WoW

So, to fill you in a little bit on what's been going on... group 3 arrived on Sunday. They are a smaller group that feels more like a family. There are a total of 7 of them, 3 of them are a dad and his two kids, 2 of them are brother and sister, and the other two are not related at all, or to anyone else in the group. But let me just tell you that they are working just as hard as our previous groups of 40 and 20. We are at the stage on floor two where we are demolishing walls and stuff. As I previously explained, we are working at Lindy Boggs Medical Center, and it is being remodeled to house residents of a state run nursing home. The stages for each floor go like this: remove all of the debris and trash and stuff, bag it up and throw it into the dumpster, then we remove the floating ceilings- including ceiling tiles, light fixtures, and cutting down the metal framing, then we start removing the duct work and metal conduit attached to the ceiling, then we pull up the carpet, then remove the wallpaper, then start removing the sheet rock and metal studs. The last two weeks of groups started on the cleaning up stages and removing the carpet and stuff in the ceiling. This week's group has had the pleasure of busting out the sheet rock and studs and framing. They started working yesterday, and put in another full day today, and they are rocking the house by removing walls and walls of stuff. The other cool thing is that we've had the privilege of working with a group of guys from "Joyzee" or Jersey, as us Midwestern folk call it. =) They have been doing such a great job of working together and helping each other out despite the fact that they were kind of thrown together on this floor.

Today was also a great day for me, because it was my turn to lead the "evening program" or our evening worship service. We learned from last night's acapella experience that we needed a little help, so David Crowder helped lead worship, as well as another worship group- we're not too proud to use some "CD worship" like they used to in the olden days... =) Alex (my partner in crime for the week) and I decided to take the first two evening programs to share our stories and talk about our favorite scriptures and how they've helped us. Alex did a great job last night, and I really felt like God spoke through her about her life, and how she views her relationship with God. Today I had the opportunity of sharing a little of my story with the group. I talked about my life through college, my call to ministry, and my searching journey right now. I teared up a little when I talked about the difficulties of my high school career, and some of the constant struggles I have regarding my self-worth. I also shared the "song"- Everybody's Free [To Wear Sunscreen], which if you haven't heard it you need to YouTube it... It's a "song" of spoken words of wisdom from a guy named "Baz Luhrmann". After sharing his words of wisdom I shared Romans 12 with the group. I've always associated Romans 12 with the beginning verses that talk about being transformed, and giving our bodies as living sacrifices as our spiritual act of worship, but if you keep reading, God offers (through Paul) some amazing words of wisdom on how to live a life that glorifies God and in some ways, how to make our lives "easier". I read this scripture with new eyes tonight. My favorite part, that is really resonating with me right now is verse 16b and c: "Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!" I love that. It was a friendly, emphatic reminder that I needed to hear.