The NC team was excited to get back to work at Miriam's house today. However, the 7th grade boys began the day by going to the local Manna Food Bank. Manna is a national organization that seeks to give hunger relief to the surrounding areas wherever they are located. The local branch here in Asheville, NC serves all of Western North Carolina by collecting, packaging, and distributing food to counties throughout western North Carolina. The 7th grade boys packaged over 3000 meals for people that will be distributed to families in need. They returned to our work site with great stories of all they had accomplished and all the fun they had doing it. It was great to see God give them a grander vision of what hunger relief looks like and how God can use them to be a part of it.
The rest of the NC team went straight to our work site where they continued digging septic pipe trenches and painting Miriam's house. We have now finished 3 out of the 4 main pipelines and the fourth one should be done early tomorrow morning. The end is in sight and God has used this fact as motivation to help the team finish the project with the same eagerness that they began with on Monday. Along with finishing the three trenches, we were able to begin digging the supply line that will run from the existing septic tank to the new set of pipelines. Tomorrow we should be able to finish the supply line, dig connecting trenches between the four main pipelines, and celebrate a new septic system with Miriam.
Along with digging, we continued to paint Miriam's house. We have finished priming the entire house, trim, and front deck. Also, about half the house has already been given a first coat of the new blue color that Miriam chose for her house. We ran out of blue paint partway through our day which halted some of the painting progress, but we will have fresh paint tomorrow so that we will be able to hopefully at least finish the first coat of blue paint on the entire house.
All in all, the team has become a team of expert painters and diggers that have not only touched the lives of Miriam, but have also been an inspiration to many other people that have seen us working. Today, our site engineer, named Seth, was so moved by all our hard work that he surprised us with ice cream sandwiches and ice pops for the entire team. It was a genuine act of appreciative for the love of Christ being expressed through our team to Miriam's family and the surrounding houses that have had to deal with the leaking sewage in part of Miriam's yard.
After finishing our day at the work site, the team headed back to our housing site for dinner, free time, and our porch time gathering. Tonight, Luke talked about the motivating attitude behind a team of 13 and 14 year olds that can't stand the idea of cleaning their own room at home, but are enjoying spending four days digging. He used Matthew 9:35-38 to show that compassion is the motivating attitude that Jesus has towards other people. He challenged the group to not just try on compassion for a week, but to become compassionate people that show everyday compassion like Jesus. Following Luke's talk everyone split up into small groups to discuss the concept of compassion and how they can continue to be compassionate once they get back to Williamsburg.
Tomorrow is our final day here in Weaverville, so please pray for continued eagerness to finish our project and for the lessons learned down here to be sealed in our hearts.
