Monday

(Written by Missy Rotenberry)  God has done so many wonderful things since I've been here.  the closeness and happiness with our mission team is God all the way.  these people are starting to feel like family to me.  god has blessed me by giving me the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and into His.  You know, I love it!  thank you, God, you're the ONE!

Today was a day of HARD WORK!!!  One group painted a house for a needy family.  Another group worked on cleaning up a cemetery, and a third group did a prayer walk around the area we were working in.  We're working with a ministry called Nehemiah's Vision, a group who works to rebuild needy people's homes for free.  The father in this family was handicapped and he had a recent accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.  we were able to paint the exterior trim on his house today.  More work to do tomorrow.

The second group worked hard cleaning out a cemetery that has to be manually cleaned because it's a historical landmark - and you can't use heavy equipment in a historical landmark area.  Most of the work was pulling wood out of a pile and moving it to the curb so the clean up crews can take it away.  The hardest part was uncovering some contents of a house, a picture of a family, a dvd, plumbing, and a kids toy.  It was hard not to be affected by the reality that we were picking up possessions these people would never see again.

The third group had a chance to do a prayer walk around the area where we were painting the house.  They were able to meet and pray with some other people working on their house.  we found that most of the people in the neighborhood were Christians and we were able to encourage all we came across.

We've been working "outside of the box" with a couple of situations.  There are a few people in this local church who need help in their own homes.  They expressed some frustration with seeing a bunch of groups coming into their church and not helping them at all.  they let us stay here.  they feed us.  they pray for us, but we haven't done anything for them.  we want to be a different kind of a group - so we contacted them and we're going to be working with them later in the week.

AIM has 5 objectives for each of us to do on this trip: listening prayer, meet a felt need, make a meaningful relationship, share your faith, and debrief and respond.  our goal is for everyone to be able to do all 5 on this trip and we're seeing many work through their list and look forward to being able to do them again.  Listening prayer is part of every day on the mission field.  The work we did today is definitely meeting a felt need.  We're working on making meaningful relationships with the Pastor, the leader of Nehemiah's Vision, and all of the people we're working with and around.  many have had the chance to share their faith.  and we debrief and respond every evening - and other times during the day.

Please realize that this is just a quick list of highlights.  There are many other praises that come as our days progress.  Our team is working VERY well together.  we've been safe.  our time of training has been VERY useful.  We've had many chances to depend on God - changes of plans because of weather or lack of communication or just new needs that we come across, and God has led us every time we've asked Him to lead us.

As I look at our group I've been thinking that we're a great representation of the body of Christ.  We fill each other's weaknesses, we're willing to use our strengths, our talents, and our abilities to build each other up and work stronger as a group.  There isn't anyone on this trip who feels unneeded or unsuccessful.  When we're faced with a task, we let those who have strength in that area take lead and we help them.  I can see the leadership role being passed from person to person based on the circumstance and the rest supporting the one with that role.

This has been a year where I've identified that we have a strong group of students, adults and college students who help in youth ministry.  we're unified in purpose, willing to work together, focused on following God's leading.  I've wondered what God has planned for us - I feel that He's preparing us for something BIG, but i don't know where He's going with all of this preparation.  While i see the evidence of this strength, unity, and focus on God on this trip, i don't think this trip is our purpose.  i only think this trip is part of the preparation for what God has planned for us.  as i'm writing this i'm sitting in the back of a worship service that's going on 3 hours long.  This is a group that hungers after God and seeks to serve Him.  I wish you could be here to experience this with us.  It's like a Delta experience and an ATF experience all wrapped up in one.  Este is leading us in worship and testimony and prayer.  we've talked about how God has been at work among us and we're begging Him to work more!

I mentioned at dinner today that it's great to see such a diverse group be able to work so well together.  you can see our older participants hanging out with teens and there aren't any cliques here at all.  people are jumping to respond to needs to clean, to help, to go here or there, and we haven't been complaining that there isn't enough of this or that.  And they're really enjoying being with each other!

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement.  We'll do our best to keep you updated, but there is little left here and an internet connection just hasn't been a priority for those who lost everything in the storm.  Our cell phones are working here, so be sure to check the message update at 315-225-1099 each evening.  We're an hour behind you, but we'll try to post a daily update as we get ready for dinner.

Celeste and Tory working at the cemetery.	One of the graves at the cemetery.  This person died in the 1800's.
Brandon, Jan, and Zack pose for a picture during lunch.	Wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load made its way to the curb.
This was a large portion of a roof of a house.  we definitely needed to work well as a team today!	Not all the loads were huge ones, but every little bit helps!
Marianne takes a load.	This huge tree was very heavy!  We were glad to have Kip on this work team!
This was the pile of debris we put at the curb today.	Can you see the huge block of wood on the end?  Kip carried it himself!
This is the house we worked at today.  We painted just about everything that is white.	Celeste and Emily raking up the debris.
Brandon used his incredible strength to wrestle the wood.	This was actually part of a telephone pole.
Jan was working hard today too.	Cindy took the easy way back to the debris - except PJ hit every one of the bumps on the way!
Zack and Emily trying to keep the paint on the wood and off themselves.	McKenna did a great job concentrating on the details.
It's was neat to see McKenna and Kathryn working together.	Sean was hard at work too!
Dominick has plenty of experience working on houses.	Paul Pennington is the big man with the roller.
Our team praying with some construction workers on a prayer walk today.	Deb and Dale painting.
Zebediah working on the ladder.	Dale Finn reaching for a spot 3'11" off the floor.
Marianne is having a hard time seeing with the warm sun in her eyes.	This is my favorite picture from the day.  it shows how well our team works together.
Tom was going through drum withdrawal until someone found this set up for him to play.	We found this young lady at the airport and decided to let her hang out with us.  We got a surprise when we found that Christy Barnard was going to be with us for the whole week!  She definitely has been a blessing to us and she's doing very well in her job.
Jan and Emily working really hard.	Marianne and Tory working well together.
This is the log that guys carried to the curb.  Kip wanted Este and he to carry it by themselves.  That didn't work.	We found this American flag in the debris.  We cleaned it up and attached it here as a memorial.
Today was a HOT Texas day - keeping hydrated was VERY important.  This was the watering tree at the cemetery work site.	Marianne working hard - still!