Mission Helps trips are not just a responsibility with lots of work for Jonathan and me, but they are a blessing because we so enjoy getting away from the same old same old and seeing new beauties of God's creation.
My days have been filled with lots of work lately, with us changing out our poor old refrigerator with broken shelves and setting in another one that Jonathan got free at his remodel job where they were changing out appliances.
Here I'm wiping off the top of the old one after putting clean shelves back inside,till I can sell it on Craig's List--or get rid of it for free.
Here I'm wiping off the top of the old one after putting clean shelves back inside,till I can sell it on Craig's List--or get rid of it for free.
Timmy has been such a wonderful help lately with working on taking down old fencing and putting up new.
And yesterday he took down our weathered porch swing and took it apart so that I could sand and refinish it. Jonathan came home and helped put the pieces through the planer instead, to plane off the old finish.
Today the girls and I went with Jonathan to do a cleaning job where his crew had remodeled.
On the way out the driveway, Timmy and Sam were auguring a hole for a new gatepost by the drive.
When we arrived at the cleaning job, we found a paper with a long list of things to clean, including scrubbing the soot off this fireplace!
Jonathan tried all manner of cleaning agents for that--soap, pumice, salt, and finally muriatic acid which cleaned better than the others, but didn't do a whole lot either without eating into the bricks.
Carrie cleaned the bathrooms and Rose mopped, and then they went back home. Crystal scrubbed sticky, greasy, dirty tops of kitchen cabinets, cleaned venetian blinds, washed windows, swept the dirty garage, and mopped.
I cleaned blinds, washed windows, cleaned more on top of greasy cupboards and inside cupboards, swept and mopped and wiped down baseboard and corners. I wished I could have spent the time cleaning my own home, but we were thankful for a way to earn a little money. It was a six hour job for Crystal and me that left me quite exhausted, but I was so thankful I had the strength to keep going.
When there is so much to do, it feels almost sinful to take a few hours like we do on Mission Helps trips to just enjoy something, but when most of our days are filled with work at home, and Mission Helps projects are quite intense, it is good to take time to "just be,"
to take time with each other and draw near to God.
The crew always enjoys doing something special together.
to take time with each other and draw near to God.
The crew always enjoys doing something special together.
Our last full day in South Caicos we finished up work around noon, and then everyone headed to the ocean. Jonathan and I took Sis. Marilyn's car to an opposite end of the island from where the other guys were snorkeling.
Here we watched the white tops crashing in the distance.
Jonathan said they were hitting the ocean shelf. It is quite shallow around these islands, but we learned that then there is a sheer drop off of nearly a mile deep.
Here we watched the white tops crashing in the distance.
Jonathan said they were hitting the ocean shelf. It is quite shallow around these islands, but we learned that then there is a sheer drop off of nearly a mile deep.
As Jonathan and I scrambled through the brush to reach this remote beach, we discovered this wild donkey!
It had a couple birds following it around.
We enjoyed sitting in the sunshine,with our bare feet in the sand.
Rose said this picture looked quite romantic!
Love it!
I am too exhausted tonight to think great devotional thoughts, or even to finish writing about our departure from there, and the fun boat ride, so I will save those pictures for next time.
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