Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Please scroll down to view photos from today!
It is difficult to believe that the place we left today is the same one we looked at two night ago! Where there was nothing but sky and rain there is now a roof over most of it! The porch roof has been repaired and is ready to be covered with metal. In all that humid heat today several boys used a small sledgehammer to break up concrete steps out of June's back door (they had rebar in them too!), and then haul off the chunks of old concrete. And by the time we left, we had a new back porch all framed up, along with repairing a lot of rot on the back side of her house. Inside a lot of the youth worked on painting, killing off mold, washing down walls and ceilings, and cleaning windows inside and out. They also finished tearing up the floor in the big room and then laid new plywood sheeting on the floor. There was a LOT of work done up on the roof; that is a priority since we want to stop the rain from ruining June's house. The youth who worked up there were in the sun and heat all day, and really kept on task well.
Our devotion last night was about the time when Jesus came to the disciples walking on water, and Peter wanted to come to him across the water; then Peter panicked and started to sink, but Jesus reached out and kept him from sinking. We compared that incident to the feeling of grief (we had all talked to June, and have become familiar with the grief that she is going through; a lot of the items we are disposing for her were her son's who died just this past March). We see in this scripture that Jesus won't let us "sink," but is there to help us up. So we see our presence here and our work as a way of making the love and hope in Christ visible not only to June, but to others too. We've had numerous discussions with people here from the neighbors to people in the gas station; a couple of the youth even got talking to a young woman in the locker room at the YMCA last night about our trip, and even shared some time to talk about their faith with that woman, which was neat.
Just a note about the pictures we've been putting online. We have been taking literally hundreds of pictures daily. On the church camera, each disk holds from 25-30 pictures, and we've been using about 7-9 disks each day. Also, both Marian & Bev have digital cameras and have been taking many pictures each day that we download onto the computer. So when we get back at night and everyone else is going to bed, I go off to a corner somewhere and try to just scan through a few pictures really quickly to put online, since I'm usually exhausted too. This morning Marian and Bev and I went through the pictures to see if there were any youth who have not been pictured yet online. We found that all youth have been in the whole group shots, most of the youth have been pictured in some way for at least one day, and some have gotten in a picture or two almost every day. So I thought it might we worth a note to let you know that with 24 youth and being in a hurry each night it is tough to keep in mind who has had pictures online and who hasn't, but I will continue to try to put several group shots in each day just so you can see their activities and give you a glimpse of as many youth as possible. But if you miss seeing your child online for a day or more, I hope you'll understand and be assured that we have LOTS of pictures of every person on the trip to share/show later. Most of all, we just hope that sharing this web page with you gives you an ongoing flavor of the kinds of work we are doing, the places we are working and visiting, and most of all, that it is a way for you to grow in your faith too as you take this journey with us in spirit!
Tomorrow we are headed for the beach which is not far from us; we are planning to visit Dauphin Island. We have spoken with the local people here; it is a beach with good clean sand and a gently sloping bottom (no riptides, etc.) They are very excited about going; some of them want to see an alligator too (not where we swim, though!) We'll hope to show you some of that tomorrow night...
Blessings to you, and thanks for continuing to walk with us on this fascinating journey!
