Ottawa SERVE: Day 4 - Work sites begin

Hello again to all you dedicated SERVE readers. 

It's 11pm, and Joy has just finished organizing the pictures for Day #4.  

Today we began our work in the community.  

Breakfast was at 8 am today.  

I think Olivia is undecided about how happy she was with 1/2  hour less sleep. 

At least her hands are holding her head up.  : )  

Morning devotions with Annette.   

And then it was time for sausages and french toast. Yummy!   

Kyle is ready to be loaded up.  

Oh, and that Chris guy in the background, it was his birthday today, so happy Birthday to you Chris.  

Ben doesn't look so happy to be having breakfast today.  : )  

Carraugh digging in.   

Brenda, one of our nurses, doing the morning meds for everyone.   

Our faithful kitchen crew.   

After breakfast it was time to get ready for our work sites. 

Shawn brought along everything he needed for himself, and a few others too.  : )   

This group went to the Carlington Community Chaplaincy.  

They served coffee and goodies.   

And watered the many plants.

Great job Zach.  

And visited with anyone who came into the drop in centre. 

Amy taking the time to play a game.  

Another group went to the Ottawa Mission to help prepare for lunch.  Lisa and Harold helping to get the butters ready.

Everyone working hard.   

John, Alexa and Janika having a good time. 

The cups sure are small, eh John.  : )  

This group helped clean up a park in Ottawa with the City of Ottawa Park Clean up crew.  Caralynn and Ryan working hard.   

Carolyn filled up a garbage bag.   

Phil and Niesje working hard too.   

Great job Lisa.   

Mitchell and Megan making sure the bathroom is spotless.  

Another group went to Redeemer Christian High School to clean up classrooms.   

Lucy and Stephanie cleaning the tops of the desks.  

Lots of gum and other items under the desks.   

Tyler is right into it.  

Alex pretty much hams it up no matter where he is.  : )  

This group went to the Bibles for Missions Thrift store.  

Sarah and Sara checking out the pencil crayons and sharpening them...maybe?? 

There is always furniture to be moved. 

Shawn and Jonathan lifting furniture around the building.  

Kyle helping someone put this desk in their car.   

We worked from 9 am to noon, and then came back to talk about our work experiences and get ready for lunch.   

Social time.   

Lisa had a very good morning.   

Soon it was time for lunch. 

Simple fare, sandwiches.

No less appreciated are our dedicated and ever changing kitchen crews.  : ) 

Rachael had a good morning too.   

There seems to be this rivalry forming between Mitchell and Mark.  Something having to do with running and wrestling.  hmmmm 

After lunch it was small group time.  Rachael and Olivia get ready for their group.   

Zach and Amy are getting along quite well. 

Today Zach told me that Amy was the "Perfect and most excellent" Mentor.  Sweet.  : ) 

Small group time. 

Niesje is the group leader here. 

She is doing an awesome job.  

Ah, the 1/2 way picture of our rooms.  

They are getting messier and messier.

And I must admit, smellier and smellier. 

Deshawn and Becca working through his workbook.  

Deshawn seems to be loosening up this year and really enjoying himself.   

Oh, and it was Anne's Bday as well. 

She got a wonderful card from all of us. 

Happy bday Anne. 

You did get a chance to rest today, didn't you? 

Ah, Sara...a wonderful smile, as always.  

After lunch it was time to travel to the Museum of Science and Technology.  In keeping with our travel theme, it seemed like the most natural place to go.  

It took a bit of time to get us paid up and ready to enter the museum.   

There's so much to see and do there, and we had 1.5 hours to get it done.  One of the highlights of the museum are the light tunnels.  Here's Joanna in one of them.   

A nice picture of another tunnel.   

Shawn found his very own vehicle to be in control of. 

He was so excited, as you can see. 

Looks like all of them are headed for a bump or something big.   

There were large trains to climb on and look into. 

Kyle and Braidon really liked them.   

As did Carolyn and Kaitlyn.  

Deshawn and Nicolette and Alex look so small in relation to the big train engine.    

Tyler is loving it. 

He would have made a great train engineer I think.   

Sara trying out the various displays before entering the crazy kitchen.   

John enjoying his time in the driver's seat.   

Stephanie seems to have hit someone on the road.....hmmmm, I wonder who that could be....

She seems to be ok...ish.  : )  

This looked like a pretty cool machine.  

Not sure what it did, but it seems like you walk inside it.  Zach really enjoyed it.   

A nice picture of Carraugh and Shawn.   

There were displays around the museum talking about different things.  Looks like Sara is wearing 3D glasses for something.   

Before you knew it, it was time to go.   

After showers it was time for Dinner. 

Shepherd's pie. 

Delicious.   

The group is just loving the food and there is always great fellowship around the tables.   

A mom and son moment.  

This is a busy family.....  : )  

I don't think Ben will see him mom all summer long, being at Camp as a counsellor. 

Nice to have this week where he will see a bit of her.  

 Hey another picture of Joy..but at a table all by yourself....  : (  I think she was soon joined by others. 

Caralynn awaiting her time to get in line for dinner.  

You can wait a long time, so why stand up and wait when you can sit down and wait.   

Tonight, in honour of Chris' Bday, we had ice cream. 

Nice to have a birthday during SERVE.   

Very decorative.   

And yet another picture of the blog...

This is becoming a tradition of sorts for Chris.  

Phil likes to draw a lot in-between the things we do.  

He's having a great time at SERVE 

6:30 pm came fast again today and it was time once again for WORSHIP!!!   

Mark was invited to join the party with Kyle and Deshawn.  

This SERVE is not typical to other ones in that our praise team keeps growing each day.   

I think pretty much every Participant was up on stage tonight. 

Lots of fun.   

Carolyn  decided she didn't want to be on stage tonight.  

After worship it was time for another play. 

This time, the mode of transportation was an airplane. 

Ben was the pilot, and Mark and I were passengers, along with a few others.   

Mark usually gives me my lines about 1/2 hour before we need to begin, so I go over them pretty quick. 

It works out pretty good because we can ad-lib more. 

Tonight we certainly did that. 

I got to throw banana peels at the audience.

Ask your son/daughter about it some time. 

One peel ended up back in the plane.  : )  

Mark did another great job of connecting with our participants tonight.  

His gifts are amazing.   

Mark asked each participant to answer a question about what caused them fear, and what caused them joy.  

The answers were very touching.   

Here you see John sharing his answers with us.   

At the end Mark handed out flowers to everyone.   

After a great worship time it was time for another craft.   

The groups worked hard again this evening.  

Tonight involved yarn and weaving.... 

Lucy and the group working hard.  

The finished product. 

Nice work Mitchell 

After craft there was a quick game involving balloons and paper plate paddles.   

Lots of fun. 

It was then time for snack (Thanks Bonnie for the cupcakes) and then off to bed for our participants.  

Hmmmm, seems Alex wanted himself to be the craft tonight. : ) 

We ended our evening with our mentor reflection time. 

Talking about the memories of the day. 

There are always good ones which cause us to laugh, sometimes hysterically, and ones that make us ponder, and others that make us wonder.  

Well, it's midnight and time to close this blog entry. 

Blessings to you as you read this, and I hope you were able to get a glimpse of how our day went, and how God touched many of us today. 

See you tomorrow................  : )