Tuesday, July 13, 2010

SERVE - Day 4 - Monday - Work Day

Monday.  Day 4 of SERVE.  A brand new day.  Just completed.  It's only 11 pm.  The day is still young.  All our participants are tucked in bed and our mentors are either in bed or hanging out together having some down time for themselves.  Shellie is out visiting, Tamara is gone home and Rey just went to bed, so I might just get this entry done in decent time for a decent sleep tonight.   : )  

Read on and see how our day went today. 



I woke up at 7:45 a.m. and the first thing I saw when I turned the corner from my office hallway was Shellie.  Hair all done up in a towel.  She scared me half to death.  : )  



We have two wonderful nurses on staff for the week.  Brenda takes the morning shift, as you see here, and Mary Jane the afternoon and evening.  We are thankful that they come and help us administer any medications necessary for our team. 




Anne was all smiles this morning.  For two reasons I think. First, she has Joan with her helping this morning, and second, the dishwasher is fixed.  It broke on Sunday evening, and Mark, our custodian promptly got it fixed that evening so we wouldn't have to wash all our dishes by hand.  





As I've mentioned, we have many volunteers come in to help in the kitchen. Nick and Margaret and Gerry are working hard making breakfast.  


This is Gerry's third year helping us  (I'm pretty sure).  He comes to make the french toast for us.  It is always GREAT.  Thanks for helping out Gerry.  





Alex found Joan again and they hug.  




Each morning everyone takes a trip to the mailboxes to see if anyone has written them a warm fuzzy.  I actually received one today.  Well, a couple from my daughter as well.  





Rey taking some time to peruse through the blog.  He always looks so rested in the mornings....but by the evenings, you can tell that it has been a long day.  : )  



Some of the gang hanging out before breakfast begins.  John and Alex look like they are ready for work today.   






Looks like Ethan isn't.............  : )  Steve looks kind of undecided about his day.  



Ah, my nephew Kyle.  A good man, but BOY can he be a pest.  I love you though.  




Each morning before breakfast Rey opens with a devotional passage and prays for our day.  




Let the feast begin.  



Why is it that every time I take a picture of Ben, he has that deer in the headlight look...... ?  : ) 



Annet and Anne are STILL smiling.  I think that's because I've stayed out of the kitchen more this year, and keep giving them gifts to carry them through the week.  Keep up the GREAT work you two.  







Today was the day that Tamara returned home to be with her family.   We will miss her, and I know she missed us as soon as she stepped into her van.  Thanks for all your hard work Tamara.  




Here is a note she left for us when we returned from our work sites.  



We also had to say goodbye to Casey.  That was even HARDER for us  : )   (Just kidding Tamara).  




Rey is taking some time to talk with Hank and Carol from Winnipeg.  These two have been lassoed by Shellie to plan and host a Special Needs SERVE site in Winnipeg next year.  I think that it will be a go  in Winnipeg, but we will have to see about another one in Ottawa.  More than likely we will be taking a year off to rest while Winnipeg gets one year under their belts.  I've already heard that some of our mentors want to go to Winnipeg.....




After breakfast, Rey gives the group a top secret message that they have to do for the day.  Here is the group listening to the message, which then self destructs each day.  




The kitchen crew enjoying the fruit (or should I say French Toast) of their labour.  




Janine also taking some time to catch up on the blog.....or was that Facebook.....?  Hmmmm


We've been sleeping at the church for 3 nights now, and I just wanted to show you how things have been going, mess wise.  Here's my office which is my bedroom for the week.  Messy as usual, plus a bit more.  




Shellie has stayed with us in the church each year, and she gets the VIP room, AKA the prayer room.  Here room is pretty neat still.  It'll probably get worse.  




Now, the rooms of our mentors is another story.  Things are starting to smell - well, interesting.  As you can see, things are starting to get messy as well.  




The person who brought the towel rack is sure putting it to good use.  I think others are as well.  : )  


This is a girls room.  WHAT A MESS!!!!!  : )  



After breakfast we all went into the community to do some work.  We divided up into 7 work groups and headed out.  This group went to the recently started Bibles for Mission Store.  




Here is Alex, Jacob and Ben sorting through stuff.  Always the prankster that Alex is.  



Joy and Amy sorting clothing.  I think Amy ended up buying a puzzle at the store.  



Another group went to the Ottawa food bank and sorted food for the morning.  


Here is Greg working hard.  



Another group went to Jericho Road - Crerar  house.  This is a Christian group home for men with mental illness.  The group cleaned out a food closet, amongst other things.  



This looks like synchronized wall washing.   




The finished product.  




Chris and Kyle working hard.  





Another group went to Jericho Road - Springhurst.  Here is Kyle doing some gardening.  



John and Rachel working hard.  





On the way home from work John and Amber changed glasses.  Lots of fun is had between our mentors and participants.  


As you can see from this picture.............


Yet another group went to Starwood nursing home.  




No, Charlotte is not just sitting down, she's tending to the flower beds.  


Another group went to Stillwater Creek Nursing home.  


Kayla is working hard vacuuming the furniture.

  




The group having a resting at Stillwater. 



The final group went to the Ottawa Mission.  Here they are filling peanut butter cups.  


Ethan, that's WAY too much butter man.  




Bea, I never thought I'd say this to you, but "Get Cracking"  : )  


So Shellie, being the compassionate, loving and sensitive person that she is, went to the Bible for Missions Store today and as she was attempting to work, found a GREAT book for me.  Very appropriate for what happened yesterday.  I hope to read it soon and learn all the things that she has now learned about Protecting yourself against CRIME.   Some day, I'll get her back.......





After work it was time for lunch at the church.  John was having more fun having me take pictures than eating, and Rachel, well, she has that look of "I could just kill you for taking my picture."


Now Rosy was having a good day today.  However, she didn't want me to take her picture today.  



As you can tell from this picture.  It looks like Fayth is enjoying all of this.  She's a quiet one at times, but she can also be devious.  



The kitchen crew taking a break.  



After lunch it was time for small groups.  




Each of the small group time is choreographed to match with Shellie's worship times.  This is a magnifying glass with all sorts of stuff on it from the lessons done so far.  I'm always impressed with how things flow during small group time.  Things went well today.  Less rushed that yesterday.  



Here's Joanna writing down important information from the group.  



I like this picture.  Evert on the left with modern technology.  Harold on the right, with well, no technology.   I just liked the contrast.  


Grace and Bea and Joanna (not the mentor) use this room as a supply HQ.  I mentioned something about it being somewhat unorganized and Grace couldn't believe her ears.  (tee, hee).  







After our small group time we travelled to get showers in different places.  Our church does not have showers, so we rely on the kindness of Redeemer Christian High School and our leadership team.  Then it was off to play mini golf, (outside this time).  Everyone had lots of fun, but it was HOT!



Here is Steve showing Ethan the finer points of putting.  Let me tell you that there are some good mini golfers in our group, and some terrible ones.  You'd think some of them thought it was the PGA tour or something.  


Rebecca did well.  




Alexa did pretty good to.  


After mini golf we all went back to the church to wait for supper to be served.  A time to relax and play some games, socialize, or be by oneself for a bit.  



Supper was Shepherd's pie with carrots and beans, salad and a bun.  GREAT!  




Amy and Charlotte gave us all hand made bookmarks this evening.  It was really nice...a nice greeting from each of them, but at the end of mine it said:  P.S.  BEWARE!  hmmmmm



Then it was time for worship once again.  The songs are always a highlight for our group.  





It looks like Alex and Kyle are really enjoying being up there with the praise group.  

This was just a great picture of Tyler playing his guitar.  We all worship God in our own unique ways.  




It was then Shellie's turn.  This time she used big ears to get her points across.  John had LOTS of fun being up there.  



You know how the world knows about the 3 tenors.....well, we have the privilege of having the "Three Kyle's" in our group.  There they are helping Shellie out with an object lesson.  It was hilarious watching Shellie interact with the name Kyle.  


Ben didn't escape Shellie's grasp either. You can't really see it that well, but Ben is wearing a blonde lock of hair. 



Amy got to unlock a secret code on this shoelace.  


After a rousing ending to our time of worship and speaking, we ended the day with our activity time.  Tonight it was the movie "UP".......




Sports



And making a ceramic coaster and plastic coffee mug.   




Just before everyone went to be, while they were having their evening snack, a bunch of sneaky people decided to put the shoe laces they had received from Shellie to good use.  They tied me to my chair as I was attempting to put this blog entry together.  




Then they left me alone, all by myself.  Good thing they weren't good knot tiers : ). 

Well, that brings us to the end of another day.  A good day here at SERVE.  No one was injured and nothing got stolen.  Mentors and participants are forming some good relationships, and lots of learning is taking place between them all.  I couldn't begin to write about all that stuff, but I will attempt to summarize it near the end of our time here.  

So, until tomorrow, may God bless you, and our Mentors and Participants.   TTYL.    

2 comments:

Stacy said...

I am glad to hear that the day went better. It sounds like and looks like your having lot of fun! That is always great to see.

Anonymous said...

What fun!!
Have another good day glorifying God in your work and play.

Tamara