I love our youth. If I were a rich man, then there would be many parents coming to the church on July 3rd to say goodbye to their children because I would be taking them home with me. These students blew me away today. Our schedule for the day? Out the door. The effort, heart, determination, perseverance, and servanthood of the youth? Immeasurable.
After breakfast and our time with God, we sent a group of three to help the city with some projects, four to spend some time with a mother of six and help with her yard, and four youth plus Shane and Mason to help a family clean their house (more on that later). The rest of the group stayed at the church to clean and work on the grounds to get ready for many in the community to come out on Wednesday night to see the fireworks. The group of students and adults who worked on the church worked harder than many of you parents would believe was possible for your child! They went above and beyond what was asked of them, whether it be mowing everything they could reach with their pushmower or decorating the room that they were only asked to organize. There were no complaints, and the only question was "what can I do?"
The group that went to help clean the home was the last to be dropped off (around 12:30). I told them that I would be back to get them around 2:30. I only looked in the garage of the home, and it was clear that they had their work cut out for them. Around 2:00, I picked up the four visiting with the mother of six, and we headed to pick up those cleaning the house. When I got there, Grant had ran out of gas for the mower before finishing, and Shane said that they wanted to stay and work a little longer. The group that I had just picked up stayed to join the effort, while I went to get the gas for the mower. When I picked up the gas, I also picked up three more guys to come back to the house to clean. So, by the time I made it back to the house, we had around 15 or 16 working on cleaning the house. I will allow your children to fill you in on the details of how bad the house was, but I will say that it was one of the worst that I have ever seen.
Social Services had been to the home that morning and informed the family that if the house was not in better shape by the time they arrived at 4:30, the three children would be taken from them. Needless to say, the family was in desperate need for help. As I stepped in the home to join the effort, I saw tears in the eyes of several of the students. They did not know that there were people that lived in these kind of conditions, and their hearts were broken for these children. I was told by these students that they were not leaving until the work was finished. That pretty much summed up the attitude of all of the students and adults there. These students worked as hard as they could for the next two hours to clean out every room of the house as best they could. There were countless bags of trash taken out of the home, and almost as many bags of clothes and toys stored in an extra bedroom for the family to go through later and decide what they would keep and what they would discard. By 4:30, we had done all that we could, so we prayed with the family and headed back to the church. There wasn't room in the van for everyone, so Todd and Shane stayed behind while I took the youth. By the time I made it back to get Shane and Todd, Social Services had already come by. They were surprised by how much had been accomplished, and they said that the children could stay with the family. This family remained intact, and it was because God opened a door and these students and adults responded in a big way.
After supper, some decided to go for a hike near the church and then shoot some clays, some stayed at the church to relax and in case some natives came by to visit, and other went to check out a local fishing hole with a native named George. It was a great finish to the day, and there were several natives that did come by the church through the course of the evening. After such an incredible day, it is hard to imagine how God is going to top this, but we know that He has even more in store! We will be prayer walking in the morning, and this should open a lot more doors to connect with some families and hopefully get them involved throughout the rest of the week. Continue to pray for connections to be made and relationships to be formed. I know that we have a family with three children that several of our students are already anxious to go back out and visit. Check out our slideshow, and you will get a chance to see the family that we were blessed to serve!
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