Day 3: Sunday at the Garden

Our day started with all of the people living at 7 bridges worshiping God and praising Him for the new year. We then celebrated with our mission team after the service. Later in the morning, for the regular Sunday church service, we worshipped with the congregation here in Atlanta. The service was very different than the services that we have. They started with a call to worship that many of us thought was the message. We then sang some songs, and then the pastor came up and delivered his message about the amazing new year we have ahead of us in 2017. Their style of worship was different than ours, they like to move around, dance to the music, and they say amen whenever they are they are at the passage that the pastor has instructed them to turn to, this lets the pastor know when the congregation is ready for him to read and teach. It was a great experience to know that we can worship God in many different ways in church. After the cerman, we are with the families and everyone who attended church today. We then played some games and talked with the kids who live here before they had to nap. During that time we went to downtown Atlanta, ate supper, drove around, and went to Walmart before returning back to The Garden, which is the 7 Bridges building. We had our missions teams bible study and returned to playing games with the kids. I love the mission that 7 bridges is doing, they are reaching numerous people and making an impact on many lives. They have endured through many hardships this past year but they haven't every thought about blaming God, it just has made everyone's relationship with God more unbreakeable. 

~ Tanner Hendrikse

Today was, if described in one word... Interesting. I have never been to a Baptist-like church in my life and I didn't really know what to expect. The church itself was non-denominational, but I guess, since we are in the South, I thought it was going to have more of a Baptist feel. The service itself was 2 hours, 10:30 to 12:30, but no time was wasted. The service was very engaging (i.e. "Amen" and "hallelujah") and enjoyable. The message really spoke to me as Pastor Chris talked about why we should serve in any circumstance and however we can. One of the most touching  parts of the service is when Pastor Chris and Pastor Nick prayed for every person, individually, as they came to the front. I really enjoyed it and I felt very blessed to be there. After the service, everyone went into the basement to eat. The food was great, and so was the fellowship. After eating, our group sat around and played games and hung out with the kids. The kids were super fun and very high-energy. For dinner we went to a burger joint in downtown Atlanta called the Varsity. The food was great. We then drove around town and "explored" with our van. After eating and driving around we came back to the church to hangout with kids, try to get a TV to play the Packers game, and play pool. Today was a great day and I am very excited for tomorrow.

~ Michael DuMez

Today we were able to go to a church service at The Garden (7 bridges) where we are staying. The whole sermon point was to let go of the past and get out of the way for the Lord. Pastor Chris said that we should not wait until January 1st to start over, you can start over any day of the year at any time. This was something that stood out to me because so many people do just wait for a new year to start instead of just deciding to start over any day. Church at seven bridges is so different from any church I have ever been to, people are always saying amen and hallelujah. And everyone sings and dances. After church was done we went down to the cafeteria and ate a big Sunday meal. When the meal was done a man named Scott came up to a group of us and shared his story and told us about the addiction to alcohol he had had. He told us we have it good and we can't ever think for a minute that one drink can't hurt us we have to be careful. At the end of the day we went out to eat at The Varsity, ( a burger joint) then Mr.Hendricks gave us a sort of tour of downtown Atlanta. When we got back we just played games and played with kids. This day was great just like the last few days and I'm exited to see what tomorrow brings for this group.

~Anneke De Jong