Day 4 - Monday

Greetings everyone who has joined us for another day at our SERVE site here in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. We've had a great day, and look at the pictures and text below to get a flavour of all our day's events.


We begin in the kitchen. A VERY good place to start each morning. Once again a GREAT meal of French toast was prepared with loving hands.

Bethany, one of our church's young people, lends a helping hand. She even served me breakfast this morning. THAT was a first.

Our lunches are being prepared and packed during breakfast as well. Sandwiches, apples, snacks, juice, and water.

Each morning Rey leads the mentors through some devotions.

Shawn is ready to face the working day.

So are Kyle and Alex.

Evert and Shawn exchange hats for a while.

Our warm fuzzy mailboxes are beginning to fill up. I've received some nice ones, thank you. I should start writing some too, I guess.

Geert looks like he's appreciating that cup of morning coffee.

The rooms are starting to look pretty messy. There are peculiar smells beginning to form as well. Speaking of smells. I was walking down the halls at about 1 am yesterday morning, and the smells that were coming from the boys bedroom, was, well, hard to describe. Noxious might be best. Even the girls were having issues with foul odors. I had to laugh. I found out in the morning, the boys were having a contest to see who could stink the most. Glad I wasn't in that room last night.

Breakfast is served.

Silene settles down for her meal. Looks GOOD!!

After breakfast it was off to our work sites. One group went to the Ottawa Food bank.

The group worked really hard today. Here Shawn is sorting food.

More sorting.

And more. They did a Fantastic job. They were pretty tired at the end of the day too, but feeling good about the days work.

Another group went to Ottawa's Christian Radio Station, CHRI. They sorted office supplies, did some inventory, cleaned windows, etc.

Jovita worked at the secretary desk typing up letters. She loved it.

Jovita also got to do something that made her even MORE excited. She was able to make a song request on the air. She was on cloud nine.

Here she's meeting Broc, the DJ.

Unfortunately, each SERVE site has it's medical mishaps. Here, Danielle is being tended to by one of our great nurses, Mary-Jane. Seems cleaning solutions don't agree much with Danielle. She's fine now though, in case you were wondering mom and dad.

Our final group went to Redeemer Christian High School, where they cleaned out many lockers, pulled lots of weeds, and generally had a GREAT Time. Here Shona is cleaning out the dirt from the bottom of the lockers. She didn't want to do the work at first, but then took to it and completed her task with determination. I hear she also found some pocket change.

Danielle, the other, working hard. Always with a smile, no matter the occasion.

Here Amy poses with a weed she picked that was just slightly taller than she was.

The Redeemer Work Team.

After work it was off for a shower. We weren't sure if Redeemer had fixed their shower issues, so we had made contingency plans, but it worked out that we had hot water once again. We were all VERY grateful, though some of us weren't sure that the water was actually warm now. It took some coaxing to get some showers completed.

We intended to go to Mooney's Bay today, and do some Olympics, but the weather didn't look very good, so we decided to go to plan B. Indoor, Glow in the Dark mini golf. It was a HIT!!!!

Everyone loved the 18 hole course.

There were many great shots, and some that could have used a bit less force : ). I almost got creamed by one.

Tyler loves to pose for pictures.

Kyle with his end of hole victory stance. He pretty much did this for every hole. Every golfer has their routines you know.

Olivia, teeing up for her final put.

After mini golf, it was back to the church for some down time. The group was tired from the days activities, and some went for a short nap time. However, others decided it was time for some basketball, so here we see them having lots of fun in the shade.

The girls lost by the way.

Rey and Shellie are good friends, which is evident each day, but it looks like Shellie's ready to attack him here. I'll have to find out what went on and get back to you.

Time for some letter writing for those back home.

Also time to simply let off steam and laugh, and laugh. Alex can always get us to laugh. Here he's making Julia histerical.

Then it was supper time. Shepherd's pie. mmmmm good.

Remember when Silene was being so refined for breakfast. Well I can't say the next three photos represent that same dinner ediquette. Hannah just waited for me to take this picture.

So did Elysha.

Even Olivia. What's going on here! : )

Some of our team reading the very blogs I've been writing. It's satifying to know that one's work is recognized by those who give me such great material to write with.

Amy just loves her stuffed animal.

We now move to our Worship time.

Here Jenny and Kyle do some actions to one of our many praise songs.

And then it was time to hear another message from our speaker "Cheerleader Shellie." doesn't she look GREAT!

Shellie got some of our group involved in cheerleading.

After our time of learning that it's important to encourage one another and build each other up and to simply "Do Your Best", we closed our time with our ending praise song "To God Be The Glory".

We finished off our evening with a small group/craft time, and then it was a snack of icecream bars, fruit, and other goodies.

At 9:30 everyone was tucked in and drifting off to sleep. The mentors met to talk about our day. It was a good day. Some things we took note of.

1. Each participant here has taught us something important.

2. Each participant here comes with unique gifts and talents, some of which we are beginning to see, and are amazed by.

3. We have laughed about the many funny things we have seen and heard, and cried about the things that have caused us frustration and irritation at times.

4. God calls us to do our BEST, and each of us are doing just that. It has been neat to see how God has honored that so far this week.

5. Even the best laid plans will change, and God is in control of the overall picture.

6. Once again, I say THANK YOU to the mentors who have chosen to take time out of their summer to be part of this SERVE experience. I am amazed at the gifts they possess, their sense of humor, their love for each other as they work through some tough times together, and for the love that they are experiencing with our participants.

7. A thank you too to the planning team and all those who have volunteered in the kitchen, donated food, or have contributed in some way to make this week succeed. An idea is only an idea until it is acted upon. When it is, it then has the potential to become something relevant, positive, and beautiful. The SERVE idea has already accomplished that, but never would have without all of you. My humblest thanks to you all.

It's off to bed now. We'll see if we see Tamara in the morning. Seems she might be in the beginnings of labour, but I'll let you know more when the scoop is in.

Blessings to you all.