Last Full Day

It feels like just yesterday that we were making scones for our holiday tea, auctioning off cake and pie, and parking cars. And now as we reflect on how our journey went and prepare for a grueling day of travel, we thank you for your continued support of this trip. Whether you made lemon curd for the tea, bought a lot of ham rolls, let us wash your car, let us watch your kid(s), were a prayer partner, donated your talent to our talentless night, followed our blog, gave us information about the Civil Rights Movement, participated in our panel discussion, or did EVERYTHING (like our parents and our leaders), we really appreciate you. We would not be where we are today had it not been for all the different types of support that we recieved. We hope that you realize how much we appreciate the support and guidance on our journey. 

So how did we spend our final day in Montgomery? We began the day with fellowship and breakfast at our lovely host church of St. John's Montgomery. People greeted us like old friends and we saw a lot of new faces and some familiar faces. Dee from our Rebuilding Together project was at church, and in the choir. We even sat with his wife at the 10:30 service. Fittingly the gospel reading was of the feeding of the 5,000 ( or of the 12,500) and the sermon stressed hunger and being fed. This was fitting because that afternoon we would be going to One Church Mission to feed the hungry. Its fitting too however, because the sermon also discussed spiritual hunger and a deeper hunger for something in your life. Thats a huge part of what a pilgrimage is, or at least how I understood it, that we are learning about ourselves in a way that allows us to feed ourselves and cultivate hunger in the way that the 5,000 were fed. 

After the service we rushed upstairs to change and took the long way to a Sam's Club in order to buy paper products for a ministry called One Church Mission or Reality and Truth. Three carts full of supplies later we loaded our Suburban back to front and brought all of it to the building that is One Church. 

When we got to One Church we unloaded all the goods and did various tasks for Ms. Pam (we were so busy working we didn't take any pictures). At 5 o'clock about 100 men, women, and children came to get a free meal provided by Grace Point Church of Christ, and served by us. We were joined there by the St. John's director of Youth Ministries and one of their youth. We served rice, meat, salad, and fruit. We restocked the bookshelves with books provided by Christ Church Blacksburg and gaveout children's   books. After we had fed everyone else, we joined with our new friends from the St. John's youth group and went to dinner. It was a lovely evening and it made us sad that our journey was coming to a close. There is no way that this blog could encompass all the stories we have to tell. See you soon Blacksburg!

- 2014 Youth Pilgrim Group to Alabama