Welcome to our Canton update page!
.:check here for daily updates:.
Sunday blog // Sunday pictures
Monday blog // Monday pictures
Tuesday blog // Tuesday pictures
Wednesday blog // Wednesday pictures
Thursday blog // Thursday pictures
Friday blog // Friday pictures
We are here! We arrived safe and sound. The students are full of energy and enthusiasm...always a great way to start a trip! We had our first education session with Darin Nissley, the Director of the Lighthouse, tonight and also played some group games.
Now it is time to head to bed so we can get up bright and early to start the week off right....going down to McKinley Monument to watch the sunrise! :)
Monday update:
Here's our updates for the day:
My name is Garrett Reynolds and today we learned about how to help people. One group went out and fed people tacos at the local Canton Calvary Mission and a third group went to Stark Social Workers Network. Another group went out and helped set up a new school called Imagine. The school was really nice now that it is organized and dusted. Their goal is to get at least 275 kids enrolled in it. They want to be able to get your 1st grader to be at least half way into their second grade year. They want to get all the kids ahead so they will be more successful. We played some fun games called virus and learned about perspective. That's about it hope tomorrow is just as fun.
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My name is Jessica Linville. We all woke up at 5 in the morning to see the sun rise so we have been up for 18 hours and none of us act tired. Our group has such unity. My group went to Canton Calvary Mission. We served tacos and pears to the kids. I met this one girl named Trishalin and she inspired me. She was so joyful despite her school having a 98.5% poverty rate. She was very friendly and loved my hair. Today's been really long but it has been so amazing. Nothing has gone wrong, everyone is going the extra mile.
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My name is Josh Nolen, and I am one of the volunteer leaders for the team. Waking up this morning to watch the sunrise was a great change of pace for my life. I like to watch the sunrise from time to time, but have not done so recently. It was beautiful, and I also gained some perspective for the city of Canton. Sitting atop the monument gave me a different view of the city, one that I rarely have experienced. I thought a lot about what my role should be in reaching out to be a part of positive growth in Canton. It was also helpful for me to spend a few minutes in prayer to bring focus for the day. The service project of which I was a part was a very rewarding experience. The six students in my group worked diligently to complete task to prepare the Imagine School for a community open house and for the upcoming school year. I am proud of the diligence displayed by the students as they worked in the heat and worked to transform the school. Nate and Kennan at the school were so thankful for our work. I found myself challenged by some of the comments shared by Nate as he talked about how he and his wife worked to become "incarnate missionaries" in their community. They not only work with people in the community but live with them as neighbors. Very cool. I also enjoyed the time at Anderson Creative. It was informative and inspiring. Overall, it was great day.
Tuesday update:
Hi I’m Josh. Today we went to the Sluggers and Putters for a field trip with some of the kids from the Lighthouse. My kid was challenging but he was fun. Just so you know challenging is the word of the day. This day was indeed challenging. Then we went to Refuge of Hope. We interviewed some men with homeless experience. They really cleared things up about that topic.
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Hello everyone, it’s Leah Bailey JThis morning started off with a van tour of the city. We saw public housing complexes. It was really neat to see parts of the city that I had not seen before. After the tour, we came back to the Lighthouse. The children were already there waiting for us. We all got matched up with a “buddy” from the Lighthouse. When everyone got to Sluggers & Putters, we were instructed to stay with that buddy all day. My buddy’s name was Kiyanna and she had a loud personality, similar to mine so we had a great time mini golfing, driving like mad in the bumper cars, and getting soaked in the bumper boats. All the kids were super full of joy and I had so much fun getting to spend a little part of my day with them. They had incredibly funny jokes to tell and raps to sing. After getting back from our mini field trip, we went to Refuge of Hope and spoke to some of the men there. The interviews were not long but the men got the chance to share their stories with us. I had the privilege of hearing 3 stories and each one taught me a different lesson. All stories were extremely touching and put tears in my eyes. It was so cool to be able to take a break and listen. Today was a great day and I am looking forward to learning and serving the rest of the week.
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Hey, it’s Christine. Today was a great day. It was wonderful to see the interaction between the Flipd students and the Lighthouse students. The students did a great job interacting with one another and seemed to really enjoy each other. I have been very impressed with how much growth I have seen already throughout this week. We stretched their comfort zones tonight by taking them to Refuge of Hope and talk to a few men and hear their stories. The students did a wonderful job asking questions and really listening to the men’s stories. During group time tonight it was good to hear their thoughts and experiences from the night. I am looking forward more growth and more stories to come!
Wednesday update:
I’m Mitch and today we went to Gladys’ and did lawn work then we went to fireworks.
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Hi. This is EMMAWEE DEVAWHOA! Today, we did a project that separated us into groups with a leader. We all took different bus routes and did some walking. The goal was to disguise ourselves as someone in poverty and see what a usual day was like for them. In my group was Alyssa, Noah, Koty and our leader, Lindsey. We first went to the Canton Calvary Mission and went through their food bank, everyone was overall kind, although some of them seemed to be suspicious. For the rest of the project we had to go around town carrying bags, taking them on the bus and other buildings. Then we went to the basement to have lunch that was open for all families who needed it. Having lunch at Canton Calvary kind of opened my eyes as to how much easier it is for us, even when it seems like it’s not. We can decide when we want to eat, what we eat and how much we eat. On the other hand, for these people it may be the only time they are guaranteed a full meal. After that, we had to catch a bus to go to Social Security. We then, took a number there, waited until it was called, and left. Then we all met back at Lighthouse and talked about our experiences. After that, we left as a group to go to a member of the Mennonite Church named Gladys’ house and some of us did outside work. I was on the inside with most of the girls and we transported all of the furniture in her bedroom to her living room and mopped her bedroom and then returned most of the stuff back. Then, we came back to the Lighthouse and played games with a group of people from another church. And then, we went Downtown and saw fireworks with Joel.
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Hey everyone, it’s Christine again. It was another great day. The students were able to experience a little more about how it is to live in poverty. Not only did the groups split up and do what Emily stated above but we also played a game “Game of Life.” In this game we rolled dice to see how many people were in our family and how much money we made. Throughout the game we had to figure out whether we were on Welfare or qualified for Section 8 and then how much money each of our expenses would take. At the end of the game we were able to see how much it took for a family to live on and how hard it could be for a family with limited income to survive. The students were very interested in how much on average their families spend on groceries, utilities, and entertainment in comparison to how much they had to spend in the game. We wrapped the night up by going to downtown to see the fireworks. Tomorrow we will be doing service projects for the majority of the day.
Andrew Miller
Today we woke up at 7:20 to have a meeting with the guys which changed all of our attitudes towards the trip in a better way. We had a great breakfast made by Mrs. Boggs and I think Mrs. Beavers. It was really good, we had breakfast pizza and fruit. Then Josh Nolen’s group went to Gladys’s house a lady we helped yesterday and they did a lot of work. Then the rest of us stayed at the Lighthouse and did a bunch of work around here. Like cleaning up the graveyard, mowing the grass, trimming hedges, and painting tables with oil paint (which is really hard to get off your hands and arms). Everybody was happy and cooperative with the leaders even they had to switch jobs or groups. We made the graveyard look so much better and the table looks really good. Then we went to this place with people that helped the public and made art for shows and First Friday. The leaders finally took us to Muggswigs which is the best coffee shop in all of Canton. When we came home we had dinner also made by Mrs. Boggs and Mrs. Beavers. Pasta and sauce it was great. After dinner we had some time to ourselves to do what we want and Peter talked to some of the guys about some amazing stuff in the Bible I never knew about before. Later after quiet time we had what I think was the most serious and altering quiet/prayer time. We had nine stations and nobody was allowed to talk. It was just you and God. I think it touched everybody in their own way and God reached out to everybody guiding them in whatever they were praying about in the special time. Today had to be the best day of the week so far and the most I’ve really appreciated everybody. I can’t wait to get home and sleep in my own bed and to relax for awhile.
Hi, it’s Hayley Bolanz. Today my group of me, Leah, Keegan, Garrett, and our leader Josh Nolen, went to Gladys’s house to weed, mulch, and plant roses. The rest of the groups stayed at The Lighthouse, and did a lot of work in the cemetery behind our building; and much more. I weeded and mulched a huge flower bed while Leah and Keegan removed a ton of weeds from a section at the back of her house. Garrett edged the sidewalk and Josh planted roses and weeded as well. Josh was always there to help everyone, like Superman (: I commend Leah for pulling out thorn bushes and getting pricked about 100 times, without gloves. I also commend Garrett, for pulling poison ivy off of a tree, with my glove, but it was still pretty dangerous. Then Leah and I had to mulch the big section Keegan and her removed weeds from, then put all of the weeds into about 10 bags. It was a long, hard day, and it was nice to get rewarded by being able to get a shower; even though it was only because we touched poison ivy. Later this evening we did an activity called Prayer Path. Here we had 9 stations to travel to and pray and think about things in our lives. It was really nice to have as much time as we want to pray about these things. Especially since I got done at about 11:30, and now when I am typing this, after 12 a.m. What really stuck out to me the most was when we read about a passage in Deuteronomy. I interpreted this as thinking of a person I could pray for. The first person that came to my mind was a little girl named Janel that I was buddies with when we went to Sluggers and Putters. I realized that after this experience I will probably never see her again. And I realize that the place she lives in isn’t the best in the world and may not always be the safest. I just asked God to keep her safe, and to be with her through the rest of her life. It makes me sad to think I could never see her again, but she was such a blessing in my life that I will never forget her, even when she drove me around in bumper cars. (It’s scary that she is better than me at driving those things; especially since she is half my age!) But when we did the prayers, it felt comforting to know we were doing this with people we were really close with. We were all there for one another. It felt good to have someone’s hand on your shoulder when you were crying. I’m glad to be part of such a loving group. Well, I think I am going to go sleep on my tiny pew now. It will be great to come home. I’ll see you all … today! Oh goodness! This came really fast! But Goodnight! Or Good morning! However you would like to see it (:
