7.24.2006

Back from the Field

The mission trip crew from CSMSG pulled in Saturday evening around 7:30, and I've never seen a group of parents so excited to see their kids (although I'm sure within a week I'll get phone calls asking if I can set up another trip until school starts!)

Here's the stats from the trip, a Group Workcamps site:
Around 400 campers
divided into 59 crews
worked on 61 sites
contributing 9600 man-hours of work to the community of Buckhannon.

A few personal highlights:

My crew met a dog named Freckles, who did not know how not to be in the way; whenever we were there working, he was excited and happy-- when we needed to put a board down or work in a certain spot, he was there, asking for some love.

The resident my crew served (although we never got to meet her) had a baby a month early, on July 7th, and was in the hospital until the Friday we finished on the site. But she came home to a new porch, new windows, seams sealed and wasps sprayed.

The a/c in the van we rented broke the first day we drove, so the trip to WV was a very hot one, since almost none of the windows on new vans open (because you can depend on the a/c). When we arrived, we called the rental place, who set us up with a dealership who picked the van up every morning after we used it to drive our crew to the site, then returned it before 3pm, when we needed to leave. Way to go, Jenkins Ford!

All my kids returned safely and in one piece, and two that I'd been concerned about committed to being more involved in the church this coming year-- the power of service in Jesus' name hooked them, just like it's supposed to!

I've had a bunch of time to think about various questions this past week, so look for some longish serious posts soon! I'll also have some photos/videos.

For now, if you'd like to take a look at photos of our trip, click here!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

started getting homesick for camp for some reason and wondered what you were up to. thank goodness for google. good to see that things are going well with your ministry. i'd love to hear about it sometime - if you find yourself in da up during the next year or so, give me a call and we'll drink coffee and catch up.

ps. how are your hands?

Isaac, The Rookie said...

Hi Erin:

Hands are good-- ministry's better. Just finished planning this year's rough calendar and now have a good idea of how much programming I need to take care of in August, when fortunately a lot of people will be on vacation and not in my office! I'll let you know when I'm in the area again-- if you get the chance, drop an email and tell me some of your stories too.