After our arrival last night, the team awoke eager to find out what our work project would be and who we would be serving. After breakfast, we enjoyed some morning worship that the ReCreation Experience staff led. This is ReCreation's 25th year of service in the Asheville area and so it is special for our team to celebrate this year with them. Following our morning worship the team loaded up the vans and drove to our work site.
This year we have the privilege to serve a woman named Miriam that has been living in the same house for 26 years. She has a small 3 bedroom ranch-style home that she shares with 8 other family members. They have recently had issues with their current septic system, which has led to them needing a completely new set of pipelines in order for them to stay in their home. The county was on the verge of evicting them from their home because Miriam and her family are financially unable to repair the septic system on their own.
This sad situation has given us a wonderful opportunity to step in and be the hands and feet of God to help this family. It was exciting to watch the entire team at the work site excited and ready to help Miriam and her family. We were able to make some great progress on all of the new trenches that we are digging as well as beginning to prime the outside of their entire house. It has been an inspiring day as sixty five 13 and 14 year olds used their energy to serve Miriam, serve each other, and serve God.
After a full day at the work site, we drove back to our housing site to clean-up and eat dinner. Following dinner and some free time, we gathered for our first "porch time" of the trip. Porch time is what we call our evening gathering that we hold each night to share memories from the day, sing worship songs, and hear a talk that is geared directly towards processing all that God is doing and going to do on this trip. Tonight, Luke spoke from Luke 10 where Jesus sends 72 of his followers on their own mission trips. He talked about Jesus's command in Luke 10:4 to leave behind certain things and focus on the task God has set before us. He challenged the team to take advantage of the opportunities that each of us will be given this week to talk to a leader or friend about their faith and to look forward to the God-given joy that can be experienced through loving others the way God intended for us too as we live out our faith.
The night ended by having the entire team split into small groups where they continued the conversation Luke began during porch time. It is always amazing to watch God begin to break down the walls of fear and insecurities through relationships in small groups.
We look forward to another day on the job site tomorrow and thank you for your continued prayers.
