Sunday Night

Just a short update tonight. We arrived safely after a long day of driving. We're paired with some great staff members for the week and will be working on a roofing and painting project that was already started but still has quite a bit of work left. It sounds like it will be a great project. We had our first time of worship tonight with everyone and it was awesome to be singing and dancing and lifting praise to God with 150+ other people from all over. Dave Torbet, the founder and director of ReCreation Experiences, gave a great challenge about walking in the way of the Lord and set the tone for the week. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts. Look for our next update Monday night, with pictures from the day.

Monday Night

This morning we were up at 6:15 am and after a rousing time of worship, we headed off to our work sites. Only one small problem...it was raining. It rained all day (except for lunch and an hour before we left the site). Sometimes it drizzled, sometimes it poured, but always raining. However, our team did an awesome job at persevering and not complaining, working hard and making tons of progress on our roofing project and our interior painting and dry walling. Here's some student perspectives:

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Aaron: Today I was up on a roof, nailing. I also painted a bathroom. I sanded and I ate lunch (I believe it was ham and turkey). My favorite thing here so far is free time. I've played ultimate frisbee, soccer, and kickball. I've also listened to a healthy amount of polka music. I'm learning to do things without being asked and without expecting anything in return.

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Katrina: Today has been a great day. I painted, sanded, mudded, and over coated some drywall. It was a blast knowing that I am gonna help someone in need all week. I am having a great time at ReCreation. I love waking up and getting to eat then work, but my favorite thing about this trip so far is getting to do heavy duty work with all my friends, and a plus is that I am helping someone along the way. I'm learning a lot of great things about my faith and being a great Christian person. One thing that is realy standing out for me is if you ask God for something you don't automatically get it. You earn the opportunity to achieve what you ask for. I love all the experiences I am getting and all the people (and leaders) I am getting to spend this time with! Lots of love and luck -katrina

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All in all a great day. Tonight we ate dinner, had some free time & even took a trip to the local laundromat to try and dry our clothes a bit. Thanks for all your prayers...tomorrow's another day full of work!

Tuesday Night

Another great day in the books. Here's a few thoughts from our students...

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Jarett: Today I was on the roof hammering nails into shingles and painting the house. I learned that if something is hard you don't give up on it, but try harder to achieve it. My favorite part is free time. I played ultimate frisbee and kickball so far. Bye - Jarrett (tta)

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Kristen: Today I was hammering really hard. I may have hit my thumb a couple times, but other than that I had a great day. My favorite thing to do here is sleep then get up to have a great day (and play football and soccer). I learned that serving people gets easier as you go, and you start to have fun doing it. I've also had a lot of fun getting to know people. -Kristen

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We made a ton of progress on the roof today & it's almost done. There's still a lot of painting and other smaller work to do, though. Tomorrow is our day off & we're looking forward to a great day of fun and then hitting the work site again on Thursday. Keep the prayers coming!

Wednesday Night

Just a brief update tonight as we're all exhausted from a long day of PLAY! We had a great time today, exploring Dupont State Park and the Pisgah National Forest recreation area. All in all we saw 5 waterfalls, 1 gigantic sliding rock, and went swimming 4 different times. We capped the day off with a hearty meal at Pizza Hut and then got back to our home base at ReCreation just a little bit ago.

Tomorrow it's back to our work site for two more days of work to try to get everything wrapped up. We had beautiful weather today and the forecast calls for more of the same tomorrow, so we'll be lathering on lots of sunscreen. Thanks for your continued prayers and thoughts.

Thursday Night

Another great day of work! The weather was in full cooperation today and it was bright and sunny all day long. Instead of getting up on the roof, we spent the whole day painting, mudding, and sanding various parts of the different houses we've been working on. We're actually the 3rd group to be on this site and it looks like we're going to be able to finish everything up, but there were many, many projects that had been started and not completed, so we've been faithfully knocking them off one at a time.

I wanted to take a moment tonight to talk about our great leaders on the trip. Jill Busken is Sarah's mom and has been such a great asset to the team. Besides bringing some much needed mothering instinct (I lack in that department for some reason ;), Jill has such a huge servant heart and is willing to do whatever needs to be done. She also really sticks with something until it's all the way completed, which is such a great help. Derek Swegheimer is Paige's dad and comes with 20+ years experience in contracting and building skills. Needless to say, all the experience has been a huge help. It's been awesome to be able to watch him see all of the various projects that need done and tackle the difficult ones one at a time, taking care of a lot of work that would be very challenging or downright impossible without him around. Not only does he get it done, but he does it with a smile and usually singing a song along the way. Chrissy Heade is here, too, and ReCreation to her is like a second home since she spent all summer down here last year leading teams. The expertise she brings because of this has been very helpful. Beyond that, she's taken on some very hard jobs (like sanding down lots and lots of drywall mud) and has persevered without complaining and set a real example for the students. Such a great group of leaders really sets the tone for the week and allows students to grow and learn in incredible ways.

Tomorrow is our last day on the work site and we'll be working hard to wrap everything up. Instead of kicking the morning off with worship, we'll be headed to the worksite an hour earlier and then doing a worship celebration after dinner at the end of the day. Please continue to pray for safety and also for energy and the ability to finish strong tomorrow. It's exciting to be coming down the home stretch but we want to finish well.

Our update tomorrow night will likely be short and possibly late, as we'll have many other things going on in the evening. We're looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday!

Friday Night

What a great last day. It was burning hot, but a refreshing rain washed all our sweat away at the end of the day. And, even better, we finished all of the major projects that we had been working on!

We do have lots of pictures from the week and I apologize for not getting more of them up throughout the week, but I'll post them as I have the chance over the next few days.

Tomorrow, the best way to keep up on our arrival time will be to follow my facebook status online, which I can update from my cell phone. We plan on getting home between 3 and 4, but that's subject to change and I'll update as I'm able. Just go to www.facebook.com/joeldaniel

We can't wait to see all of you! Thanks for all of your prayers!

Flipd

North Carolina '10

Sunday Night

Monday Night

Tuesday Night

Wednesday Night

Thursday Night

Friday Night