Nashville
Follow along as our students go out to impact their world for Christ!
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Monday
by Amy Wallace, NCCS Choral Director
Starting with a quick stop to Buc-ee's, our team was geared up for a full day! Nashville greeted us with a beautiful dusting of snow! We loved it! We had some delicious choices at the Nashville Farmer's Market for lunch. Then we headed over to the Country Music Hall of Fame, where half of us went to learn more about the Hatch Print Shop, while the other half toured the museum. Both groups learned how unique the Hatch Print Shop is and how it still does every stencil by hand, making the perfect and iconic concert poster. We even got to make our own print. "Listen for that sizzle!" became our anthem, referring to the paint and the roller coming together before you apply the paint to the stencil.
We had a great team-building experience at Kroger, as each house came together to figure out their breakfast and snack supplies for the week. One of our cashiers though Parker Holbrook reminded her of Slash from Guns 'n Roses! She was a rocker herself!
We finally made it to our houses, unloaded in the freezing wind, and unpacked.
After a bite of pizza, we headed over to Opry Mills Mall for the Escape Rooms. We split into 3 teams to solve the challenges given. So fun ... all three teams escaped!
And lastly, we closed out the night with a devotional by senior Dominic Bunch Collins. Dominic had us looking at Galatians 6:6-10 where he challenged us not to "grow weary in doing good" and to serve with a joyful heart this week. The team chimed in, encouraging each other to keep their eyes on serving one another with a heart of gratitude.
We also read our letters from our sweet second grade prayer partners from Mrs. Romine and Mrs. Leclair's classes. We're so thankful for the sweet encouragement they sent us!
TUESDAY
by Amy Wallace, NCCS Choral Director
Another awesome full day! After making their own breakfast in their homes (some kiddos went ALL out!), we headed to Lipscomb University for a campus tour and lunch. It was so encouraging to hear both of our tour guides, one a junior and one a freshman, speak so boldly about their faith and how the Lord made it clear that Lipscomb was the school for them. Mrs. Flournoy and I even met the man behind the voice of Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales, Mike Nawrocki! He's a professor at Lipscomb! The kiddos enjoyed a full meal deal in the Bison Cafe afterwards.
From there, we headed to downtown Nashville to learn about the amazing outreach ministry of Rocketown. Rocketown was started and supported by Christian artist, Michael W. Smith, after the Columbine shooting in 1999. He wanted kids to "have a place to go" where they could connect in a safe environment. Our kiddos slid down one of the ramps of the huge indoor skate park. We learned about a large concert venue that is on the campus where the outreach offers all kinds of music paired with a gospel message before the night is over. They also offer free recording sessions for musicians and artists to use the state-of-the-art music studio that is there. And the kids really loved the gaming room that has several computers set up with all the latest games on them. So many fun ways to reach the community.
We worked with Donny Klostermeier, Senior Director of Programs & Outreach, as well as Braden Hammond, Programs Director. After touring the facility with us, these gentlemen put our team to work painting bathrooms, cleaning, and painting the skate park. We didn't quite finish, so we are headed back there tomorrow morning.
After painting, we walked downtown to the National Museum of African American Music where the team learned the heritage of so many of their favorite songs. Some of the kids even composed their own beats and tracks!
We ate dinner at the new Luke Combs "Category 10" restaurant, formally known as the "Wildhorse Saloon." I was bummed they didn't have line dancing tonight!
After dinner, we walked down the famous Broadway street, hearing all the live music in the honky tonks, and back to our bus. We then headed to Belonging Co to be part of their Tuesday night service. We were blown away to learn it was an all-music service! What a blessing!
Picking up a little Cook-Out late night snack (and a milkshake to celebrate Khalaia Brown's sweet 16 birthday; the whole restaurant sang with us!), we headed back to the houses for our nightly team devotion led by Parker Holbrook. Parker encouraged the team from Mark 10:45 focusing on service. "How does Jesus' example of serving others inspire how WE should serve?" LOTS of Jesus sightings today in the things we did and experienced! Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds!
WEDNESDAY
by NCCS student, Ashlynn Meskimen
This morning we started the day with breakfast at the homes and immediately went back to Rocketown. We served there for a couple more hours to finish up the projects we had been working on yesterday. Rocketown was such an amazing experience, with the fun atmosphere and the encouraging people working there. It was so welcoming and the people made sure we were taken care of and got what we needed.
After we finished up, we went to the food hall on broadway and there were so many options. There was a crepe, sushi, burger, pizza place, and so many others. The workers there were so nice and were so helpful when we needed anything.
Following this, we headed to the busses and went to The Baked Bear which was a dessert place. The two workers were super friendly and didn't complain that 25 kids plus adults walked in ready to order. I saw this as a model that we should follow while serving, that we should serve happily and not complain when the work is hard.
From there, we went to Franklin and met with the amazing Francesca Battistelli to listen to her past experiences with music and her faith journey. It was really cool to listen how worship affected her songwriting and the rest of her career.
When we finished up, we all went to Puckett's to grab some dinner and like last night, there was live music there that kept us entertained. We eventually headed back to the houses for our devotion, led by seniors Casey Lewis and Caden Dollar. Casey focused on the story of Martha and Mary, specifically Luke 10:38-42, which was centered on the idea that serving others is also serving God. Other points were that we shouldn't use service for prideful purposes and that we shouldn't let stress take away from serving. Caden went a different route and talked about why Spring Term is important and the devotional was based around 1 Peter 4:10-11. The main point was to always make the best of Spring Term, have fun, take advantage of the experiences, and do it all for God!