Join Us Tonight

We’ll be broadcasting the evening worship session live tonight, at 6:30 PM EDT.

Looking for Someone?

I thought I’d give a brief, behind-the-scenes look at how we go about collecting photos and videos for the week.

We have two volunteers, Roger and Katie, who are our photographer and videographer respectively. Roger is a professional photographer who specializes in the wildlife and landscapes of West Michigan. If you get a chance, browse through his photos as they provide a wonderful glimpse into Michigan’s natural beauty. Roger’s been our photographer for every Serve, going back four years now.

Katie is one of the technology team’s newest volunteers. She’s armed with her Flip video camera and charged with finding the stories at each work site. In that sense, she’s really a video journalist/storyteller and she’s been doing an awesome job.

We try very hard to get every Serve participant as the week progresses, as we know they all have friends and family back home who are looking for them. Unfortunately it’s a tricky job as a particular group’s work site assignment can change from day to day or even hour to hour. The team may show up at a work site to film a group they haven’t seen before, only to find that the group has moved on and the current group is one they got the day before. Bear with us as we try to make sure we get everyone – if there’s someone you just can’t find, send them a message and tell them to jump in front of the camera!

One reminder: we have many more photos than what we highlight here at the Serve site. To browse all the photos, head over to our Flickr account and peruse through the entire collection. You might just find that special person you’re looking for!

58 And Counting

We received 58 messages to the participants yesterday. That’s fabulous, but I bet we can break 100 in a single day by the end of the week. Share the site with your friends, grandparents, aunts & uncles, strangers at the grocery store…

Send A Bit O’ Home

It’s the first full day of Serve and the messages to Serve participants are already rolling in. Just a reminder that you can send your friends, family, and loved ones a brief bit of encouragement by using the form on the left.

Here’s how these messages work: after you send them they get e-mailed to a printer at the church. Each day volunteers come in while the participants are out at the work sites. They take the printed messages and put them in mailboxes that each participant has, along with a small gift from a prayer partner at a local church.

One of the highlights each day is coming “home” from the work sites – each group will swing by the mailboxes to pick up their messages for the day. Let’s make sure everyone has something to look forward to in the mailbox each day!

A Day Off

Friday has traditionally been a day to take off and do something fun for the SERVE participants. For Muskegon SERVE, that means a day at the Grand Haven State Park, with its beautiful beach and picturesque pier. The beach is connected to downtown Grand Haven via a nice walk along the Grand River (Grand Haven is where the Grand empties into Lake Michigan). Both the riverwalk and downtown boast various sights, artwork, and some good shopping.

Alas, today was a red flag day at the beach, which means “there is the potential for rip currents, powerful currents that can pull swimmers out into deep water.” Consequently swimming was ruled out, so most of the participants took the opportunity to explore around town. Even though Muskegon SERVE is fast coming to a close, keep checking back for photos from the day off as well as the last few videos.