[This is Thursday's blog post. For some reason it didn't publish until Friday.]
Today the students began to notice that our week is coming to an end. They so badly want to finish our projects. Some of them asked if we can work late tomorrow to get as much done as possible. I love their enthusiasm. I have it too, I want to accomplish as much as possible for the family that I am helping.
I have shown you that we have been busy on this mission trip. We have accomplished a lot on the multiple sites that we have worked at. But we have also invested into people. We have shown them love. We have shown them that they are not forgotten. We have shown them that someone wants to hear their story.
Today during our lunch break Dennis, our team lead, wanted to take our team to the beach to eat our sack lunches (which we make ourselves every morning :-) The walk to the beach was all of two blocks. We
are working on Long Beach after all. But when we got to the end of the neighborhood there was a blue stand that looked like a lemonade stand, and in the stand was a security officer who wouldn't let us on the beach without a pass. So I asked how much a beach day pass cost, he said they are $10 and you have to go about 2 blocks to buy the passes. I said, "Looks like we aren't going to the beach today :-(" I wanted you to know, the kids were great, there was no complaining, or whining. They are focused on why we are here, we are here to help people physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And your kids are doing all three, amazingly!
Physically - We are fixing houses and churches. Today both teams were building walls and putting up drywall (one team in a house, the other team at a church).
Spiritually -We prayed for the people of Long Island and Long Beach. We helped with the Rock the Block event, and we met with the new believers at the alter call. And we are praying for all of you, our loved ones.
Emotionally - We have talked to a lot of people on the street and listened to their stories about Hurricane Sandy. Just asking someone, "were you here during Sandy?", "What did you do?" has led to some very eye-opening discussions. And every time after the people have shared their stories with us, their countenance has changed. I am sure that your students would love to share their specific experiences with you. They want you to ask them :-)
The bottom line for today is, that we as leaders want to thank you for sending this team of missionaries.
I want to share some new photos with you from the week so far.
God bless you,
-Steven Cook
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Jeff and Kris, our Forward Edge Hosts at Robert Moses beach. |
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Andrew and Christian practicing before they lead worship tonight. |
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Liam catching pass after we returned to our host church |
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Gator and Jaspar boarding up Halston |
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Team work! Dennis, Jaspar, Halston, Andrew, and Gator |
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Nathan and Dennis working on the worlds most complicated closet. Ask either of them about the experience :-) |
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James and Jonathan putting the ceiling up. They were a great team. |
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This room was completely finished by students! |
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This is the end of progress Thursday, almost done dry-walling! |
We are all looking forward to meeting up later tomorrow at one jobsite and working together
There are a lot of pictures of the other team, and I will *try* to get that camera and upload those picture.