North Carolina Day #5 - 7.8.16

Our final full day here in North Carolina began with a great breakfast at ReCreation and then we headed right out to the work site to spend a full day finishing the project.  Much to our dismay, when we arrived, we found the septic trenches that we had worked all week filled with mud and about 4 inches of water.  However, even Mother Nature couldn't stop the attempts of our kids to finish the project that we came here to complete and help this family that we have come to love.  After spending much of the morning bailing water out of the ditches, our team grabbed their shovels and got to work perfecting the walls and depths for these septic trenches.  After spending the day split between putting the new shingles on the roof and crafting our three trenches, we were a little disheartened when we had to leave and only about 80% of the pipes had been placed and recovered. 

We said our goodbyes to John, Zachary, and Austin and headed back to ReCreation to clean up and have dinner.  After dinner we had a time of worship in the traditional ReCreation way, (lots of dancing and singing and shouting) and were entertained by a short highlight video that the staff had put together with pictures from throughout the week.  We transitioned from that into our final porch time where we had special visitors that came to join us. John and Zachary had come to join us for our time of worship and to hear Nick speak on Jacob, the character we had look at in our pre-trip meetings.  We talked about how Jacob had had an encounter with God, face to face and that he had left this encounter with a "limp" or something that he carried with him and yet, he was distracted from where God had called him to go.

We concluded that fear is a powerful motive in causing us to put anything besides God on the throne of our lives, and after the message, students had an opportunity to reflect on an assignment they had worked on prior to the trip. They wrote on a card some of the fears and uncertainty in their lives, and slowly, one by one, they made their way to a small fire to symbolically burn those fears and doubts. In closing, we all sang "No Longer Slaves," reinforcing again that we are not slaves to fear, but are children of God. Small groups continued the discussion  of Jacob's story and his encounter with God in Genesis.

Just as when Jacob wrestled with God, our students had a chance to wrestle physically and emotionally with the strenuous task of digging these trenches. John, the homeowner we had helped all week, during our final porch time ended our night with wise words of encouragement for our students, "Don't feel as though you failed because you didn't finish the work, but know that you showed me what the true blessing of God is." We hope that after wrestling this week, God's blessing is made clear in our lives.

We are sad to leave, but excited at the prospect of carrying God's blessings with us as we head back to Williamsburg tomorrow!

Nashville Trip Final Details

Hey Nashville Team,

I can't believe we leave for Nashville in just two days! Just a few things to remember as Sunday quickly approaches:

1) We will be meeting at chapel at 7:45 am ON SUNDAY. We will be packing up the trailer and rolling out as soon as possible. Please try to get to Chapel by 7:45 so we can get on the road, we have a long journey ahead of us.

2) For any last minute packers like myself, here is the packing list for Nashville. Please remember to pack a pair of long pants and closed toed shoes, some serving sites require them. Ladies, unfortunately, they have had some issues with leggings so far this summer so all serving sites and the housing sites have banned them. It will be a blistering 90 degrees when we are there so you will probably want to wear shorts most of the time anyway.

Nashville Packing List

Also, you might want to pack a western outfit for our free night....

3) It is a long drive so feel free to pack some snacks. We will keep them in the kitchen once we get there so please label your things either before you leave or upon arrival at our housing site.

4) We will be stopping for lunch on the way up as well as on the way home. Feel free to pack a lunch or bring money for food!


Can't wait to be in Nashville with you guys! Please text Abbey Sams (757.903.6292) with any questions!

North Carolina Day #4 - 7.7.16

After a great day off yesterday, the North Carolina team woke up, had breakfast and worshiped with the staff at ReCreation.  We heard another morning message from the head of ReCreation, on service, where we looked at the passage where Jesus washed the disciples feet.  We were encouraged to look for opportunities to serve throughout the day, not only through digging, but also serving our teammates and others that we come into contact with.  We then headed to the work site to continue our work on the septic trenches and replacing the roof. In a truly "only God" moment, the rains that were foretasted to come mid-day did not come until we had packed up and loaded the buses at the end of the day, allowing us to make great progress on the trenches.  We headed back to ReCreation to  clean up and had dinner. After dinner we shared in an ice cream sundae bar with the other group that is staying at ReCreation in an attempt to serve the staff here that has been serving us all week.  We then began our nightly porch time where we recounted our day through "Remember that time" and "I saw Jesus" and we also joined our voices together to worship the God that we have been experiencing first hand here in North Carolina.  Madeline Duke gave the talk tonight about serving and our attitudes behind that service. She spoke from Mathew 25 where Jesus tells the disciples that when they have served the least of these then they have served Him.  We continued the discussion on this idea in small groups where we looked at what serving could look like not only in our time left in North Carolina, but as we come home to Williamsburg as well. We are excited, but also a little sad for our last day at the work site tomorrow, where we seek to serve John and his family by finishing their roof and septic system.  Thank you all for your prayers! We look forward to see how God will continue to show up during the rest of our time here!
Below is a link to the video of our team we showed at the prayer meeting that was earlier tonight.

NC Team Video

North Carolina #3 - 7.6.16

Today was our day off here in Weaverville, but it started the same as the others with an early breakfast and worship at ReCreation. After a brief message from the head of ReCreation continuing the teaching of their summer theme, "Into the Fire", Our team then headed out for our first activity, Sliding Rock! We had a blast sliding down the natural water slide and building even more memories together.  After a few hours at Sliding Rock, we ventured down the road a little ways to a picnic area where we enjoyed lunch with a beautiful view.  Then we went to "Looking Glass Falls" which is a waterfall with a swimming at it's base and we reveled in the beauty of God's creation as we enjoyed some more quality time together swimming and taking in the scenery.  We left the falls and headed into Asheville where we had a chance for some more small group bonding time while also getting the opportunity to learn about some of the conditions of the region and the poverty it faces. With an average monthly household income of $2,000 for a family of four. After necessary bills, they are left with a budget of roughly $100 dollars per month for food. Things that we don't often think about being a problem in America, like making decisions between food or medicine, are very present and much closer to us than we would like to admit.  We then headed to May Farms, home of Meagan May who was a summer intern and program assistant in Student Ministry a few years ago. We had dinner and also did our nightly porch time in their barn.  Brody Scott spoke tonight about competition verses compassion and how so often in our lives we allow our competitiveness to effect how we treat people and and situations that we face.  He compared competition to the example of compassion in John 8 where Jesus said, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone." So often are we quick to call out sin in those around us, and yet are blind to our own.  Would we want to be called out or would we want to be shown compassion as the woman was in John 8?  After porch time, we drove back to ReCreation and began to mentally prepare to get back to work tomorrow. It was a peaceful and restful day, but we are excited to continue and finish our work project in the next two days!

North Carolina Day #2 - 7.5.16

Day 2 here in North Carolina started off with an early morning, delicious breakfast, and a fun-filled worship time at our ReCreation housing site. After worship, the head of ReCreation gave a talk on their theme for the summer, "into the fire" where he encouraged us to allow a spark to catch within us.  He also spoke about how the fire isn't always easy, but it is within the fire not just near it that Jesus meets us.  With those words in mind, we headed out to our work site for day 2 of digging and roofing.  We put in a great morning of work at John's house and ate lunch with the family.  As we were beginning our afternoon back in the trenches, we were forced to stop working for the day as a thunderstorm rolled through the area.  However, we did not let this get us down as we used this new found free time to our advantage with some great group bonding time (which involved some delicious cookies!) We had a delicious dinner provided for us by the ReCreation staff and then got ready for porch time.  After "remember that time" and "I saw Jesus", we joined our voices together to worship through song and then heard the second talk of the trip, given by Jordan Bunn.  Jordan spoke on the fact that we are here not only to have a temporary physical impact, but that we have been given an opportunity to make an eternal spiritual impact.  She spoke from 2 Corinthians 5:20, where Paul writes about being ambassadors for Christ and what that looks like not only while we are down here in North Carolina, but as we take what God is teaching us on this trip and bring it home.  We continued our discussion in small groups and then got ready for bed.  We are excited about how God has already shown up in the time we've been down here and are looking forward to where He will turn up next!

North Carolina Day #1 - 7.4.16

Happy 4th! We celebrated our nation today by waking up for an early breakfast and some great worship with the ReCreation staff.  After morning worship, we loaded up the buses and vans and headed out for our first day at our work site.  Upon arrival, we found out what our main project would be: Roofing and digging a septic tank line for a wonderful family.  Once we had split up into two groups (one to start digging the first septic line and the other begin the process of replacing the roof), the family whose house we are working at came out and introduced themselves to us. John and his two sons, Zachary and Austin, came out to tell us how appreciative they were for our willingness to come help them. Not only were they incredibly grateful for us coming to work on their home, they actually came and helped us for most of the day with the digging.  We were blessed with the opportunity to not only serve these people, but to work alongside and get to know them as well! It is truly amazing to see how God can work through people. After a full day of roofing and digging, we headed back to ReCreation to shower, have dinner, and have our first "porch time." Porch Time is our nightly program where we have time for remembering the funny things that happened during the day, where we saw Jesus at work, and worship through song.  Nick then gave a talk on the idea that we were sent here by God, that it was just by accident.  We looked in Genesis 31 at part of the story of Jacob and how he was sent by God, but along the way was distracted.  We then looked in Luke 10 where Jesus sent the 72 and how they left things behind in order to avoid distractions.  In Small Groups the team discussed more about the idea that we were sent here to North Carolina and where we could find opportunities during our time down here to avoid distractions and seek out opportunities to serve.  Finally to fulfill our duty as citizens we went and enjoyed a good ol' American firework show and then went to bed, excited to see God at work and continue to serve down here in Weaverville, North Carolina!

North Carolina Team has arrived!

We made it to Weaverville! The drive went well and the ReCreation staff was super welcoming to our team.  We are heading to bed and preparing to see how God is going to work on our team this week! Thank you for all of your prayers and we will update you here on the blog each night about what we did during each day!