Pittsburgh Mission Trip: Canceled

Well folks, I have an unfortunate announcement to make: the mission trip to Pittsburgh Aug 3-9 has been canceled. Not enough people signed up. I can't wait until the last minute and then cancel, because that would leave the folks organizing things out in Pittsburgh in a lurch. By letting them know now that we can't make it, the impact on them will be much less. I wish we could have pulled this off, because there are needs to be addressed out there, plus it would have been fun and we would have learned a lot.

So, in the wake of this decision, I have a plan B…and the B stands for Blood. Let's donate blood on August 16th. August 17th will likely be my last day at BUMC, so the 16th would be a nice opportunity to see you before I go. We can take one of the church vehicles down to the donor center in Princeton in the morning, all donate blood, and then get lunch somewhere. There will be details surrounding the event in a later blog post and email and Facebook event. This is something that I will need to have a rough estimate of the number of people who will donate, so let me know if you are interested as you receive the info. This is open to college folk and older young adults alike.

That's all I have to report. Now I'm off to Kentucky for a friend's wedding. I'll be back on Sunday. Have a good rest of your week, and know that I pray for you from time to time. I will be checking email probably daily, and of course my cell is always with me (BUMC has the number if you don't).

Grace and Peace,
Kevin

Some More Info on the Trip...

Greetings and salutations,

I figured it was time for another mission trip update. Like I talked about before, I’ve been working directly with the United Methodist Church’s presence in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is in the Western PA Conference of the United Methodist Church, and in the Pittsburgh District (makes sense, eh?).

We’re going to be engaged in a variety of urban ministries while we are there, including doing some Vacation Bible School with local kids, working at soup kitchens, doing some maintenance work, etc. We’re going to get a broad range of experiencing and addressing the cities needs.

Also we’ll spend some time at Hot Metal Bridge Church, a place that is doing some great ministry using drama, arts, and reinterpreting what it means to be “church”.

For the moment that’s it. This trip is an excellent opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ, and to experience new things and have fun while doing it. Please pray about going. BTW, this pic I found online was labeled "Pittsburgh Slum"

Grace and peace,

Kevin

Pittsberg...er..um...I mean Pittsburgh!!!

Greetings,

That’s right, we’re going to Pittsburgh PA for this years mission trip! The dates are August 3-9 (Sunday-Saturday). One immediate thing to announce that’s a difference from last year: we don’t have a hosting organization like last year. Last year there was a third-party organization to setup our schedule, work, activities, etc. This year I have been working directly with the United Methodist Church in the area to make arrangements for us.

I thought I would start off with some stuff about the city in general. As with most anywhere, people who live in Pittsburgh have their own accent or dialect. For instance, what we call ‘soda’ they call ‘pop’, and a ‘rubberband’ is a ‘gumband’. Click here for some more on the language peculiarities!

Here’s a few figures about the city, taken from Pittsburgh.net:

Established: 1758
City Population (2000): 369,879
County Population (2000): 1,281,666
Location: South Western Pennsylvania

Average High Temperature (July): 82.5° F
Average Low Temperature (January): 20.8° F

Port: Pittsburgh is the largest inland port in the U.S., providing access to the nation's 9,000 mile inland waterway system.

And finally, here is how Pittsburgh’s 4 major sports teams faired last season:

-Steelers (football), 10-6, won their division, lost to Jacksonville in playoffs

-Pirates (baseball), 68-94, finished last in their division

-Penguins (hockey), currently 81-47, have clinched a playoff spot.

-Riverhounds (soccer), took 2007 off.

That’s all for the moment…just a taste to get us started. Have a great day. Grace and peace!

Kevin