We're now more than 24 hours into our SLAM adventures! We're staying in the United Methodist Church in Toppenish, WA. Our group has just returned from a long morning and afternoon working in the heat. Today, our teams split into two different groups. Lisa, Christian, Lauren, and Kristen stained a deck and painted some stairs. Brendan, Sam, and I worked with people from First Covenant (Seattle) and St. Timothy's (Salem, OR) on sorting some garbage for a dump run, and cutting and splitting wood. Temperature was in the low 90s. We will both return to these sites tomorrow to complete our work!
We came across an family of kittens in the garbage pile that caused quite a commotion! We were able to move the kittens to a new location and their mother found them and cared for them.
We had some chainsaw issues that frustrated our progress, but we're hoping that those will be resolved in time for tomorrow's work. At both sites we had some brief interactions with the home owners. They seem nice, and we hope to have more chances to get to know them better!
We're having a great time getting to know the other churches. Corey spoke tonight and we had some great discussion about stereotypes, perceptions, tragic history, and the need to stay committed to one another in actions and conversations as we are connected in Jesus Christ.
Please pray for logistics to work smoothly, more opportunities to interact with the home owners, and for the current homeowner that we are serving and her family - her daughter was at the emergency room today. We're not sure what the issue was. Also pray for our youth to continue to be inspired to show the love of Jesus through reconciliation, understanding, and hearts of humble servant hood. Pray that our hearts would on fire with the love of Jesus!
Thanks for journeying with us!
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