Adam: Today we started work and I was the only person from our group at site 2. Site 2 is occupied by a woman Cindy and her cute little black poodle. The problem is that the rain runs down the hill/mountain and moves into her house and through her basement. Well, we worked through the rain all day working on trenches to divert the water away from the house. When we left, our work was doing too well because the trenches had diverted all the water into a single spot across her driveway. We will be adding a culvert later this week but during the rain the runoff had already dug a trench across the drive.
The kids I worked with were a nice and hardworking group. One boy, Nick, split his pants while swinging his pick but otherwise we had no problems.
Lisa, I love you. Hannah…you too.
Rachael: Today has been a blast so far, it was the first worksite day and it went wonderfully, even though it poured rain for 9/10ths of the time. I just took my shower about 30 mins ago and I’d have to say it was probably the best shower ever because I felt sooo dirty from the site. Like I am sitting here trying to think of a way to express how filthy we all were but there are no words in the English dictionary that can properly describe it. But now that I am clean, I can just look back and say, “that was so fun!”. Now we are awaiting dinner. It is pretty exciting because the food here is so amazing. Well im not sure what else to say because we still have half the day left it seems like. So Buhbyeee!
Mark: Well today was the first work day it was a lot of fun! I never thought I would have so much fun digging trenches and cutting roots in the rain. However we had to end early today because the rain was a cold downpour. So we decided that when we got back after working and cleaning up we would take a Kmart stop. While there, 4 of the guys decided to buy Nerf guns. I can only wait to see how that will end up late at night lol. While it is almost dinnertime and I am really hungry so I am going to wrap it up. Even though I am having a SO much fun here I still miss home a little bit. Well that is all for today. Hope everyone had a good day and I will write to you all again tomorrow.
Sarah: Today I remembered how horrible it is to get up early, because someone’s alarm went off at 5:30. I just laid in bed until 6 because I didn’t have the motivation to get up and start getting ready- not that there’s much to do to get ready. So I finally got up and got dressed and brushed my teeth and ate breakfast, and that was it. We departed to our sites around 7 am, and my van played loud music the whole time while singing and dancing. It was a good time. Then we actually had to get to work. I haven’t done anything physically exerting since golf ended in October, so I have like no muscles anymore. We are digging three trenches for the septic system, and we found out that we also need to dig a pit for a tank to go with it, since the old one from the original system is no longer functioning. We got most of the first trench finished and about half of the other two; by tomorrow all three should be completed. Also, tomorrow we begin work on the houses. We are working for the Rice family, and the parents and their daughter live on the same property, although the daughter lives a few yards away in her own tiny mobile trailer home. On the parents’ house, a carpentry crew will be going underneath the house to put supports underneath the toilet, since it is starting to sag through the floor. Mike said that PK (WI) and I would probably be on that job tomorrow. Mike told me today that he was basically training me in carpentry because he wanted to prepare me to be a leader for more servant events, especially this one. I thought that that was really neat, and I really hope that I can come back to ASE in the future as an adult leader. On the trailer house, we need to work on the deck and work on the floors.
Luke: Its only Monday but it feels like I’ve been here a whole week. As a guy from ASE 2008 said “Our group is really Gel-in’” Today we started working at the site, and the buzz word was torrential downpour. We were soaking wet and caked with mud by lunchtime. Our group leaders were afraid hypothermia was setting in so we got to go to the Y right after we ate. It was pretty cool though, although we finished early we got almost half the site done. Can’t wait for tomorrow.
Nikki: In the journals that we do here as part of community life, we had the question, “What really surprised you today?” I probably could have come up with several answers, but the first one that came to mind – sliding down the hill in a mud slick! It was raining when we got up this morning, and while it did let up briefly, it never really stopped until about 3:30 – or after the work day. Two of the work sites stopped early today. I am on the same site as Mark & Luke, and it was getting extremely messy, people were shivering (July in NC?) and slipping all over the place. More rain is forecast for the week. Hopefully it will blow through quickly, but they are in need of it here. They have had a dry summer so far. I pray that rain would come AFTER 3:00 for the rest of the week.
In spiritual life this year we are exploring some of the questions that we as Christians sometimes have to answer, either because we have been asked or we have asked ourselves. Tonight's questions was “How do you know that God answers prayer?” I already have many examples in my life of answered prayer, but tonight I received another one. The end part of our spiritual life is pairing off into prayer partners, sharing something we would like prayer about, and then praying for each other. As is often the case when we are sharing, I shared a prayer concern, but one that is really only 'the tip of the iceberg' as they say. My prayer partner prayed not only for what I asked prayer for, but also what I did not. She did not necessarily pray what I might have asked, but she certainly prayed for the situation, and without my requesting it. Like He so often does, God provided what He knew I needed.
Seth- Today we finally got to do some work. Unfortunately, it rained the whole day, but I still liked digging. I got really dirty, and I don't think I'll be able to wear those clothes tomorrow. I had a turkey sandwich and I played a bit of basketball today. Love you mom and dad, hope you had a good day of work today, good luck.
