Work Day 1

Today was our first day working on site and it was great. God was able to use us all in different ways. We went out to Greeneville today to work with Mountain Vision and U-Turn Ministries. We were split up into groups to go out into the community to visit elderly people in the town. There is an occupational therapist here who saw needs in some of her patients and their caregivers. Most of them are disabled in some way and are either lonely because they can't get away from their houses, or their caregiver really needs a break to get away from the house for a minute. Everyone took off with their group of 3 or 4 to visit their person. My group, which included a couple that manage Mountain Vision Ministries, was supposed to go visit a man with MS and his Mom who has dementia. The therapist said that this man and his Mom were just really lonely and really wanted people to talk to. When we called them, they actually had some work being done on their house and wanted us to come back on a different day. We then stayed back at the store house to help with different things that needed to be done there. Through this our group really got to learn and apply Proverbs 19:21. "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." We got to work in the store house sorting through, hanging, and folding donated clothes. This store house stores everything from clothes to food to toiletries and is a place that people can come to get what they need. It is an awesome ministry and while I was really excited about going to visit the people, God still was able to use us. Also, it really helped that we stayed back because the leaders for Mountain Vision really needed to stay back anyways to coordinate the unplanned changes with all of the groups. This was another way that God showed us that he knows so much more than we do.  I know that this is definitely not the last time that we will apply Proverbs 19:21 this week, but I pray that we will all just be open and obedient to however God wants to use us.
Brittney Kohn