Trip #7 was an amazing trip! A lot happened that week - it was Greg's last week before he left that Saturday to go get married... Angie came in who was going to be the last trip with me... And Doug Franklin - the founder of LeaderTreks also came down! He gave me a huge compliment on one of my teaching nights! And he doesn't give those away lightly :o)
This was a great group to work with - the youth pastor and his fiance were both former LT interns and they were just phenominal! We got a lot done on the house! We finished the front deck. We got the roof all the way on (the last gable we had to wait for a big group to help raise it). We also started demolitioning one of the 2 bedrooms in the trailor... You couldn't use it because the floor was rotting through... So we started getting rid of it so t hat we could connect the front and back decks! It had a lot of speak to my heart moments as well...
One in particular was a boy named Sam on the trip... One of my goals this summer was to reach out to a guy student and know I had left an impact on his life. There were lots of guys all summer I know I left an impact but this one stuck out... After our last team time, he pulled me aside from an adult meeting... And he told me how much he appreciated me encouraging him to not give up... He said that when I told him I had no construction experience before this summer and I had come this far (we were hammering some nails in at the time) and surely he could learn, too - that really challenged him... And then also for the fun - hanging out - celebrating time at dinner... I really got to have fun with the kids but then I always tried to steer the conversation back to how they are going to use all these experiences when they get home... In the dark, it almost looked as if he teared up a bit... Wow! What a major yay God moment for me!
It was so sad to see Greg go - I managed to hold back the tears with most of my good-byes, but not his... Yikes! He taught me so much this summer and I am so grateful for that!
Staying strong,
Joy
The Gang from Willow Creek
Working on the Front Deck
Demolition of Part of the Trailor
