talked about the university's student body. I paired up with Justin Watkins and we headed out to eat lunch and spread God's message of LOVE!
After eating lunch at Subway, we headed into the Student Center and actually sat down with a group of elementary school students that were there on a 'field trip.' We talked through Solarium with one of the kids, while others watched on. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, they would pick out answers for themselves/each other as the pictures came into view. After about 20 minutes "playing our game" (as they put it), we left those kids to themselves and moved to another table. Hopefully some seeds were planted, and God has used that "game" in other areas of their lives.

The second table we sat at also sat three Muslim girls. The girls all seemed to be friends and they were receptive to Solarium as well. A little bit into Solarium we explained to them why we were there... and they were still extrememly receptive to us. For the next two hours, I learned about the Islam faith while also sharing (and listening to Justin share) about our faith. I won't share what I learned here because I don't believe it to be true but feel free to ask me about it in person.
When both groups (the girls and Justin/I) needed to move on, we thanked them for their time and they thanked us for our conversation, solarium, and just the fact that we would talk to them about Christianity as opposed to arguing or "throwing it in [their] faces." It was encouraging to hear that we had been loving while sharing.
I wanted to continue evangelical ministry, but we had to meet back up with the team before heading to our ministry sites.

When the team was back together we heard some amazing stories. Two guys from our team witnessed two Wayne State University students come to Christ. Praise the Lord! How awesome is that??? There were other encouraging stories as well... I just don't remember the specifics. After that meeting, Justin and I prayed for the girls (and elementary students) we shared with.

Ministry Site Team

Time for inner city ministry! Today I went to Central Detroit Christian. We helped with a children's program that takes in kids after school and provides them with a meal and extra skills classes, or tutoring help. We played with the kids for a while before dinner and then helped serve. After dinner, we cleaned up the tables and swept the floors while the other staff went off to teach classes. Sadly, we didn't get to help in any of the classes because we had to leave in time to make it to the Pistons' game.

I actually think Chris beat me... we have a video too!


Playing knock-out with the kids... yeah, I played, I was just already out!


However, it wasn't THAT sad, because the Pistons' game was awesome!!!! I truthfully don't know that much about basketball, but that doesn't change the fact that I got to watch it live. There is something exhilarating about being AT a game! Anyway, the facts you should know about the game... Pistons won, 100-95 (don't ask me who they were playing... if you really want to know, look up the date). Also, we got a VIP welcome on the big screen during half time.

Pistons game...


To answer my question... looks like they were playing the Nuggets.


Our VIP welcome!!!


Since I don't like night driving or extreme traffic... I asked Andrew to drive us back to CCF. We stopped at Wendy's for more dinner (since we didn't get much at CDC and didn't have time to stop) and made it back to CCF by 12:30am. There was some shaggin' in the lounge for a little while, but I made it in to bed by 1:30am (which was in the lounge on a couch because my room was sooooo cold!!!!)

Andrew and I at the game...


-Britt

Detroit Day 3- Monday March 2nd

Detroit Day 3--

The sleep deprivation caught up to me, and I woke up late... really late. I ended up eating breakfast in the morning meeting, with wet hair...

We headed out to Hope Community Church, despite the flurries that freaked us NC drivers out, to hear Kevin Butler speak. Mr. Butler is the lead pastor of Hope Community Church in Detroit, and he is INTENSE! It kinda reminded me of church the day before, that was some passionate speaking. He talked about unity in the body of Christ, or more specifically, the lack there of. He specifically mentioned that no where in the Bible does it say we should segregate pragmatically. I think that message really hit home with a lot of us. To think of the things God could do if His followers would just get over their "ideal churches" and join the body of Christ.

We had a singing/prayer session after the message. Hearing the voices of our team singing praises to God was an experience I will never forget. It was beautiful, to hear the individual yet united voice of God's children... wow! While praying, we broke up into groups to pray specifically on the Armor of God passage. (Ephesians 6:11-18)


[Ministry Site name on the Etch A Sketch]


Today was the first day we worked at ministry sites all throughout Detroit. I somehow got stuck with a group of all guys... figures! And we headed out to Highland Park Community Outreach. This center is housed in a 3 story house in Highland Park which is pretty much the poorest area of Detroit. One of the ministry workers told our guys that you could buy a house in this area for about $7000. The guys said they were really struck with the financial situation then because their cars cost more than that.

[Caleb and I relaxing after hauling stuff up from the basement]

We spent the majority of our time cleaning, organizing and overhauling the house/center. Some of the guys went to homes in the community to set up computers for those families. We worked up a sweat down in the basement, attempting to clean out all the stuff that was damaged during a "flood." Turns out the copper piping had been stolen a while back and the water just poured into the basement. We did get a relief from the hard sweaty work when we stepped outside to haul trash in the 10 degree Detroit weather... without our coats on ;D.

[proof we did work...these were in the basement]


[the group that worked at HPCO]


That night before dinner we played Catchphrase... or attempted to play... when you get that many college students together, playing a civilized game without screaming and shouting is nigh impossible.
We had Chinese food for dinner before an amazing impromptu worship session. Those who brought instruments were practicing and team members stopped in to sing and worship alongside the musicians. Powerful!

There were some interesting videos shown at our night session, but I don't remember much of them because I was so focused on the news I had just gotten about my brother. I found out that my brother Ray was in the hospital... and I was extremely upset. I left the session and a few girls came out to pray with me.

We ended the night with a crazy game of signs!!! Again, college students are ridiculous!!! But it was a lot of fun!

-Britt