SERVE 2016: Day 7 - Time to say Farewell

IT'S OVERRRRR  : (  

Yep. 

Sadly, another SERVE is completed.  

The church is cleaned up, the props are gone, but not the great memories and relationships that were built. 

Everyone is on their way home now. 

Some are home already, some won't be for quite a while. 

So let's get this final entry in the books.  

But first, a couple of pictures from the Farm that I didn't get to put in yesterday's entry.  

It was a hot day.  Thankfully there was shade.   

A nice beet Braidon.  

Were you supposed to pick that?  

Hey, Annette's doing all the work here.  Get going Jonathan and Ryan.
 

Some shade and some sun.  

Everyone working hard  

This is a pretty great place to volunteer. 

If you ever wanted to help out the Food Bank in some way, come volunteer at their farm. 

I'll tell you how you can get in touch with them. :) 

Back to today now. 

Our night hawk, George. 

He made it through yet another evening. 

Cross word puzzles and movies kept him going.  

Thanks for helping us again George. And thanks to all the other night hawks as well.  

The early risers.   

Kitchen crew hard at work for some time now. 

Thanks for faithfully coming in each morning.  

Good morning Tobie. 

At least you are smiling.   

Caralynn and Nicole.  

Hope you both slept well.  

Bea. 

Still smiling, but pretty tired. 

She stayed at the church overnight this year. 

I think, if we do this again, she will sleep at home again.  : )  

Relaxing before breakfast starts.  

More warm fuzzy time.   

Awe, that's a cute picture of Megan and Christina.   

If Ryan's not walking around, you'll find him reading.   

Pastor Craig has arrived. 

Now we can get started.  

Lisa and Kyra.  Whoot! 

On the LAST day Kayla?

Really? 

Annette. 

Awesome job this week.  

You too Shauna, but I won't bug you for another couple of hours at least.  : )  

Mom, Dad, and daughter. 

A great team.   

Alex, who are you disguised as now?   

Time for breakfast...  

...and morning devotions.  

Bea is telling another of her many amazing stories.  : )  

This morning I let Brianne's table go first, because she wrote me such a wonderful warm fuzzy card the night before.  She was quite happy to be going first.  

Happy Janika 

Bea, what's the problem.  : )  

Anne being served for a change. 

Nice to see.   

Eggs and toast and fruit. 

We ate very well this week.  

Maddie correcting the blog again. 

Thanks Maddie. 

Wish you were here to correct this entry.  :)  

Juliette did an awesome job this week. 

Thanks for coming out and experiencing SERVE and helping out in so many ways.   

Creepy eyes Kayla.   

After breakfast it was time to start packing up.   

I'm surprised people could find their stuff.  :) 

Will it close Tobie.  : )  

Try sitting on it. 

WELCOME!

When they were done packing some people did a word search activity to pass the time until small groups.  

Even Colton got in on the action. 

Parents arrived for our morning

 small group time and worship.   

A sample of the friendship necklaces about to be

made in small group time. 

Amazing stuff.  

A Parent wrote this nice thank you card for us.  ;

Thought you'd like to read it too.   

All packed up....

Small group time.  

Playing with clay is always fun. 

The end result of several small group times. 

Nice pics.  

They were pasted onto a card that

 everyone could sign for each other.   

The final small group craft.   

American style. 

All the craft items

 were set out for people to take home  

Final worship time.  

Lots of action songs. 

Great job Praise Team! 

This is a neat picture.  

Time for a final appearance for Ronnie boy.  

He want's to bottle all the love he's experienced this week and keep it, but he knows people will be gone and is not sure how to keep that love.  

So our final story today.  

And one way the group could show love to Ronnie boy was to form a hug line and give him a hug. 

And Ronnie boy gave back to the group by giving them a super hero cape.  

And then signing it with 

Jesus Loves You. 

Probably a bit hard to read though.  : ) 

At the end of Worship, we handed out quilts to our first time Participants.  

Mentors picked them out.  

These are made by Calvin's quilting group.  

One was given to Brianne.

Andrew got the sports themed one. 

Go figure.  :)  

 Nicole got one...  

... and so did Jonathan.  

After lots of thank you's,we ended our SERVE with 

"My Friends May you Grow in Grace."   

Peter was a great drummer this week. 

Thanks Peter for helping out . 

More items to take home.  

Pizza for lunch, and then time to say good-bye. 

Katrina and Brianne had a blast this week together. 

Hope to see you again Brianne.  

Kaitlyn and Brianne had to leave right away to catch the train. 

The tears started to flow.   : ) 

Everyone talking and eating

 and getting ready to say good-bye. 

It was LOUD in the fellowship hall.  : )  

Kyle never wants to leave SERVE.  

Spider Kyra and Lisa.
It's been fun watching you and Lisa get along Kyra. 

GREAT job this week.  

Kyle doing the good-bye rounds.   : )  

John and Abbey.  Time to say good-bye too.  

Annette and Joanna taking it all in. 

Mark chatting it up with some of the parents. 

See you Jonathan.  : )  

Joanna signing Philippe's card. 

And so the clean up began as people were leaving, and before we knew it, the church was pretty much back to order, minus the rooms needing rebuilding. 

We end our 8th SERVE in 9 years this week. 

Before we started this SERVE, I looked back at the years of SERVE on my blog. The first one was held in 2008 and I am amazed at how many people

 have been blessed over the years: participants, mentors, planning team, countless volunteers.

  

It's with mixed emotions that we end SERVE this year. 

Next year there will be no Ottawa SERVE.  

Time to take a year off and rest. 

We will re-examine things in the beginning of 2018 and discern if we will hold another SERVE. 

My hope is we will, but it takes many volunteers to make it happen.  Pray for wisdom for those on the current planning team.  

Thanks once again to all who helped make

 Ottawa SERVE 2016 possible. 

Thanks to the mentors, the kitchen staff, praise team, prayer partners, our speaker - Mark, nurses, and participant families for letting us have the privilege of being with your children for a week. 

We love the challenge, and we love the love that is expressed through your children, and the gifts they bring to SERVE each and every year. 

Blessings to you all. 

Thanks for being part of SERVE as a BLOG reader. 

Time for a shower, and SLEEP!!!!  : )