We partnered with student Courtney's community service program, "Knocks for Socks" by collecting new clean socks from neighborhoods and bringing them downtown to share with anyone in need on the street. Generally, clothing donations to people in poverty don't include socks, so it's a simple meaningful need during the cold winter. Ginger chose the story of the Bleeding Woman for a scripture about noticing people the crowd ignores. Jesus finds those who are suffering and calls them family. We hope to start partnering with the Tacoma Rescue Mission to find other ways to be helpful.
Conner and Mercy met new students at the Club Activities Fair to ask, do you fake being happy and hide what's going on? Do you fake it with family, school, church, or friends? Does God want us to fake it? Can we be real with God? They shared the story of two men praying, and explained how God respected the prayer of the man who was honest about his life, but not the prayer of the man who tried to impress God and look down on others.
Eric lead a Bible study this quarter. We've been reading stories and parables from the life of Jesus, and we make a lot of lists! Eric's whiteboard explains the story of the Prodigal Son and how the father in the story represents God's love and welcoming.
Our Bible studies represent many nations, including America, China, Congo, the Ivory Coast, and Uganda. (Also not pictured, Korea and South Africa.)
Ginger took seven Pierce students for a weekend retreat in Vancouver, WA, joining over 400 IV students from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska! Left, all the students on the first night when they hardly knew each other. But friendships were quickly built as the team shared about the weekend theme of family.
Mercy and Shalisa (right) said their favorite part of the weekend was prayer training. (The stars on their nametags indicate they are people you can ask for prayer!)
We had too much fun during the weekend, with Ginger hopelessly try to fit everyone in an elevator photo...
The weekend theme was Family. Our special speaker shared stories about her family (a mix of white, Mexican and adopted children), and close friends she considers "forever family." We invited God into the brokenness of our families, saw the reflection of God's love in family, and started welcoming others from all around the world into our family.
