Last Full Day

It feels like just yesterday that we were making scones for our holiday tea, auctioning off cake and pie, and parking cars. And now as we reflect on how our journey went and prepare for a grueling day of travel, we thank you for your continued support of this trip. Whether you made lemon curd for the tea, bought a lot of ham rolls, let us wash your car, let us watch your kid(s), were a prayer partner, donated your talent to our talentless night, followed our blog, gave us information about the Civil Rights Movement, participated in our panel discussion, or did EVERYTHING (like our parents and our leaders), we really appreciate you. We would not be where we are today had it not been for all the different types of support that we recieved. We hope that you realize how much we appreciate the support and guidance on our journey. 

So how did we spend our final day in Montgomery? We began the day with fellowship and breakfast at our lovely host church of St. John's Montgomery. People greeted us like old friends and we saw a lot of new faces and some familiar faces. Dee from our Rebuilding Together project was at church, and in the choir. We even sat with his wife at the 10:30 service. Fittingly the gospel reading was of the feeding of the 5,000 ( or of the 12,500) and the sermon stressed hunger and being fed. This was fitting because that afternoon we would be going to One Church Mission to feed the hungry. Its fitting too however, because the sermon also discussed spiritual hunger and a deeper hunger for something in your life. Thats a huge part of what a pilgrimage is, or at least how I understood it, that we are learning about ourselves in a way that allows us to feed ourselves and cultivate hunger in the way that the 5,000 were fed. 

After the service we rushed upstairs to change and took the long way to a Sam's Club in order to buy paper products for a ministry called One Church Mission or Reality and Truth. Three carts full of supplies later we loaded our Suburban back to front and brought all of it to the building that is One Church. 

When we got to One Church we unloaded all the goods and did various tasks for Ms. Pam (we were so busy working we didn't take any pictures). At 5 o'clock about 100 men, women, and children came to get a free meal provided by Grace Point Church of Christ, and served by us. We were joined there by the St. John's director of Youth Ministries and one of their youth. We served rice, meat, salad, and fruit. We restocked the bookshelves with books provided by Christ Church Blacksburg and gaveout children's   books. After we had fed everyone else, we joined with our new friends from the St. John's youth group and went to dinner. It was a lovely evening and it made us sad that our journey was coming to a close. There is no way that this blog could encompass all the stories we have to tell. See you soon Blacksburg!

- 2014 Youth Pilgrim Group to Alabama

Day 5!

The first stop on our agenda today was visiting the Selma Interpretative Center. There Gwyneth met a woman, Joanne Bland, she was about 11 years old when the Montgomery to Selma march was occurring. She said, "I remember everyone speaking in terms of when we get our freedom..." It was great hearing her story from the point of view of a child while all of this was happening. Our next stop was walking the Edmund Pettus Bridge, it was a rather short walk but was over a beautiful river. We walked in silence remembering all the people who had walked right where we were walking.

We stopped for a  late lunch in downtown Montgomery and headed to The Courthouse where Martin Luther gave his speech. We walked to the top where he delivered his speech, taking turns we read a part of the speech and ended in unison. It was a great way to end a wonderful day. Stay tuned for more of our trip!

Equal Justice Initiative Alabama Day 4

Today we were blessed to meet the people from the Equal Justice Initiative who told us about their unique programs for juvenile and death row clients.  This was a nice balance of modern racial issues and our civil rights knowledge.  After lunch we went to the Civil Rights Museum and signed a petition to end injustice to the best of our abilities.

By placing my name on the Wall of Tolerance, I pledge to take a stand against hate, injustice and intolerance. I will work in my daily life for justice, equality and human rights - the ideals for which the Civil Rights martyrs died.

Then we went to the Rosa Parks Museum which has many interactive exhibits and learned about the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Rebuilding Together in Montgomery Alabama Day3

Not knowing exactly what you're volunteering yourself to do is difficult. It requires a certain breed of bravery, something we've learned a lot about so far in Alabama. Because whether its showing up at Mrs. P's home and clearing trash and painting, letting strangers read to you, or staying in your bus seat even though society says that you should give it to the white man, going at it alone and being brave is hard. 

This morning we arrived at the home of Mrs. P and five other generations of her family, we got a list of things to do from Dee at Rebuilding Together. We worked all morning scraping paint off of metal awnings and making enough noise to wake Little M, Mrs. P's six year old great-great-grandson. He was brave enough to let us know that we had woken him up. As the morning progressed and we moved on to painting and priming the same little voice asked through the window if we were coming back the next day. "No sir" we kindly replied. And as we readied ourselves to leave for lunch; we found the books we had planned on taking to the homeless mission and thought how nice it would be to give Little M a book. So the Americorps vista, Ashely, that was onsite with us, went inside and asked if he would like to come out and meet us. When he arrived outside we offered him two books and chatted with him for awhile. He mused about Transformers, talking vehicles, and being lonely. You could just tell that he was so happy to be paid attention to. And as I read to him from "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" I found myself becoming so happy that he had been brave enough to venture out and say hi. His visit became the highlight of my day, and it made finishing the painting of his home after lunch all the more satisfying. 

Alabama Pilgrimage, Day 2- Birmingham

Our first full day in Alabama took place in Birmingham. This town contains, most famously, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, site of a bombing which killed four young girls during the Civil Rights movement.
Our day, however, started with a trip to Vulcan Park, which contains a large statue of the Roman God Vulcan, God of the forge. This statue is the largest Iron statue in the world, and was amazing to see. Usually people can go up to the top of the large tower on which he resides and see the whole of Birmingham beneath them, but we went early this morning, so that part of the Park wasn't open yet. There wasn't much to see in Vulcan park, so we left not long after our morning prayer.

Next, after a quick trip to the visitor's center, we went to Kelly Ingram Park, which contained a self-guided tour of several statues depicting scenes from the Civil Rights movement. It was a very beautiful park, and a nice, relaxing way to start our day.
The Kelly Ingram Park was right next to both the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institution, so next we went to the church. We learned a bit about the bombing, and also a beautiful stain glass window designed by a Welsh man for the church after the bombing depicting the way African Americans suffered during that time, but also containing religious connotations.

Once we had finished with the church we moved across the street to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institution. It was like a museum of the Civil Rights Movements containing footage, models, news articles, etc. The footage and news articles were from before, during, and after the movement and its laws were passed. The models were interesting displays, the earlier ones showing the segregation, and the way there weren't "separate but equal" as they were supposed to be, later were things like a full size part of a bus that was bombed, a model of a jail cell, etc.
The Civil Rights Institution was really interesting. Though it was a long self-guided tour, int was incredibly informative and interesting, containing mediums of information that could appeal to everyone depending on what they preferred.
Cameras weren't allowed in the museum, so we don't have any pictures.
After that we were done in Birmingham and drove to Montgomery. We've just gotten settled in our next spot for the night, St. John's Episcopal Church. We'll be staying here for the next few nights, and it's beautiful. You could fit about three of our church in here.

'Bama Bound

Today was the first official day of our pilgrimage, a day filled with music, truck stops, astronauts, and kittens.  We arrived safely in Birmingham and we have plans to visit several historical sites in the city tomorrow.  After that, we will travel to Montgomery, where we will spend the remainer of our trip.  We will be posting pictures and blogs daily (facebook.com/christchurchpilgrims), but will be focused mostly on the pilgrimage itself.
                                                   

The Final Chapter (of the preparations)

Today, we met in the library and went over the final itinerary for our week in Alabama.  In the coming week we have a lot of packing and prepping to do.  While we are there, we will be giving books to the homeless and we are inviting each parish family to donate a book. We are looking to pack light and we want books for every age range. We hope that you can donate and support us on our Pilgrimage. During the trip we will be blogging regularly at christchurchpilgrimage.blogspot.com please follow us and keep up with our journey. we woud love to hear from you in the comments.