Twelve members of our congregation are on a trip to North Carolina to work on the homes of those in need. It's called Towel Camp. I thought you might like a brief run-down of each day as it happens. You’ll be able to follow along - and I might even be able to send a photo each day. Hope you enjoy it.
Day 2:
Our first work day began with prayer and food -- lots of it. Our team which consists of young folks from New York, North Carolina and Virginia had charge of morning and evening devotions, so we put together a small morning worship service that included reading a letter from one of our parishioners telling how she was praying for us.
After that we had breakfast with lots of eggs and bacon and one of my personal favorites, cold pizza (okay, so I was the only one who ate that). Then all the kids had to make their own lunches and pack them into ice chests for the work ahead.
Our work team was sent to a women’s shelter (where I had worked last year). Our job was to take down a playground (that our team had built last year) to make room for a new parking lot, then to move a shed, again to make room for the parking lot. For what it’s worth, the playgroud will be put back up later.
The first thing we did was take one last swing on the playground swings because some of the kids had been on the project before. It was a little sad, but we knew it had been used by a lot of kids and that it would be used again. So we took care in dismantling the thing.
The work was hard, however. There were 8-foot-long 6X6 beams to remove from the ground (buried 3 feet deep each), and a 350 pound beam to lower down to the ground. The kids did a great job, and by the end of our work day, we had done more than scheduled.
Then it was time for play. Our team decided the best way to bond as a community was ice cream so after showers we went to Jack Frost. Yum.
The other teams worked at private homes. One team had a problem because one of the people they were helping got sick and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. At the end of the day we gathered outside for a cookout, some football and frisbee, and worship. Then, of course, the never-ending task of getting kids to sleep. Yay!
