Youth shovel mulch in the rain.

Thirty-eight youth and adults are spending the week in Madison County, North Carolina, partnering with local contacts to help repair and improve homes and schools in the county.  We departed on Sunday very early and arrived Sunday evening around 9:30 pm to Mars Hill College where we are staying for the week in apartments with all-natural air conditioning.

Foreman Julie Watson ready to work.

On Monday, the youth were divided between two locations:  the Madison County Elementary School and the Madison County Middle School.  At the Elementary school, the middle school you worked hard indoors and out.  Indoors, they painted walls and cleaned. Outside, they pulled tons of weeds and moved tons of mulch — in the pouring rain.  It rained hard and steady all day until the bus came to pick them up.  At the middle school, the high school youth moved a lot of student desks and chairs back into classrooms that had had the floors waxed.  Then, they moved a lot more student desks and chairs into the hallways from rooms that had yet to be waxed.   A small team of mostly adults when to locate the houses we would be working on this week and to make a supply list so we could purchase materials.  The county is huge and the houses are back on some small, windy cutback roads on the mountains.  Beautiful, beautiful area.

The youth sing at Western North Carolina Baptist Home.

Last night the youth performed their first concert at the Western North Carolina Baptist Home in Asheville, North Carolina.  It was a great crowd – maybe 50 residents and the youth did an amazing job.

We are having a great time and everyone is healthy and happy! (no joke).   Today is a  hot day and very humid after the rains but it could be much worse so we are grateful – or trying to be.

I posted pictures so far here.  There will be more – maybe every other day since I have to drive to a different location to find free wireless internet.

Enjoying our charter bus!

Picture Update: Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/fbcjcmo to get to the pictures I have uploaded so far. More will be coming!

This week has gone so fast!  Many have commented that it feels like we left Jefferson City almost a month ago.  When your days are incredibly busy from morning to evening and you are having fun, this is the result.

Today was our last day with the Moncrief children. We arrived at our usual time and did our final preps. Half of the group (3rd, 4th, and 5th graders) went to the zoo today.  We had 32 children and 23 youth and adults. Those are good odds when taking a group to the zoo. I was so proud of our youth and laughed at how they responded to responsibility with children.  They held their hands; reminded them to stay together; warned them that they had to carry their own water bottle, etc.

Cole and Klayton have them in line. Literally.

After almost four hours at the zoo, we headed back to the church.  Our youth looked whipped. But it truly was a great day and the children absolutely loved the zoo.  And riding in our charter bus!

The rest of the team stayed at Moncrief today to work with the three youngest grades. At the end of the day, we said goodbye to the kids as they loaded the vans for home. There were tears on both sides as they parted ways.

Enjoying some pool time at the hotel in the evening!

Before our wonderful dinner made by the kitchen crew, we all worked around the center.  We had about an hour each day after the kids left to help out around the center.  We cleaned out several closets and threw out an amazing amount of work. Our youth were beat by the time they loaded the bus at 5:15 pm to head to our final singing engagement.  About 20 minutes into the trip, I noticed that it was really quiet and saw that they were almost all asleep.  So I went down the aisle with the video camera to capture it.  When I have the chance, I’ll upload it here.

We arrived back at the hotel at our usual time – 8:30 pm.  The kids suddenly come alive and the pool is a popular place!

Tomorrow is our fun day!  We are visiting the Coca-Cola Museum, Georgia Aquarium, CNN Studio, and Centennial Park .  I may not post tomorrow night so don’t worry if you don’t see anything!

Large group opening

Third verse, same as the first…….  This is how I feel about today’s post.  What to tell you that is new?  Not much.

Yesterday afternoon our charter bus had major malfunctions with its air conditioning. It was a miserable sauna in the last half of the bus.  So our driver, Ralph, took the bus to wherever you take charter buses when they are working and by late afternoon he was back with the problem fixed.  We were super thankful!

We were all at Moncrief today with rotations and the children.  It was a busy day as usual with many different activities going on – a great way to keep about 60 kids entertained and focused.  Somewhat focused.  The children are energetic and adorable!!!  Our lesson focus this week has been on the Lord’s Prayer.

Just a few of the many pizzas delivered!

We’ve been teaching the prayer itself and the meaning of the prayer to the children and our youth are learning and growing as well.  Each rotation lasts about 45 minutes and then our youth hall monitors move them to their next rotation.  Some rotations are plain fun like gym time and the Wii room.  Others are educational like learning about forgiveness and about daily bread.  Many of the rotations allow the children to make something to take home with them at the end of the week.  Today’s big hit was the pizza we had delivered for lunch from CiCi’s.  The kids ate a TON of pizza – nearly all of the 45 pizzas we purchased.  As one young boy said, “The pizza dudes ROCK.”.  Amen.

Kitchen team with some of the empty boxes!

After the children left around 3 pm, our youth worked on projects around the center for about 90 minutes.  The guys cleaned out the three vans that belong to the center.  A side-note:  Sammy Whillhite – you do a MARVELOUS job keeping our vans clean and safe!  Thanks! The girls worked on the third floor sorting closets, pitching old items and cleaning!  There are a ton of items throughout the center – many donated – that have collected faster than they can be organized.  With a group our size, it is a blessing we can leave with the center to help get it organized and clean.

Girl playing dress up feeding her baby doll

At 5 pm we returned to First Baptist, Hapeville, for a delicious supper of spaghetti, salad, bread and homemade ice cream and apple crisp! They sure did treat us right!  We are so grateful and blessed  by their hospitality and generosity.   At 6 pm, we traveled to the Baptist Towers – a lower socio-economic housing facility for retired adults.  The place was packed and the crowd loved the youth!  They were a hit and I believe could have sold some cds if we ever made any!

I’m having trouble getting the pictures loaded to Picasa.  I run out of time each night to get to this part.  However, I have been able to load them to Facebook.  Below are links to the albums on Facebook.  Even if you are not on Facebook, you can still view and enjoy pictures from our trip!
Sunday Pictures

Monday Pictures

Tuesday Pictures

Wednesday Pictures

Girls enjoying the zoo.

Today was an exciting day for the group.  Half of our team took the children in grades kindergarten through second grade to the Atlanta Zoo.  They all rode in our charter bus which was a great treat for them. The children really loved the zoo even though it was very hot outside. They don’t often get to go to the zoo.  They saw a lot of animals in the zoo.  Our youth paired up with kids and were mostly two kids to one youth which was perfect.  Our youth were getting a good taste of the responsibility of taking little kids to public places where they can easily get away from you. Thankfully, we have no stories like this to share.  Everything went great!  Our food team made a delicious sack lunch and there were only smiles at the end of the day.

The other youth remained at Moncrief with the children in grades 3, 4, and 5/6.  We did three new rotations with them that we will repeat with the younger grades tomorrow.  It was nice to have a smaller group of kids to work with.  For smaller teams that come, they truly have their hands full.

Usually after the children leave around 3:00 pm the youth are divided into work projects around the center.  Cleaning, sorting, etc. for about an

Mandi leads a small group rotation.

hour and a half until supper.  Well, today I surprised them with a work project of napping!!  (A rare assignment, believe me.)  I could tell this morning that they were a tired bunch.  We still have two more days of hard work so a mid-nap week seemed like the right thing.  Not suprisingly, the youth were all in favor of this project!

This evening we traveled to nearby First Baptist Church, Hapeville, to perform for them.

First Baptist Church, Hapeville

We had a small but very loving and encouraging audience.  We have sent a couple of youth each day to help this church with their small VBS.  It has been a surprise partnership but a blessed one this week.  Afterwards, we went to the nearby Chick-Fila which was the first Chick-Fila restaurant ever.  The restaurant had already agreed to treat us to our meal which was so nice!  They had a large area for us to eat and it was delicious.  They have some new fans.  They also gave each of the youth a token stuffed-animal of the mascot.  You are never too old for free stuffed animals!  Thanks, Chick-Fila for being a great Christ-like business ministry.

The Original Chick-Fila

We returned to the hotel around 8:30 pm and the kids enjoyed some downtime in the rooms and the pool!