Glimpse of Day 2

Good evening! We are sitting in the midst of a beautiful Bahama breeze with a few drops of rain falling. It feels oh so good!

Today was another amazing day. Jamie and I switched worksites for the day so it's new perspectives time for the blog :)

At All Saints, our day started with finishing painting the Missions House (where mission teams/people stay on the property). The All Saints folks said it would take all week .... we finished in 2 days. Our team was a powerhouse!!! We also weeded one lady's yard so she can get to her clothesline without walking in "firewood" (aka the devil-child of poison ivy and other bad stuff ... don't worry, we're all clean from it :) After lunch, we spent the afternoon visiting residents and delivering snacks. We spent time with Miss Moxie who had each group of visitors read her Scripture. She would say it along with you when you were the one holding the Bible ... she spends her time memorizing the truths of God and it was BEAUTIFUL. She is looking much worse than last year and she asked me to read Ecclesiastes 3 ... "A time to live, a time to die" ... God was my only strength in that moment sitting there with her reading.

The Church group worked like crazy and got nothing but compliments on how HARD they worked! The # of kids at VBS doubled since yesterday .... there were about 60 kids there! While VBS was happening, some of the guys decided to start working on laying the cement slab since all the kids were contained inside. It was pure genius because they were able to get DOUBLE the cement laid than yesterday! The girls finished painting the inside of the church and is allowing for them to paint outside tomorrow.

A couple cool moments:
- Yesterday, a little boy asked Peter for water because he was thirsty and Peter had to say no. So then he asked for money and Peter said no (holding to what we've told them to do in those situations). Today, the same boy said he was thirsty so he was going to get a drink. He came back with 2 ... one for himself and one for Peter. Peter said it's the best can of soda he'll ever have in his life.

- There is a little boy named Daniel at All Saints. He writes screen plays and he wants to go to summer camp at Adventure Learning Centre (where we are staying). As of this afternoon, he had gotten sponsored for 1 week (there are 5 weeks of camp). Tonight we gave our team the challenge to help send Daniel to camp this summer. Within 5 minutes, students had handed us $335! We were able to hand the money directly to Tim and Felicia (in charge of All Saints) and they were overwhelmed!

- Yesterday, Don (our project coordinator) joined us for lunch at the church site. He said how grateful he was at how we dressed on the worksite and how respectful it is. There's not another team dressed as nice as ours! (And don't worry Brenda, that's not RY's shirt) :)

- Melissa's courage went up 100% today at All Saints. Yesterday she was quiet and stayed towards the back, not knowing what to say. Today, she was passing out snacks, laughing with residents, and having conversations. God has given her the strength to make every day at All Saints valuable and important.

- Even when our team hasn't been on clean up crew, they have helped at every meal and every set up/tear down. I am amazed at how much they are giving.

- Sean was awesome at letting some of the kids at All Saints beat him in basketball even though he just had to put his hand up to touch the hoop :)

- All the churches are starting to blend together. Currently we've got 10 people from 3 different churches around a table playing one of Josh's "hood-rat" card games and they are laughing, screaming, and enjoying each other!!!

Tomorrow is hump day .... halfway thru our week and mail call day. Your words of encouragement are about to nourish the souls of our team. Thank you! And if anyone could contact Jane Gwaltney, ask her to e-mail me John's letter to Connor at leroland05@yahoo.com because I left the print out on my desk :/

We love you all!!!!
~L