Again, to not bog down the front page…click below to continue
After finally getting my bed made after midnight I slept on a thin sheet covering a plastic mattress. I thought it would be a horrible nights sleep, but suprisingly it wasn’t so bad. The dorm room only had a sink so I had to walk down the hall for a shower. But the bathroom was empty and I was out of there pretty quickly. After a nice breakfast and a quick devotion the work gang for Voice of Calvary gathered downstairs in the parking lot. After a quick count we had all that were supposed to be there. There were 3 that wouldn’t be with us that day.
We got to the church and saw that its grouds were grown up pretty badly. Bushes had no shape except for looking like a big lump of mashed potatoes. The weeds were covered with sidewalk..but we had to make it look the other way around, then get rid of the weeds. And there was a homeless man sleeping on the front steps.
But after a short prep talk from the VoC head honchos, we break up into groups. Mowers, weed eaters, weed pullers, hedge clippers, and bust-stuff-uppers. The Bust-Stuff-Uppers were elated when they saw the sledge hammer and axe, but there was nothing for them to do, so they would hang out with the other group, the Stand-Around-With-A-Tool-And-Talkers. Eventually some of them formed a sub group that had no tools, just talked. But it was too early on the first day to do that.
It was kinda funny seeing guys who’d never mowed before have a sudden passion for it. But it was short lived. And they didn’t realize that if you go either in a back and forth motion along parrell lines or in a square that it’s much easier than running trying to make designs in the tall grass. The first guy admitted that the only mower he’d ever used was the popcorn mower toy he had when he was 3.
We also found an open door to one of the buildings. We went in and explored. But we had our selves on guard in case there was anyone in there. We did find a few makeshift beds here and there, but no people. After going up and down 3 floors, we were told that it was best not to be in there so we went back to work.
We break for lunch back at Galloway, then return for the afternoon. Mostly the same stuff. Except that another work group comes. That means more people to add to the two Talker groups. But there’s a new group that’s formed. It’s now a combo of the Bust-Stuff-Uppers (BSU) and new guys we’ll call Let’s-See-What-Kind-Of-Stuff-We-Can-Get-Into. They find open doors or windows in differnet buildings and go exploring. But they didn’t need to be in there…esp. with out an adult.
So the afternoon went pretty much like the first except for the running around inside by some people. We head back to campus for showers, rest, and then go eat supper at Galloway. Then it’s small groups, worship, then a marathon youth leaders meeting about the first day at the sites. It lasted way longer than I had attention span for, but it was needed none-the-less.
Sleep came pretty easily after doing a little reading. I read up on MediaShout because we were going to try and use it at the church the next Sunday for our new early morning worship service. Trying to go “contemporary”…we’ll see.
I have heard positive comments about your "contemporary" early worship service. I have yet to get up early enough to attend one.
sounds fruitful so far… the yard area sounds pretty much like my new house's yard.. ha…
we use media shout at our church, hope you have a pretty decent computer, it will get choppy and bogged down a little at times, depending on how you are using it… but i'm sure after a few weeks of using it you'll find a good balance of what to / not to use.