Buildin' & diggin' (High School Work Trip, Day 3)

By the time the sun found us this morning, we were midway through our breakfast and soon on our way back to The Source. Today we were mostly split into two groups - Alyssa was solo, and helping staff sort through clothes that had been donated and were completely disorganized, and Ryan C continued to help put up soffit miles above the surface of the earth - but e rest of us either worked on porch building or hill digging.



The Diggers: "We dug most of the way to China. We were hitting lava for a while there. We built a trench, 4 miles long and and 40 feet deep, and pretty much saved the world." "You can't even do that. But we did." -Ryan W
The Builders: "Oh yeah? Well, we built a porch all the way to the moon and back. So there." "We put in a billion screws, hung a million joist brackets, and nailed until our hands fell off." -Nick


At the end of the day, the window well was completely finished, and the porch was built - and the entire group was exhausted.



But not too exhausted to head to the Y for showers and to Key's restaurant for supper. Back at the church, we had some devo time, and then... CANDYCOMBS!! Candy had been hidden throughout the church, and it was our mission to find it, using a few obscure clues. Hindering us in our mission were two merciless guards, ready to send us to jail the second they caught us. By 2 am all the candy was found and most of us headed to bed.

I kinda think there may be some sleeping on the way back tomorrow!

Crashin' (Fall Work Trip, Day 2)

Today things crashed. Not everything, by any means, but some things did. Let's not talk about them quite yet, though.

Lori and a group of kids headed to Hope Academy. You may remember what a cool endeavor Hope is, but if not, check out this video that tells their story. They had a full and good day of reading to kids, interacting with them, helping with teaching prep stuff, and all sorts of other things. One important note of clarification: Tate was dubbed the laminTATEr because of her mad skills with the laminating machine, not because of any connection to sadness and/or the book of Lamentations in the Bible.
Marv worked with Luke and another guy on wall repair for most of the day. His mad wall finishing skills stood him in good stead on the project - though he might have liked getting a project other than his normal job. Maybe tomorrow things will be mixed up a bit!
A crew of guys took on hole digging. They were digging a 5 x 5 x 5 hole for an egress window, and another one to enable drainage and prevent future flooding. They were very, very manly in their efforts.
Mike and Nick worked on building a porch and made awesome progress in spite of the fact that Nick's brother Adam, who was coming with some friends to join in the fun, hit serious snags in the transportation process. They were still in time to be of real help in moving the project forward and in helping with a lot of cleanup.
Ryan and some other dudes were high up on a scaffold, putting up soffit. The height was significant, so I'm happy to report that they were NOT what crashed.
Angela had too much of her day job to still accomplish for the week, so she ended up staying at the church for the day, trying to catch up.
Crashing:
- the trailer, as it came off the truck en route today. No serious harm was done and all is well now, so maybe "crash" is too strong a word.
- the kids when they got back to the church after a hard day's work
- angela's laptop. 'course, the power cable might have been helpful...
- Dan and Holly's party. Dan is Mike's brother, and he is a pastor at the church where we're staying. We got to drop by their place, meet their family, scare their dog, and generally take over the place for a few hours. It's beautiful, and we really had a nice time.
- the kids, after eating all that pizza
- the original plans for the evening. We had, um, coordination issues that caused us to abandon the original plans (hanging out some more at The Source) and instead chill out at the Y. It was actually a pretty nice time.
- the kids (well, some of them) at the evening's "devos" with Mike. It was a neat time, in spite of everyone's exhaustion, and the kids had really thoughtful responses. Good times.
- all of us, now. 'Nuff said.

Rollin' (Senior High Fall Work Trip - Day 1)

I'm happy to report that we've arrived in the Twin Cities with the same number of folks we began with. Unfortunately, that can NOT be said of our tires. Just as we neared Weyauwega (half hour out of town), one of the tires on the trailer started spewing bits of itself across the world. So with that, a run to Fleet Farm once we reached Steven's Point for a new tire, and a bit of a late start to begin with, it was 1 AM before we were in the church with the trailer unloaded. So, *yawn* I believe we'll turn in!