Thursday, Part 2

Construction work today was basically part 2 of what we started. More tree moving, more spackling, and more sheetrock hanging. One thing that was very cool to see was that there was a group of mentally challenged students from one of the local Boys and Girls Clubs chapters came to help us out. There was wonderful ministry going on both ways in that they were such a blessing to us helping us rake up some leaves, and our kids really took a shine to them and helped them feel special and important. You could see them smile as they left the work site. I was particularly proud of Sharon and Ashley. While they continued their work on moving the ‘manly logs’, the three of us took it up a notch. We had a part of a tree trunk that the three of us carried together. Not only was it heavy, it was slimy and had fungus growing on it. After the official “that’s disgusting” declaration, we all sucked it up and grabbed the log. All three of us were like “Eww, Oww! Eww! Eww! Owwww! Ow!” the whole way, but we got it done and we all felt accomplished. It was even more amazing to watch the piles of logs dwindle down to piles of pine needles. One thing I’m kicking myself for is not getting a picture of all the wood that we moved. I stepped back and took a look at it, and I was in shock in how much wood we had moved in about seven hours worth of work between the two days. We actually moved all the wood we had to, so we then helped Pastor Lenny’s family out by filling boxes of stuff and moving boxes from one house to another. It was just awesome to think of how much of a blessing our team was to them. We figure that in about two days, our team saved Pastor Lenny and his family between one and two months of work!
Another thing that we got to do that was really special was to be an extended family to Jonathan. Pastor Lenny adopted a few new children this past year from a single father who was terminally ill; the father died very soon after the adoption process had been completed. Jonathan was one of those kids, and Thursday was his first birthday without his biological father. The team stepped in, John Long bought a birthday cake, and the whole team got together and sung him happy birthday. Jonathan isn’t one of those kids who wears his heart on his sleeve, but as I took the picture of Jonathan making the first cut on the cake, I could tell that it meant the world to him that we were all there for him. It was great for our team to be Jesus to him.
With the exception of ‘the Dans’, Glen, Andy, and a few other guys who stayed behind, the team went back to the cabins for dinner.
After dinner, we had a time of reflection and debriefing on our observations on this trip and the things that we had learned. It was wonderful to hear so many of the students give testimonies of things that had blessed them over the week, and the surprise from the people who had been a part of those changes and never knew it. Judy and Jessica, your comment wins the award for the most laughter and best face of any comment i read - the 'mailbag' sessions were great this week as a whole; it was something many of the kids looked forward to. Thanks to everyone who left me comments to read aloud, as well as all the personal thank-yous. Once that reflection session was completed, we went to our rooms and started to clean up and pack up.

Thursday, Part 2