A full day in the books

We now have a full day of work in the books. All of our students had many good stories to report last night during church group time, which is our time to process together. Too many, in fact, so we will be breaking them up into their work crews tonight and probably tomorrow for processing time. Otherwise, many of the students don't get the chance to talk about their stuff. Plus, it's difficult to go real deep with 45 people, and we certainly don't want this to be a shallow experience for them. Last night, I encouraged them at the end to be looking for God and how He is at work. It's easy to get wrapped up in the task of serving and forget about what God is doing in the midst of it, and I don't want them to miss what God is doing.

I think the lack of sleep from the first night is catching up to some of the students. Many of the guys in our room were more than happy to accept earplugs from me last night before bed. While many of them lost sleep the first night by their own choice, they didn't want to lose any more the second night due to Wounded Bear Ken. Many of them reported sleeping much better. Surprise, surprise!

I made it to one site yesterday, but not the one I was intending to hit. As mentioned yesterday, one of the groups locked the key to their vehicle in the SUV. Fortunately, it was the only one we had an extra key for, so instead of dropping off the key and heading to the site I planned on going to, I just stayed and worked with them. It was the Rye Group at the Southern Environmental Center. We pulled lots of weeds and mint and cleaned up a landscaped area at Birmingham-Southern College. It's an intentional effort by this college to promote preservation of the environment. The students were taken on a tour of their facilities and learned about conservation of resources. And the tour included artwork made from garbage and the option to flush yourself down a toilet (see the pictures). It was educational and good outdoorsy work. I have a few scratches on my arm from pulling some sort of bamboo stuff. But that's better than Drew who took a dive and now has a nice gouge on his arm (don't worry, Nalls, it's not bad, but we'll keep an eye on it). At least he didn't break it for a third time. :-) This crew worked real hard. I was proud of them.

We had a great evening activity last night. We went to The Foundry, which is a rescue mission and recovery center for people coming out of drug- and alcohol-addiction. They currently have 185 residents participating in their 12- to 18-month program. You can seeall of the ministries of The Foundry by clicking here. They led a worship service for us that included music, several testimonies from residents, and a short message of encouragement. It was powerful to hear how God has rescued these people out of a life of addiction to everything from alcohol and crystal meth and given them something to live for. The students I spoke with were impacted by it. Tonight, we will be going to the Civil Rights Institute, which was a highlight the last time we were in B'Ham, and I expect it to be the same this time.

It has been rewarding to hear from the non-regular SIMYs - Danny, Ken, Kristy - about how impressed they are by our kids. Our students work hard and don't complain. The stuff we usually have to worry about is things like not going to bed and throwing candy in the vans. but when they get to the sites, they work hard and with good attitudes. Parents, thanks for making our job easy!

A few funny and/or inspiring stories from the week thus far:

• Shelly reported that her crew - the Soybean Group - created games (David and Morgan), sang and did skits (Sydney), did some fun crafts (Blake and Matt) and were good shepherds for the kids in Kids Club (Adrian, Mick, and Tyler). The kids there wanted to fix our students hair and climb on their backs, but most of all they wanted hugs and lots of love. David also told me that he learned how to two-step.
• The Barley Group had an interesting time as many of them had to remember how to add fractions with unlike denominators before tutoring others to do it, but it went well. At one point, Kasey was standing up in front of a mini-class of five students teaching them quadratic and linear equations and parabolas on the white board. "Great teacher!" says Gretchen.
• Blake Kidd apparently was working hard doing yard work yesterday and was asked if he has to do that much yard work at home. He said no, and that he hopes his parents don't find out how hard he can work. Sorry Blake... :-)
  
• Sydnei Lemmons reported to her group on Monday that she actually broke a sweat for the first time in her life. "Way to work hard for Jesus!" says Kristy.

Two changes since yesterday:

• The Rye Group is at Child Safe today. This is an organization that offers tutoring and other various activities to give students a safe place to be. They will be doing neighborhood clean-up and will be sitting in on a discussion about racism.
• The Wheat Group in the afternoon yesterday and today is going to the Old Firehouse Shelter, which is a homeless men's shelter. They are helping with anything the needs help. Yesterday, they snapped beans all afternoon.

That's all for now. Don't forget to check out our picture here. I think I'm going to go figure out who has my lunch and end up there. Thanks for your prayers...