Work work work!

Well, we are more than half way through our week and we have definitely had many different experiences and adventures! We have had 3 main work sites so far. Here are some details about each.....

The Food Bank
Everyday, we have sent a new group to the food bank to help distribute food to the needy. Every night when that group returns, there are always stories of how our eyes have been opened to the many blessings in our lives. We have had many "God moments" at the food bank, including a woman tearing up and thanking Hailey for giving her a piece of meat because she hadn't eaten meat in 6 months. We will continue this mission Thursday and Friday morning and we hope that it will continue to be a heartwarming experience for all! Here are some pictures that Jeff took of Tuesday's group.

The Summer Enrichment Program
On Monday and Tuesday, a group of us volunteered at a local summer enrichment program for underprivileged youth. We went in with hopes of being able to make a difference in these kids' lives.  Unfortunately, we ran into some bumps in the road at this camp and felt that it was not the right fit for the age range of our group. However, we feel as though these two days were not wasted because we definitely made some connections with some of the kids and experienced a God moment or two as well! Kayla, Tommy, and I also felt very accomplished after cleaning out and organizing a closet full of learning materials that these kids will now be able to use because the counselors have access to them. The picture of boxes that follow are where all the materials used to be collecting dust in a closet. Then you can see the after of all the materials OUT of boxes and neatly organized. (P.S. I do not have any pictures of the youth we worked with up here due to privacy)...

Angela's Home
The main work almost our entire group has been involved with this week has been on Angela's house. The pictures of us dry walling in the last post were taken here. Our group was able to meet Angela on Tuesday and hear her story. She showed the group how high the water had been in her home and talked about what had been lost or destroyed during Hurricane Ike. We have been working very hard to get her closer to having a home back. Our job mostly involves measuring, cutting, and hanging drywall as well as taping, spackling and sanding it. Today, we also became involved in creating a new garden for her. She is coming to eat lunch with us tomorrow and we cannot wait to see her reaction when she sees the progress on her house and garden. Please enjoy the rest of the pictures below...

Pictures of our garden work...

                          Beautiful and new!!!

As you can see, we are pretty tired by the end of every work day...

 Check in for more updates tomorrow (including our 2nd annual Sonic trip!)

Goodnight y'all!

Britt

1st Presbyterians Sunday church service



View of 1st Presbyterian Church.....

Picture of a trailer everyone is sleeping in.

It's Lanelle! Our site manager...

Enjoying a little fine dinning in the fellowship hall.

Boys will be boys! But I think Jack (first on right) might need lessons on Pull-Ups?



An early trip Monday morning down to Galveston to start our work week about 30 minutes south of Texas City.






Devestation at Galveston Island

Our introduction devotion to "One Mission Galveston" our P.D.A. mission partner.

Arriving at our work site in Galveston Texas!

Back at home and the work never stops! Must say thank you to all our stockholders.



It's music and devotion time. Our theme is "Building from the inside out"





Ended Today with some fun lunch making for Tuesday!

Sunday is a day of rest

As today winds down and I am looking through pictures to try to decide which ones make "the cut" for the blog, I must say it is a hard decision. Today was filled with roller coasters, Texas steak, geocaching, boat rides, and bonding. As we prepare for bed before the week of hard mission work ahead, I will let the pictures do the work of sharing our boardwalk adventure today...... enjoy :)

Some of our crew by the water at Kemah boardwalk!

Some of the local decor!

Andie found a micro-cache while we were geocaching (with the help of Jillian who figured out the hint!)

Jillian found the second micro-cache of the day (the very small silver container in her hand was hidden in the plastic pipe on the wooden pole!)

Some of our crew enjoying the rides with the PDA crew members Doug and Kayla

I have a lot more to update on general hanging out around the campsite, our church service today, and there will be a lot to update after our work tomorrow! Keep checking back this week to see what we are up to! Feel free to leave comments on the bottom of the posts (we really like comments ;)

Goodnight all!
Britt

We've Arrived!

We have arrived in Texas City, TX after many interesting trials. Fortunately, we are all here safe with all of our luggage, which is the important thing!

We started our day off on Saturday morning at Towson Presbyterian Church saying our goodbyes to our families. Thanks to all of the awesome parents who drove us to the airport!



After arriving at BWI, everything went smoothly through security and we hopped on the plane for Texas. 

 Most of us took this as an opportunity for a small nap.

When we got to Houston (and enjoyed the smoooooothest baggage claim I have ever experienced), we waited for what was way too long to get our rental cars.

                Ben oh so patiently waiting for our vans......

Eventually, we got our 5 Dodge vans and headed out in style on the road to Texas City.  My personal favorite anecdote from our ride has to be the choice in radio stations in Houston. They have your classic rock, light FM, and country stations. However, they have three things that we don’t have: hip hop gospel, hottest bluegrass hits, and about 9 completely spanish speaking stations (which is not an exaggeration!). My personal favorite was the hip hop gospel music.

Despite a couple of wrong turns, we arrived at the 1st Presbyterian Church where our PDA village is housed. Linelle, our site leader, and Doug, our work leader, are extremely helpful and welcoming. We were greeted with a delicious dinner of mac and cheese, hot dogs, baked beans and bacon. The pods we are staying in are very nice despite close quarters. We are very blessed to have such a nice place to live this week while we do God’s work.

This morning, we will be attending the 10:30 church service. After church, we are going to have some lunch and head to the Kemah Boardwalk for some “fun day off” time before we kick into gear EARLY tomorrow morning (I mean... 5:30, early!).

We cannot wait to see what this week will bring. Please keep praying for us at home as we start building from the inside out in Texas.

More pictures and stories later,
Britt