SERVE 09 - Tuesday - Work Day #2

Tuesday is now complete. In the books. Done. No more. Well, there are three more minutes left, but we won't count those. Another GOOD day. A cool day too. Where IS that summer weather. Everyone woke up again this morning with different levels of energy. Here Rey and Alex check out the previous night's blog entry. Apparently I've put enough pictures of Rey into the blog, according to him, so I promised him I wouldn't put any more in.....until I saw THIS ONE : ) As usual, new kitchen volunteers helped prepare breakfast. Marg is getting the eggs ready.

Nick is hard at work too.

Angela looks like she's having WAY too much fun. Thanks again for helping out.

Hey, it seems like my blog is quite popular with the group. It brings a warm feeling to my heart : ). It also makes these early mornings all worthwhile.

Hannah is showing off her Peru Mission trip shirt. Well, that's not quite true. She does own one, but so does her very tall father and it seems that the laundry didn't get placed in the right person's dresser drawer. Hannah, that's definitely a LARGE for you.

Shellie....our dear, dear, Shellie. I think she's trying to do some sort of Karate move, or something. Notice the blurring in her hands, and look at that gaze. If looks could KILL, or maybe she's just tired....I'm not sure.

Sara woke up quite tired this morning. I found her with her head in her pillow, but she decided to pose for me.

Charlotte, Stacy and Amy look somewhat awake this morning.

Rey started with opening devotions. Sure enough, he talked about building and sacrifice. As of the writing of this entry, nothing else has been done to my door, but more on why I think why a bit later on.

The blog entry of the day wouldn't be complete without a picture of Tamara, even if her mouth is full of cereal.

Breakfast consisted of bacon and eggs. Yummy.

Anne is watching over her crew. Making sure nothing goes wrong in the breakfast line.

Jovita is always chipper in the morning. I think Julia is too, but I wasn't sure this morning.

Joanna, well, she's just acting very strange this morning, don't you think?

Silene smiles all the time....except when I seem to take a picture of her. Go figure...... I'll let you in on a little secret....she had a VERY good day, and it must have tired her out because she fell ASLEEP during Shellie's talk time. I saw you Silene....I DID!!!!

Well, after breakfast it was once again off in the vans to various places to work. Here Charlotte gets the Redeemer Christian High School cafeteria ready for its morning cleaning.

Nick got the joyous task of locker cleaning. Lots more interesting things were found including some interesting currency in a very high denomination.....hmmmm

Tyler dug into cleaning those lockers right away.

Another group helped out at 220 Viewmount. Here is Melissa and Jodi sorting the library books.

Alex and Chris set to work cleaning the stair wells.

We must have worked them too hard this morning....... you two need to go to bed EARLIER!!!

There was also time for visiting the residents.

Yet another group went to Jericho Road House. Here they are preparing lunches for the residents.

Rebecca and Rosalynn taking a short picture break.

Another group spent the day at the Ottawa Mission. I think they are scooping butter into small cups. Looks like lots of fun....

Amy in line serving food at the Mission.

Shona and company spent the day at Starwood Extendicare doing laundry.

A well deserved lunch break.

Hannah's group went to another Jericho Road House. They dug a good sized trench and planted small cedar trees. Very fast work.

Adam found a huge rock as he was digging. It took a bit of time to get it out of the ground, but he succeeded.

Everyone competed for the shovels to do the digging....not something I see too often in young people.

Just like building a bridge and meeting in the middle... : )

Shawn and his group spent the day at the food bank. Shawn worked very hard today, as did the others.

Taurie loved packing and stacking all the boxes.

After work, it was shower time, a brief time at the church, and then off to bowling, glow in the dark bowling that is.......

Looks like Joanna is better at mini golf than bowling. : )

I didn't do well at all today. Way too many gutter balls could have happened. Thank goodness the gutter railings were up.....

Charlotte and Tamara having a really good time with all that loud music playing. Spontaneous dancing sprung out all over the place.

Now you need to know that Shellie isn't very good a bowling either. Her score was 7 after 3 frames. Truth be told though, she did beat me today. I only got 94 and she got 104. Way to go Shellie!!!

Harold and Evert were the spectators today.....I think they were even giving advice on how to bowl with the proper technique. Fans......gotta love them.

After bowling it was back to the church for supper. BBQ hamburgers and hotdogs.

Harold and Elysha volunteered this time to cook. Thanks for helping out. Apparently the first couple of hot dogs became burnt offerings (maybe they will end up by my door tonight).

Tyler came out to give Elysha pointers on her BBQing (pun intended, sorry).

Enjoying fellowship around the dinner table.

After supper it was time to work off all that food. Jovita played goal this time. Awesome save Jovita.

There was basketball too. Rebecca is a pretty good player.

There was also the option of toothpick and jube jube structure building. Amy shows off her finished home. I had to take 5 pictures of the various sides...I'm not sharing them with you here though. : )

At 7 pm it was back in the sanctuary for praise and Shellie time. Once again Shellie wowed us with great illustrations on how we can place God at the centre of our lives. Charlotte is helping Shellie here.

It seems that Ethan and Kerenna were here too. Best buds!

After chapel time it was small group time again. We measured ourselves today. It's only because Megan is on a chair that she's taller than Shawn. Just thought you should know that.

A cute picture and so neatly lined up too.

A touching moment between father and son........how's the chin doing sonny boy !!!!!

I'm not sure how to take this picture of Shona. Is she happy or mad. So hard to tell : )

A small group getting ready to use paint AGAIN. I didn't have this much fun in school or church school. I'm very jealous.

Charlotte found this clock at Redeemer. My son's class actually made them in a shop class (I assisted). I guess someone didn't want it so Charlotte recycled it and gave it an awesome paint job.

I end with this picture which was taken at about 11:4o pm. Seems we are all VERY tired and well, the laughing fit just began and wouldn't end.....my sides are still hurting.

Another day is now complete. Lots of work done. More relationships built. Lives touched in ways we don't even know, both within our team and in our city. As I pondered our experiences so far I was struck with a bit of a sad thought on my part.

Being in charge of this SERVE, with all the running around, pictures to be taken, blogs to be written, emotional fires to be wreckoned with, etc., I've discovered I'm missing out on something. I'm not getting the chance to get to know our mentors and participants at a more personal level. I've been wanting to, but something always seems to come up. I hadn't thought of that until I looked around the room during our mentor meeting. So many wonderful people giving up a week of their summer to pour their lives into our participants. They are special people who shouldn't be taken for granted. Even though we banter back and forth, bug each other, laugh together and yes, even cry together, I just wanted you all to know that I repect and love you more than you will ever know (well, now you do, actually).

The same goes for the planning team. We work together so much and you put your love and sweat into this week. I'm truly humbled by what I've witnessed so far this week. Thanks for allowing me to be a part of it. Though it's very tiring, I wouldn't trade this for any other SERVE site (sorry Youth Unlimited). In fact, I'd love to see more Special Needs SERVE sites out West, maybe out East, and in the United states. Wouldn't that be cool. We've proven it can be done, and done with excellence.

I'll end my blog by letting you know that there were no great surprises tonight...at least not yet. I was expecting a brick wall in front of my door, or some sort of sacrifice sitting amongst the lego men, but nothing (and that may be the joke right there. I know of a MASH episode where the best practical joke was the one that never came.... could it be that this is the case here?????).

Now, I THINK (sorry Nick) I know why. I think I uncovered their plot and discovered who it was, so they're laying low until I fall asleep. I've seen a couple girls whispering together looking quite guilty.

I decided to hide for a bit in the photo copy room to see if they'd show themselves, but they didn't. I then took a walk so they'd have a chance to do something, but they chickened out. Where's the daring.....the cunning, the caniving.......you raised the gauntlet, but you haven't completed the task (though I might regret saying that as I wake up in a couple of hours). I was hoping for something tonight, but alas, will go to bed disappointed........ : (

Blessings to all you who read this blog. May it bless you as much as it does me as I write it.