The Pittsburgh Project: Day 1

What a great day! To start at the end - we are all safe and in good spirits. The boys are getting along great and we’re enjoying getting to know each other a little better. 

We got an early start this morning - my alarm had not been set that early in quite some time. Assisted by caffeine, we set off from the church this morning. Our journey went quite smoothly! We stopped for lunch at this little place called Chick-Fil-A (maybe you’ve heard of it) before arriving at 2801 North Charles Street, home of the Pittsburgh Project. 

We settled into our bunk rooms before heading to a large group mixer. Our students joined the 200 other junior highers and adult leaders for a great time for worship and learning from the Word. The band is amazing! They played two songs by Hillsong Young & Free and had the whole place jumping! 

Our speaker for the week is Dennis Allan, a pastor at North Way Christian Community here in Pittsburgh. Dennis was the lead youth pastor there when I worked at the same church part-time in college. It was a complete and welcome surprise to learn that we would be here at the Pittsburgh Project at the same time! He will be sharing messages with us this week on the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6. It is something that many of us have memorized - we can recite it the same way we can our address and phone number. The negative consequence of this is that it can lose its meaning. We hope to recapture the amazing reminders and truths that Jesus taught us through that prayer.

Dinner was our first meal here - hamburgers and hot dogs! Hard to complain. After dinner, we got to our real purpose of being here. We hopped in the bus and drove out to the Hill District of Pittsburgh to meet our homeowner Aliene. She is an 86 year old widow whose home is in need of repair. And that’s what we’re here for! We spent a few minutes talking with Aliene and praying with her for the week ahead.

Our late evening consisted of free time - lots of fun things to do here! Foosball, four square, air hockey, ping pong, billards, board games, etc. Things have finally settled down as I type this in a dark room, shushing the giggles around me. 

Please pray for the work ahead of us on Tuesday! Not just the physical things we’ll be doing with our hands, but the relationship we will be building with Aliene, and the work the Holy Spirit will be doing within us!

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