The last big push

Friday, June 29th

4:07 p.m.

Today was our last day of work, and we gave it all we had left in the tank (which wasn’t much, considering how hard we worked!). We again had two teams today. The first team (16 people) went back to Ms. Jones’ house to do everything they could before we left, which involved a lot of mudding and smoothing the drywall. While we didn’t get as much done as we’d hoped at the beginning of the week, her house looks a whole lot better now than it did then. We have every reason to be proud of what we accomplished.

The rest of the group helped distributed flyers for Westside Christian Church. We estimate that about 1700 flyers were passed out in the surrounding community. After lunch, that group joined the other group at Ms. Jones’ house to help clean up. We had a group picture taken with Ms. Jones, Destiny, and Cedric (to be posted soon!). Their presence this week was a highlight of the trip.

One sight today really drove this trip home for me. Sean Bracken has been working like a dog to get as much done as possible at Ms. Jones’ house. He’s been very patient with the kids, while keeping them working and productive. Today, being the last day, he was especially motivated to work hard.

At some point during the day, a few girls in our group got the idea of making a cross out of scrap wood and having all of us sign it to leave at the house for the Joneses. It was a great idea, but who had time to help them cut the wood and put it together? When I went out on the porch for a drink, I heard the circular saw in action. I looked down in the front yard and there was Sean fitting together the pieces of wood for the cross. While Sean was driven to work on the house today, he also realized the importance of taking the time to help the girls make the cross. That spirit of collaboration and attentiveness to the movement of God’s spirit has been with us all the way through this trip.

Tonight we’ll have dinner (it’s Leftover Night!), go out for ice cream, and clean up the Mission Center ( 46 people sharing two bathrooms? No small job). We’ll then have our closing night sharing and reflection, which is usually one of the most moving experiences of the whole trip. Then – hopefully! – we’ll get a good night’s sleep in preparation for returning home tomorrow.

We can’t wait to share with you all that we have learned and experienced on this trip. Thank you so much for supporting us in every way. We couldn’t have done it with you. I’ll post a few more pictures tonight. See you then!