Monday, October 30, 2017 - Day 3

We started this morning out with breakfast and devotionals at CHMI (the place where we are staying). This morning I REALLY pushed myself out of my comfort zone, confronted my fear of public speaking head on, and lead the devotionals. I was shaking the entire time, and thought that my voice was going to give out once or twice, but I did it! As I tell my kids, "it's okay to be afraid, but do it anyways." I am so thrilled that I pushed myself to do the uncomfortable and I think that it went really well.

I shared from Luke 8:22-25 when Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves, calming the storm. I really enjoyed being able to share from my personal studies and hope that others on the team got something from it.

Our afternoon was filled with work projects at LOL. Some of the guys helped out in the garage working on vehicles and repairing a tractor. Others on the team worked on replacing the screens around the kitchen/dinning room/ living room space on the second floor of the main building. And Rachael taught a CPR/First Aid training class for the staff.

Jeff was responsible for organizing the team replacing the screens today. We had to remove the outer frame, take down the old torn screen, remove the staples holding the screens in place, sand the frames, stain the frames, and then put it all back together with new screens. I had far too much fun pounding flat the old staples that couldn't be removed. Hitting things with a hammer is far more fun than it appears to be.

The sanding today was harder than I thought it would be. We didn't have an electric sander; therefore, everything had to be sanded by hand. At first I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, after all how hard can it be, right? Wrong. Not long after I started I realized the mistake in my thinking. Hand sanding board after board really adds up quickly. I am now much more grateful for the tools we have here that make jobs much easier.

We spent most of the day working on the screens. Towards the end of the day that project reached a point where they didn't need as many hands helping. Most of us girls went to work on the courtyard garden area, weeding and cleaning it up. I got my first experience using thin set tile cement to cement boarder stones together. Yet another experience in resourcefulness.

After a full day of working we had the treat of stopping at a roadside grocery store for ice cream on the way home. I got mint chocolate chip but Jeff chose the sweet corn ice cream. Apparently it tasted just like they poured a can of corn into the ice cream mix, complete with chunks of corn. Yay for trying new things, even if they don't turn out like you expect.

Back at home some of the team played volley ball and frisbee. And Dan and Dustin found a tarantula. Some of the other team members took turns holding the tarantula but I wasn't brave enough so I took pictures instead.

While they were playing with the tarantula Pastor Bruce was trying to get some photos with his drone. Unexpectedly, Bear, the guard dog, who had been lazy up to this point, started chasing the drone. Bear was determined to get that drone or chase it out of his yard. In order to land the drone without Bear getting it Bruce had to land it on top of our bus and have Jeff climb out the emergency exit to grab it. I'm pretty sure Bear sat next to that bus for quite a while waiting for that drone to come down.