I went with Reid and 7 students to the Boston Rescue Mission Kingston House, which is a halfway house for people coming out of detox or prison.  We immersed ourselves into the lives of the residents; sharing living quarters, joining them for meals, going to Bible study and AA meetings with them – it was an amazing experience!  It was good for all of us to learn how to relate to people who circumstantially are so different from us (rape, abuse, heroin, stealing, prison, etc), but yet their base need for a Savior is just the same as ours.  We also were humbled by their honesty in needing help – we all are in desperate need of saving from our sin, but for those in rehab the sin is obvious and external; for myself and most of the students on the team our need for saving is internal and in our pride we like to keep it that way.

Here’s a picture of all of us with the residents at Kingston:

I’m also thankful for the opportunity to spend 8 days with a key group of younger students in the ministry and the chance to study the Bible together, live in rehab together, and laugh a ton.  On the drive back we stopped at Niagara Falls (which was deserted and freezing this time of year) just long enough to take a group shot and jump back in the van.  Here we are:

Spring Break in Boston! Seven Northwestern College students spent their entire spring break in Boston at the Boston Rescue Mission. Boston Rescue Mission is a half- way house. At Boston Rescue Mission there were men who were recovering drug addicts, and alcoholics; and the women there had just been released from prison. At the house they also offered a program for homeless men in the city. The program was highly structured to provide a healthy environment to help these people recover.
Most days as a team we would have Bible study training and share about people and conversation we have had the previous day. Then we would return to the Boston Rescue Mission for lunch with everyone at the mission, followed by helping in daily chores. The rest of the day was spent interacting and building relationships with men and women at the mission.
Many of the students on the trip had chances to share their faith and for a lot of them this was their first time doing so. The people at the mission were very open about life experiences, which made conversations easy to engage in. Pray for the men and women at Boston Rescue Mission that the Lord would use our conversations to change their hearts, and also that the team from the University of Minnesota that is there now can continue to share the good news of hope we have in Jesus Christ!