The North Carolina (NC) team took a day-off from painting the church at their main work site. Instead they spent the morning visiting a local nursing home in Weaverville called the Brian Center. NC teams have been visiting the Brian Center for the past five years and it has developed into one of the kid's favorite experiences on the trip. The team arrived and split into small serving groups of 4-6 people. Some of the groups worked on weeding, power washing, and picking up trash for the first part of the morning. The grounds keeper was very appreciative because it is a large property and he was not able to handle all of the work by himself. All of the other groups either spent time visiting residents in their rooms or brought residents down to the dining hall where we had setup games, a nail polish station, and music. The team had one person playing the piano and a few others who created a small choir singing the worship songs from our team booklets that they used during Porch Time. It was beautiful to watch the residents begin to smile as they sat and listened to the voices of kids that are the age of their grandchildren. One of the most powerful testimonies from the day came from watching the kids break through the awkwardness of first meeting elderly men and women that they had never met before. The entire building was filled with members of the team sharing love and care to the residents. It was not only inspirational for the residents, but the Brian Center staff repeatedly commented on the impact the NC team was making. As the team finished their time at the Brian Center, they were surprised to find out that the Brian Center staff had bought hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and cookies for the team to grill out with. It was a great celebration of all that God was doing in and through the team.
After lunch the NC team headed up towards the blue ridge parkway to visit two unique spots in North Carolina: sliding rock and Looking Glass falls. Sadly, sliding rock was closed for the day and so we were only able to take pictures. However, Looking Glass Falls was an instant hit with the team as they were impressed by the large waterfall and had fun swimming in the water. Following the swim it began to rain, and so the team picked up pizzas for dinner and headed to one of the summer intern's, Megan May, house because it has a big barn that we were able to fit into. It was a great moment of provision by God because the barn provided a great space for the team to not only eat dinner, but also have a miniature Porch Time. The team sang a few worship songs and then Luke gave a devotional thought from the day. He used Romans 1:20 to talk about the knowledge we can gain from the natural world around us and how God is continually trying to keep us from putting God into a box. The trip has already challenged some of the team member's limited views of God and Luke asked the team to reflect upon where God might be asking them to expand their view of God's presence in the world. After Porch Time, Megan's family surprised the team with dessert. It was another special moment for the team as they were once again blown away by the generosity of others. Finally, the team loaded up and headed back to the housing site to clean up and get ready for bed.
It has been a truly wonderful and blessed day! Thanks for all of your prayers and support that were lifted up at the prayer night or individually. They are helping make a huge difference!
