Thursday, July 15, 2010

SERVE - Day 6 - Thursday - Homeward Bound

.It's 7:45 pm.  I'm at home sitting at my kitchen table with my laptop. Quite a different feeling that the last week writing to you.  My kids are outside on the trampoline, and reading, and I now will bring you the next to last entry of this SERVE week.  The final one will come tomorrow with some reflective thoughts.  For now, I'll give you the pictoral narrative of this last day, mainly because I'm starting to see double and need to go to bed.  : )  


I awoke at 7:45 am.  I went into the kitchen and what do I see.  The same wonderful site.  Happy faces getting our breakfast ready.  


Here is my good buddy Rey!  Still smilin' eh Rey.  He often hears this, but I just can't resist....."You can call me Rey, and you can call me Jay, but you doesn't have to call me Johnson...."  : ) 



Fontana is smiling and so is Rebecca.  They must have gotten a good night's sleep.  


You can't see it, but Ethan is VERY tired.  Hiding it behind that big grin of his.  They both are.  


Woe there Nellie!  Or should I say Shellie!  Looks like she's glued her eyelids open in order not to fall asleep.  If you only knew what she went through to crank out those wonderful presentations she does each worship time.......

Our final assignment for the week from Constable Rey.  


Hey, something looks different about Shellie in this picture.  Can you guess what it is?  


Our last great breakfast meal at SERVE


Now this guy is interesting.  If you went back to our Saturday entries, you'd find this guy perched beside a table with other things surrounding him.  Through the week everything moved, but he didn't move an inch......interesting.......


After breakfast it was time for the dreaded "packing up in order to get home" time.  


For some, this was a simple task.  Put your dirty laundry in with your clean laundry and zip up the suitcase.  Roll up the sleeping back that now seems 2 times bigger, and deflate that leaky air-mattress.  

For others, this proved to be a daunting task.  Some things really make me laugh at SERVE, even if maybe, just maybe they shouldn't.  Take Amy for example.  Notice the mountain of items she has to pack.  In past years she has taken up to 2 hours to pack everything away, and it just wouldn't fit.  Let's check in with her a bit latter to see her progress.  


Hannah and Sara are making good progress.  


My hero and favorite Mentor (sorry Esther....but suck it up and move over  (tee, hee).  Fayth is once again faithfully (no pun intended) reading my blog.  She at least reads it legitimately, unlike Esther who LOOKS like she's reading it, but is actually updating her status on Facebook!!!!!  Busted.....





Some in the group don't understand what packing up really means.  Micheal and Kyle are having a GREAT pillow fight...but not much packing is getting done.  

Megan is packing up.  This is her before picture.....


This is the after picture.  Not bad.  


Ah, checking in on Amy now.  It's been 45 minutes, and it doesn't look like she's even made a dent in her stuff.  : )  Miraculously she managed to fit it all in AND get done in about one hour......



Some down time as packing continues.  John is hitting Shawn's stomach, and Shawn is letting out long tones so it sounds staccato.   



I think Esther is having a bad day?  Maybe she already read my comment about Fayth  (tee, hee).  




The band of Brothers....a nice picture.  Rey is a natural with our participants.  They just love him.  Thanks for giving of your time Rey.  

After packing up it was time for worship.  I'm always amazed at how powerful music is for our participants.  It is a powerful medium for all of us, but particularly for our Participants.  They are so intense and into the music.  I just love watching it.  




Shawn and Rey jamming.  


Shellie's last talk.  Today it had to do with stinky feet......





....paper that kept getting smaller and smaller......




....Water and many glasses......



We ended this year as every other year.  We handed out quilts to our first time participants.  A true labour of love from our quilting group.  




This year Margaret handed them out.  She gave each participant a loving embrace as they received their quilt.  Touching.  




"I wanna be your hands....I wanna be your feet..."  Each year one of the songs from the praise team ends up becoming the favorite.  This year it was this song.  Peppy, fun, and action filled.  



We also had slower, more emotional songs.  




I ended our session with some thank-you's.  You'll notice Larry on my shirt.  Many others in the group noticed too.  





We then moved on to our final small group time.  Here is Bea explaining what to do.  This time the participants and mentors made a wonderful picture scape.  



We invite the parents to come for our worship and last small group time. Here is Sara with her mom.  Many participants can't contain their glee in seeing their parents again.  It's fun to watch.....and puts a lump in my throat as well.  




Here is a group hard a work.  I hope they don't forget about the time and work right through lunch.....  : )  





The "stuff" of everyone is slowly migrating out of the rooms, into the hallways, and soon into a vehicle.  




While the small group time was going on, several of us started cleaning up the church.  Here is Rey taking down the silhouette's. 





Annet made this fancy tower out of paper plates.  The hidden talents of our team continue to amaze me!  




It looks like I scared Andrea in the middle of her work...sorry about that.  




Here are two cousins showing us all how NOT to move a bookshelf down a hallway.  : )  

The finished craft.  I just think that is Cool!!!




One of the props that Shellie used was a VERY large stethoscope.   Shellie gave it to Mary-Jane as a gift.  She loved it.   







Ok, so here's the story about Megan having all this marker on her face....you see.....well......I started it.   I had a marker I was using to sign everyone's craft, and then....well....I had this idea.  Why not put this permanent marker on every mentor's face......why not!  So I began.....things went well until they figured out they could gang up on me.   This was the end result of my tussle with Megan.......




This was the result of my being markered by many mentors.........




.....and this......

.....and this........I did deserve it...so I will not whine about it...  : )  The really neat part was that I knew that the hand sanitizer at our church would take this permanent marker off, no problem.  The mentors didn't.  They were scrubbing and scrubbing with soap, getting red skin.  I had to chuckle.  



After all that hard work, and cleaning up, it was time for lunch.  Pizza.  A great way to end our SERVE experience.  Nothing was left after that, except to cry and say good-bye.  There were many tears, but many thanks as well.  


Once the participants were gone, the rest of us cleaned up the church in about 1 hour.  The mentors went their separate ways, and I brought Amber to the airport so she could get home too.  I did leave Ethan at the church to wait for his buddies to come get him at about 6 pm.  I think he scared the custodian and office manager...thinking he was another thief in the church. I forgot to tell them about him.....they were relieved after calling me and hearing from me that he was ok.  

So, another SERVE has come and gone.  It's gone FAST, but has been a BLAST.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't glad it was over, but I'd also be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy every minute of it.  I'll post one more reflective type entry tomorrow with comments about our mentors and participants.  Check it out if you want.  Right now, it's off to bed for about 14 hours of SLEEP!!!!!!   : )   

May all of have safe travels home...and may you have many who ask you about your experiences.  Until next year in Winnipeg.......and hopefully Ottawa / Winnipeg in 2012.......  : )  God bless and good night!!!!!

1 comment:

Chris :) said...

you should re-name the title to Thursday- Homeward Bound..... not Wednesday. :)