WOW!!!

I'm trying to think of one word to describe our first workday and the only one I can think of is WOW. It was crazy, busy, joyful, hectic, enlightening, hard, dirty, fun, long, fulfilling, draining, disappointing, exciting, encouraging, eye-opening, and just plain good all rolled into one. When you take into consideration the size group we have and the amount of work we dove into today, that list can't begin to describe all the feelings we had! 
Both house projects were started and found to be considerably worse than we originally anticipated - however, they took off with a bang and had very productive and successful days. The crews worked hard and they had the sweat, dirt, tar and stink to prove it when they got home! 
The house cleaning crews had their hands full - and will for the next couple of days. Tricia summed it up well tonight when she said with tears in her eyes, "today I am thankful for my clean house." I knew when this one particular house was chosen it was going to be a doozy. So much so that I opted to not show them the pictures, but let them find out for themselves. Well they did, and they are going back to clean for most likely the next two days - and just to give you an idea, that won't be enough. The one thing you need to keep in mind is the house cleaning is not the most important thing they are doing - it's the relationship that they are forming with these people that will matter most. They are doing "heart cleaning" through the house cleaning and most certainly filling that particular house, and all the others with the love of God.   
Lunches were fixed for elderly and children, work was done in the thrift store and food pantry, computers were worked on and Mr. Joe had the blessing of praying with a young man to receive Christ. He came in for groceries and went home with Jesus (and the groceries to boot)!!

The backyard bible club crew showed up ready to have a great time only they were missing the kids. It's one of the many things that you learn to work around when you are doing this kind of work...so they busted out some candy, walked around and found some kids - and are expecting 8 to 10 tomorrow - with an additional one to be done at the Shepherd's Center!

Our kids - your kids - were INCREDIBLE today! They have jumped in with both feet doing anything from cleaning houses, to hanging clothes, to recruiting for BBC, to running food orders up and down stairs because the intercom was broken, to cleaning up around the thrift store - you name it, they did it. AND THEY DID IT WITH A JOYFUL HEART AND A SMILE ON THEIR FACES! Hearing them talk tonight about the things they saw, and the things they learned, just in this first day, made my heart swell and put a big, fat happy smile on my face. There is a lot to be learned from the enthusiasm of a child :) I am some kind of proud of these guys and can't wait to see what the rest of the week holds for them!
We ended tonight with a song, devotion and share time - one of my favorite parts of the day. I love how the people who are doing the devotions were picked over a month ago and yet the devotions they are using are exactly right for the day and the time, just what we need to hear. Of course they had no way of knowing that...but God did.

So as I look back over the events of today, the work that was done, the people that I am serving with, and how God used each and every one in His own special kind of way, WOW, is a very fitting word.