Home Sweet Home

Hi Y'All!

We're back in Canada, hopefully all back in our warm homes. We were excited to have such a warm welcome at the school. Even with all the snow we're happy to be home.

Rod and I are picking up the boys tomorrow morning, so I thought I would take this moment to wrap up the trip. Unfortunately the internet didn`t work our last night there and we got in SO late Friday night we didn`t have a chance to give updates so I`ll do my best to remember.

I finished writing before Wednesday night. That evening we went to the CRWRC Disaster Relief Building and had dessert with a group of volunteers and staff there. It was neat to see some of the people that Reuben had been spending his time with since September. They were a `more experienced` crowd who were delighted to see young people give up their break to serve. We had a really neat worship time together.

Thursday was by far the most exciting day of our week. The youth worked really hard and we started to see all the loose ends get tied up. It wasn`t easy as we had several surprises along the way. One led to Reuben swimming under the house (pretty literally) and one led to Bob saving the day by patching up a buckled wall. The most incredible part was singing with Mrs. Henrietta and giving her gifts from the group. Some of the youth had a great idea to buy Mrs. Henrietta some gifts and so a donation was taken and we were able to give her gardening stuff, lawn chairs, a picture frame with a picture of her grandsons and a photo album with pictures of the week complete with Bible verses and messages from the youth. Anna did a great job putting the album together! We could all see how overwhelmed with gratitude Mrs. Henrietta and her boys were and we were all so thankful that we could be a part of blessing her after such a hard time! You need to ask one of the youth to desribe this amazing experience!

Our last evening we had a fantastic worship time with lots of songs. Everyone had the chance to share their favourite experiences. It was neat to see how different parts of the week touched people in different ways. I encourage you to talk to them and ask them about these! Alan from Rita Recovery also dropped by to talk with us and it was a really neat message about God`s protection and doing His work in this world.

We woke up EARLY (5:30) the next morning to get rolling by 6. It was our longest day of driving by far as we reached our hotel at 2:30 am (mind you we did have an hour time change in there). There was far too much fast food and lots of games, talking and sleeping!

This morning we were off by 8:30 and arrived at CCS around 9:00. Of course as soon as we were in Canada the weather was bad! We were excited to see our welcoming committee!

It feels strange to be home. It is amazing all the things we packed into one week. It went by so fast, but it felt much longer than one week. We were so blessed with everything falling into place! Everyone who came added to the team and we would have been missing out if even one wasn`t there. It is my hope that we all can move forward from this experience with gratitude, a richer relationship with Christ and a desire to continue to do His work in this broken world! Over time these memories will fade, but I hope that we manage to move forward changed.

I wondered if this trip would be worth all the driving, and there is no question in my mind that it was. Praise God! Julie