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