Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Day Three, and our Feet Hurt! :)

Hello from the great state of Tennessee, and Georgia, and North Carolina. (We are never really sure where we are since the state line's aren't clearly defined. Thank goodness for Gertie & Samantha!)

We had another very productive day. The second house we moved on to was owned by Minister Galloway and his wife. They had us tear down their old back porch and steps and rebuild them with better lumber. We also tore out their front porch screening and rails to replace with fresh lumber. It was HOT today! When we went on our 'courtesy' break (as John A calls them) the radio stated it was 96 degrees with a high humidity index. We all just laughed because we knew that already.

Emily, John, & Sara helped Erich build the back porch, and did most of the work by themselves! They were phenomenal with the power screwdriver! Daniel, Olivia, and Megan used the power table saw to cut the wood to the desired sizes. (No one cut their fingers off, and they wasted very little wood! I was impressed with how well Megan picked up the tool, since she hadn't used a saw before!) Caitlin, Maureen, and Alanna scraped, and scraped, and scraped the peeling paint off of the porches so we can give them a fresh coat tomorrow. Brady, John, and Sarah worked on the front porch, and all of us cleaned the siding on the house, cleaned up the yard, and drank tons and tons of water/powerade. I got to float around with Kelly helping out where needed.

When we were tearing down the old screened in porch, Brady salvaged some of the used screen to bring back to camp with us. (The girls have to keep the windows shut in their cabin due to not having screens, so last night no one slept. It was awful hot with the door and windows shut with just two fans!) Daniel helped us duct-tape the screens to the outside of our windows, and it is much cooler!

While on the work site, we found out that Team Effort didn't have screws for the deck, so we made an executive decision to go to Home Depot to get some. (Sorry Dad, no Lowe's around town.) I drove with Maureen and Alanna through town and Gertie told me to take a couple of back roads. It was the scariest drive I have ever made. The van is very large and the roads are very small. So small that the two way street wasn't quite wide enough for the van, let alone two cars and it had a hairpin turn at the bottom. We made it safely without any accidents, so after a quick thank you to God, I told Gertie to find me another way back. :)

We get back to the work site and John A meets me at the door of the van. This has never happened before, so I should have known it was going to be an issue. He had a little situation with the drill and needed a bandaid for his finger. I thought he needed to have it looked at, but since he was an adult, I got over-ruled. hehe. He seems fine tonight though, and said that it only throbs a little. (It must be a boy thing. . . .Just Kidding!)

After we got back to camp, the teens played volleyball with Promise, and then we went to the outpost for dinner. (Tonight was mostacolli with garlic bread and corn. Yummy, but no one ate too much because it was to hot.) After dinner, we taught Promise to play SPUD until the heavens opened up and dumped water all over us. :) It was very refreshing, but made walking up the cliff to our cabins a little challenging.

After a quick, yet wet run to the chapel, we had our worship and group time. I let the teens know how proud of them I was and that they needed to keep up their good work for God. We also talked about Kelly and Promise asking them questions about the Catholic faith. (They knew tons of answers and were spreading the Good News! Our teens rock!) Since the Catholic Bible is different from other religions bibles (we have more books), they asked to see one of ours. We had brought a few extra in case some of the teens forgot theirs (which they didn't), so we all signed two of them and will give one to each of our counselors later in the week.

I keep telling you how great the teens are, yet I forget to mention how great our leaders are. Erich, Maureen, and John are wonderful teachers and have the patience of JOB! They taught our teens how to use power tools safely, and are very respectful when speaking with them. I only bring up the respect issue because of an incident tonight at worship. One of the other groups was acting up, and was bothering the people around them who were trying to participate. One of their leaders got angry and literally cussed at them while the rest of us praying. I probably should have said something, but was to shocked to even move, let alone respond. We prayed for the teen and the leaders and hope that tomorrow is a much better day for their group. (And thanked God for our WONDERFUL Adult Team!)

Hope to have lots more ton share tomorrow, but now it's time to hike back to our cabins! Hope all is well at home! XOXO

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for blogging despite the rains! Glad our group is not like the other one. We are proud of all of you!

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