Planting seeds, painting doors, and petting dogs

Well it’s Thursday, and we have finished our program for the kids! We all felt that it went well and that we were able to plant seeds in the hearts of the children and their parents. We did station rotations today and the kids loved to watch Dr. Mike search for critters in the creek, as Austin taught them about different bugs. They were all excited to see what Dr. Mike could catch in his net. The kids also learned about recycling today from Emily and Megan, and then put it into practice when they made bird feeders out of plastic bottles with Gwen and Ryan. After the program, the kids’ parents joined us for a dinner of flautas, guacamole, and beans prepared by some of the ladies involved with the church’s Hispanic ministry. Carlos (Grace’s director of Hispanic ministries) then shared the gospel message in Spanish. We sang some of the favorite songs from the week and showed a picture slide show (prepared by Jay)--the kids loved to see the pictures we had taken of them!

Construction is trucking right along, as projects were completed and new ones started. The theme at the Tunnel Hill (vinyl siding) house was, once again, “Divide and conquer.” Jeff and Daniel tried to see how long it would take them to install a single handicap bar in the bathroom. Two stripped screws, a broken drill bit and 15 holes in the wall later the bar was installed. Jim was patient through it all, insisting that they complete it, instead of passing it off to someone else. Bobby, Ron and Tyler were soffit-installing fiends, with Ron and Tyler taking a break to install a vent pipe though the roof. Drilling holes in a perfectly good roof has now become a favorite pastime for them. Megan and Will started the painting team rolling (pun intended, although no rollers were involved). Lots of doors and closets to paint. The house is looking great. A good cleaning, top to bottom, is in order, along with a small punch list of items before it’s ready for the new owners.

The crew from the other Tunnel Hill house--Dr. Mike, Lisa, Ginger and Christine--finished its trim work project and headed over to the siding house to pitch in; the task proved to be putting a second coat of paint on slightly larger, much more forgiving closet doors. Today they were also helped out by “Fido,” a friendly neighborhood dog who wanted to help them finish painting the trim on the house.


At the foster home, the buzzwords of the day were, “Mudding and sanding, sanding and mudding.” They mudded and sanded all morning long! They’re still staying bright and chipper, though, and Jay finished up some cabinets in the kitchen, which added a bit of variety to the day.

Tomorrow we will be doing construction all day, and attempting to complete as many of the projects (that we’ve started) as we can. We might even take on some new (small!) projects…we have from 8 to 5, right?

We’ve allowed all comments now, so you should be able to comment to your heart’s content J Thanks for your patience, and thanks for continuing to write despite complications! We appreciate the thoughts you’ve sent our way and the prayers you’ve sent God’s way on our behalf. See ya soon!