Day 3 began the same way as Day 2 with breakfast, high energy worship songs, and a devotional thought by one of the ReCreation Staff members named Dave. After the morning activities, we headed out for our second day of serving. The team split in half for the morning and went to two different serving sites. One group consisted of all the 7th graders and they headed back to the digging and painting site that we began yesterday. It was inspiring to watch the 7th graders jump immediately back into the work we had begun yesterday without any hesitation. They were excited to prove that they were just as good of diggers as the 8th graders. About ten of the 7th graders continued the painting project on Mrs. Clubb's trailer. We are priming the exterior of her entire trailer and the 7th graders continued priming by working on the back side of her trailer. The rest of the 7th graders continued digging the two trenches. Today we focused a lot of our energy on squaring the pipelines to the correct dimensions as well as breaking up rocks that were in the way of our trench digging.
All of the 8th graders spent the morning at a local MANNA food bank that provides food for local organizations who distribute that food to the homeless and low income families in the area. They had a brief orientation by one of the staff members at MANNA to hear about how the organization seeks to battle the hunger of needy people in their area. The team was impressed by the gentleman giving the orientation because it was obvious that he was very passionate about the mission of MANNA and his role in that mission. The 8th graders sorted 2,000 lbs of rice into separate bags by forming an assembly line. Each person had a specific job as the rice got passed down and they worked together to complete a "ton" of work. The 8th graders headed back to our digging site for lunch in the afternoon.
Together the whole team worked hard in the afternoon and left the site feeling accomplished about all they had completed. The most exciting news of the day came when we found out that the charges for having an improper sanitation system against Mrs. Brenda Clubb were dropped by the judge today. Our team was the catalyst for the judge recognizing that Brenda was taking steps to fix her sanitation problem, and so we got to witness God saving Brenda's home and property through out hard work!
After working, eating dinner, and having some free time, the team gathered for porch time in which Luke spoke on the difference between competition and compassion. He looked at Mark 9:33-41 and discussed how the disciples got caught up in their competitive spirit which led them away from recognizing opportunities for compassion around them. God calls us to compassion rather than competition, and Luke challenged the team to be on the lookout for opportunities to show compassion.
It has been a great day and tomorrow the team gets a day-off from going to the digging site and will spend the morning visiting a local nursing home followed by some fun activities in the afternoon. Please check back tomorrow for more updates on the trip!
