Serve 2013 - Day 4

Work Sites, and Ottawa Citizen

Greetings to you all again.  

Day 4

Monday

A cooler day, thankfully. 

Worksite day 1.  

But first, getting up.....

It's getting harder and harder to do, for me at least.  

breakfast was at 8 am this morning, so a 1/2 hour less sleep. It's becoming a premium thing to be doing,- sleeping.  

Thankfully, before going to bed last night, I had 3 mentors edit the blog entry.  Some pretty embarrassing potential mistakes.  Thanks ladies for making me look better, and if you missed anything, it's now on YOU!!!  : ) 

So, this morning it was our regular Monday crew.  Here's Nick getting our sausages ready.  

And Gerry getting our french toast ready.  

Jonah was one of our night hawks for SERVE.  

We have people stay up all night just to make sure things go well and no one tries to leave the building accidentally....or on purpose.  

When I awoke at 8 am, Jonah was happily reading away.  Amazing! 

He's up again for tonight, so I hope he gets some sleep.  

Good morning Joy........I know, I know...get out of my room! I'm going.  

Hey John....how was your sleep?  

John is always such a positive guy.  

I love his antics during the day.  

Francine having her morning coffee, or maybe it was tea...hmmmmm. 

She's enjoying herself.   

Niesje needing her cup of coffee.  

Looking a wee bit tired there, are we?  

Annette forgot to read her schedule this morning (go figure) and realize that breakfast was a 1/2 hour earlier. 

She arrived spot on 8 o'clock, and had to move fast to do her morning devotion. She did fine, as always, involving me again, as usual. 

Kyle began to tell Alex all sorts of jokes this morning, putting Alex into fits of uncontrollable laughter.  

Can't say the same for Fayth...she needs more sleep I think.   

Same with Valerie.  

And what is Rachel doing to her hands....

That looks like it could really HURT!  : ) 

Breakfast was french toast and sausages and fruit.  

The food's been amazing so far.   

This morning was our first morning going to work sites. We are going to 9 sites this week:

Ottawa Food Bank

Jericho Road (3 sites) - home for men living with mental illness

Starwood Extendicare (senior's home) 

Ottawa Mission

220 and 224 Viewmount Senior's residence

Bibles for Missions Thrift store. 

Here's Annette at the food bank, sorting food. She loves it at the food bank. 

Rachel getting instructions from the manager of the food bank.   

Jessica, Jessica and Rachel, sorting food.   

Chris seems to be having fun.   

Alex spent time at Starwood Extendicare. 

It took him a bit to get into the visiting, but eventually he was having a good time.   

Here he is talking with the residence, and Hans who was one of our drivers this morning.   

Here's Sarah at 224 Viewmount getting to know this lady who is 91-ish years old.   

A group shot with everyone who was visiting.   

A bit of a rest time for Shawnny boy.  :  )   

Sarah, Amy and Jordana enjoying the outdoors after visiting.   

Chris...doing what Chris does.   

Shawn got a new phone.  He's doing what many young people do now a days...talking with Ailene, who's right beside him...but on a phone too.  What's with that!!!  

Lisa went to the Bibles for Mission Thrift store.  She had a great time working there today.  

Deshawn cleaning up the coat hangers at BFM.  

Not the purse for you, Fayth.  

Kyle sorting through shirts maybe?  Not sure, but he's working hard.   

Lisa and Valerie cleaning shelves.   

Pictures of other work sites will come tomorrow.  

These are our press corps mail boxes that are being used all week. Our small groups prepare newspapers each day and place them into the boxes so others can read them.  Some are quite original and good.  

Looks like our winter coat sayings are getting more use today....nice look, Chris.   

Deshawn relaxing after work time.   

Hmmmm... another strange look from Jonathan.   

Annette is our prayer coordinator....

Doing what she does best.  

Just before lunch I had to run a couple of errands, and Shawn was feeling a bit restless, so I took him and Justin with me.  We went to Canadian Tire to get a mattress for Jordana (her's has not kept its air during the evening hours) and then it was off to the bank.  

Shawn loves driving in any vehicle and it seems to calm him down. 

Lunch was served at 12:30.  

Sandwiches and apple slices.   

Caralynn pondering the morning events.    

After lunch it was small group time.  Jessica and Jessica are going over the material for the session.   

Colton seems to have many different parents this week.  He doesn't seem to mind, and he's soooo cute!  (as my daughter likes to say, and Joy too).   

Deshawn reading his Bible.   

More small group time with Zach and Becca and Tyler.   

Alex is such a ham at times.  Nicolette and he have gotten along well this week.  

Steven with the final copy of today's paper.   

Ben trying to get his group's final copy out..you can tell he's not going to meet the publishing deadline.   

Mark is our nomadic speaker today.  He was ousted from from the office, then moved from the ministry office, and finally plunked in the youth pastor's office, only to be pushed out of that so that I could take a nap.  Sorry about that Mark, we do love you.  

Jonathan getting his group's paper ready for publishing.   

Someone's hand print, but I honestly can't say why.  Something to do with small group time today (editors note: the theme today was BE FREE so we had fun painting).   

The paints used to make the hand prints...... 

During small group time I was able to get some sack time...and remember yesterday I said it would be nice to get a picture with me and Colton napping...well voila....here you go.   

That's interesting Kyle.   

After small group time, it was time to get into our vans and do a road trip to the Ottawa Citizen.  We had to wait for Janine to show up and during that wait Steven decided to try sucking the brains out of Ben......hmmmm enough said.  : )  

Alex and Ben, two comics in the group.  

Deshawn getting in on the act.   

I wore my favourite shirt.  

Got it out East last summer. 

If you click on the picture you can read it better. 

A bank teller I saw today while at the bank thought it was the best t-shirt she'd ever seen.  

 

Janine finally arrived and we all took a tour of the Ottawa Citizen.  

Here's one of the two guides showing how the plates are made for the printing presses.   

Here are the printing presses.  They are huge.   

Rachel standing on one of the small cars that holds the large roles of paper and feeds them to the press.   

Chris wasn't getting his question noticed by one of the guides, so Jonathan put him on his shoulder to see if that would help....isn't there a story about that in the Bible somewhere....hmmmmmm  :)  

These are the roles of paper in storage.  Jessica and Fayth look quite small compared to those rolls.    

Chris inside one of the trailers that takes the papers away when completed.  He looks rather big for the trailer...the joys of photography.

One of the two groups doing the tour.  They are in the flyer sorting room.  Very old, but reliable, machinery being used here.  

Megan being...well....Megan.   

Hmmmm, what is Nicolette doing?

Sticking out her tongue at Alex. 

That's not very nice, Nicolette. 

The Citizen tour was quite interesting. 

We learned a great deal about how the paper is produced, but also about what the paper is doing to stay current.  Lots of energy is going into new technologies.  

After the tour it was time for showers once again. 

I picked up a couple of BBQ's for tomorrow's meal as well. 

That got me back a wee bit after 5:30 pm, so they started without me.  

After dinner it was worship time again. 

Alex has discovered anew the microphone. : ) 

Lisa received a purple banner for worship.  She loved it and used it well.   

Jacob had to share the mic with Alex today.  

He was very accommodating.   

Worship time has become a highlight of our SERVE experience.  Lots of fun to watch as everyone gets into the groove of worship in their own way.  

After worship it was time to listen to correspondent Mark again....however, he keeps falling asleep on the job so I keep having to wake him up....I love it. : ) 

Here are Kyle and Tyler helping Mark with a skit.  Kyle looks really good.   

Mark dangling a fishing rod with a wig to demonstrate how Satan dangles things in front of us at times. 

Mark revealing how each participant is unique in God's eyes.    

Tonight Mark did something that was really cool (sorry  Sid, but it really was : ) 

Tonight, Mark took the time to create certificates for each participant that outlined a unique gift or characteristic about them. 

He took the time to bring each participant to the front, and share with them what he thought that was.  

It was quite touching, genuine, and moving.  Brought some to tears in the pew, me included. 

It's been neat to see Mark make this SERVE his own experience, and tonight he did a great job of doing that.  

Here's Steven getting his certificate.  

Shawn was REALLY excited to get his.  Fun to watch.  

Zachary was last, but he was watching the certificates being handed out, and he knew when his time was going to be, so he jumped up to get his. 

Deshawn was so eager to get his that he bolted out of the middle of a pew when his name was called and almost took Joanna's legs off as he ripped passed her.  Good thing she had some sleep today. 

Made her reaction time quicker.  

 Alex with his certificate.  

Every participant, no matter how they were feeling (and we have to admit that some of them are quite homesick this year)  lit up when they received this gift from Mark.  

With serious stuff, often comes an opposite reaction of fun stuff. 

Tonight was no different. 

Ever since Mark did the shaving cream thing the other night, Alex has been wanting it done to him.  

Alex would keep on talking to Mark about it, and egging him on to do it.  

At 2 pm, he would say...we go outside and we do the shaving cream thing. 

Well, after worship time, Mark let him have it.  The video of that event will be at the end, along with another surprise clip, so stay tuned.  

As Alex was getting the shaving cream put on him, both Mark and I noticed he wasn't too happy about it, so we were getting a bit worried.  

But we shouldn't have been because once Mark let Alex have the can to use on Mark, he lit up and let Mark have it.  

The shaving cream didn't just stay on Alex, it moved to Mark himself 

and to Lucy, and several others.   

Alex, you look wonderful.....  :)  

Mark, you've grown a great white beard and mustache.   

Becca received her share.... 

 As did many others.  I, thankfully, was wearing my suit still, and getting the hose out so people could wash up afterwards, so I escaped...this time.  :) 

Hmmm, looks good on you Mark.   

Time to clean up.....boy did Alex ever smell good after this shower.  : )  

Some didn't get to involved in the outdoor, or craft activities.  Jessica decided to simply hang out and let Jessica push her around in the wheel chair.   

And so ends day 4 of SERVE. 

Another good day. 

A busy day. 

A blessed day. 

Time to get my editor(s) to make sure I didn't make too many mistakes, and then to publish for you. 

I hope you are enjoying what you are reading about.  

Feel free to send more comments and greetings if you like.  

I moderate them, but soon post them once you send them.  

Here's the video of Alex getting Shaving Creamed.... 

....and here's a little surprise fun thingy that Chris did once again for your enjoyment.  : )