Servin' Tuesday

Servin’ Tuesday
Today was much like yesterday afternoon. We got up about 6AM, the boys about 6:50(God and I really are going to talk about this!), and ate some breakfast. Then we loaded up and headed out. Carol and I took the girls to meet Ms. Shirley and minister at a local nursing home. Danny took the boys back to Ms. Jones house to keep moving toward our goals there.
The girls were challenged this morning and moved way out of their comfort zone. We met Ms. Shirley at church and she helped us plan a short program for the patients at the nursing home. We were asked to sing, share scripture, our testimony, and love on people that we didn’t know. To be completely honest I was uncomfortable, but in the midst of how we were feeling God gave us a place to serve his people. We sang 4-5 songs together and some of the patients even requested some old hymns for us to sing. The girls did the best they could and were great sports about singing songs they weren’t comfortable with. Then Clarissa read from I Corinthians 13 and Holly prayed. Ashlyn shared a testimony about how God has worked in her family. Then we talked to the residents about their families. The amazing thing was that we slammed two generations together in one room and God showed up! The girls were so overwhelmed with emotion they were crying. They walked into the room scared and left the room hugging the people they ministered. It was awesome.

(From Danny)
The boys got off to a good start this morning at Ms. Jones' house. Joel, Harrison, and Berek did a whole lot of painting. If you could have seen them you might have wondered if they got any paint on the walls; I think they are still picking paint off of themselves right now! In all seriousness, they did an amazing job and got most of the painting outside finished today. Adam helped me with a whole lot of clean up from yesterday's ceiling demolition. He karate-chopped all of the big pieces down smaller ones and then helped me bag it all up. All of the guys are such hard workers and I can really tell they have hearts that truly want to make a difference. It has been great getting to know all of the kids and establishing relationships that will carry on for many years to come! Thanks for sharing your kids with us, they are AMAZING (but I am sure you know that already)!!!

After a break and some lunch with our entire team, we headed back to Ms. Jones’ house.
The guys had made great progress and painted most of the outside of the house. We hung some paneling and finished working on the flower beds. Ms. Carol and Ashlyn painted the bench on the porch. We also got to hang out with Ms. Jones' extended family. Her grandkids joined us in and blended well with the team. The kids are learning lots about culture and how we're not all the same and that's ok. We have had lots of life lessons already.
We are looking forward to a well deserved day off tomorrow. We will let you know how our trip down the river goes. Thanks for servin' with us.

Quotes:
"Old people don't care if your ugly." - Holly
When talking to an elderly woman at the nursing home,"So is your family nice?"-Ashlyn
"The walls aren't square?" - Kasii (our team leader)