Monday

Okay, it was hot, really hot. We were lathered in holy sweat from breakfast on. Chris and Nick Matula arrived in good spirits Sunday night and jumped right in . After breakfast Tony Myles, one of the new New City pastors shared on the topic of humility. Coming to his car to go preach his first Sunday he had spring in his step all excited to share about the love of God. He found his car had been broken into and the dash was ripped apart with the radio gone. Humble circumstances is a written and practiced core value at New City.

Monday morning tutoring was a bit chaotic. They added a sports camp so it is a split day with half the group doing tutoring in the morning and the other half doing sports camp then after lunch they switch. I introduced my crazy walk in teaching character Jimmy Cardio McBones. (A cousin to last years Dr. Vinnie Bones) I'm a brightly colored washed up sports hero sharing a message about muscles, aerobic fitness, exercise, stretching etc., with a bunch of goofy lines.

Chris helped me do the wood buy at Home Depot to build the swingset at the N. Hodiamont apartments where we do Kidz Klub. Ray Asplund loaned us his trailer which can accommodate 12 foot lumber, it works well. We are loaded with tools and games and spend plenty of time in the trailer.

The difficult first stage of the swingset – building the basic frame was our days task. We worked late getting it built. My Makita drill short circuited and caught fire briefly. The cause of the fire is under investigation. But the cordless Makita stepped up its game to handle the large holes. We had a partial crew digging holes to set the swingset in during Kidz Klub. Some of the Iraqi dads helped us. There is much rubble in the ground – concrete, asphalt, stone, and old garbage. There were, as you might expect, many little helpers who wanted in on digging. By the grace of God we got the set in, leveled, and the footings concreted. The kids are very excited.

We have a group of four adults from a St. Louis area church. Richard, Jin, Jon, and Charlene are wonderful younger adults who are our partners during Kidz Klub and evening devos. Richard helped me rig some wires for the music system when we didn't have the right adapters. They also picked up the concrete for us. After Klub we did a slushee run to the local Quik Trip (no relation). The St. Louis group went Chinese. We sat around sharing stories and encouragements over Icees and Crab Rangoon. It was great. They are terrific partners with us as we play, laugh, dance, listen, and love at the apartments. Again, over 50 kids and adults. A young woman (20 something) was talking to Ruby asking why we would work in the heat building swings and throwing a party for people we don't even know. She shared about New City and had a meaningful conversation. Lori and Sara got the Love Shack dance party going with a number of the kids. Joy is contagious.

Mike