Miracle Day on Jackson Boulevard

Galesburg's First Christian Church experienced a mission trip on October 1, 2005. We began preparing for this trip several months ago. In order to fund the trip, church members baked bread and sold it at the local Farmer's Market every Saturday morning. The receipe was given to us by a very generous church member, Bill Jewsbury. It's been in his family for years and it has quite a following - we had a lot of repeat business each Saturday. People just love this bread! It's made with white, wheat and rye flours along with molasses and orange peel. Yum! The loaves sold for $4.00 apiece and each contained information about our church.

On mission day, seven of us left for Chicago at 4:00a.m. on Saturday morning. We traveled about 4 hours to reach the Jackson Boulevard Christian Church. Upon arrivial, we were greeted by nearly 250 Disciples of Christ members ready to work! We registered and were assigned to teams. Before we started working, we all attended a joint worship service to celebrate the day. Reverand Larry Jackson of the Jackson Boulevard Christian Church was our host. What a wonderful congregation he has! Everyone was just terrific in making us feel welcome.

I was placed on Painting Team #4 and assigned to section 4 on the third floor of the church. The walls were already primed and ready to go. We painted several rooms, a hallway and a stairwell. My arms and shoulders ached, but it was worth it doing God's work alongside his disciples. Midday I witnessed Reverand Jackson, 2 elderly gentlemen and a young girl singing hymns accapella on the sidewalk in front of the church. What a treat! Everyone, even vehicles passing by, stop to listen. I love gospel music.

On the drive back to Galesburg, me, Sally, Val and Tina chatted about our experience. We came to the conclusion we would do it again. And we would love to go back and hear Reverand Jackson preach a sermon. Praise be to God!