Choir Tour: The Recap [Part 2]

Day 4:

 This morning I woke Savannah up to saying "Mer!" close to her, which was hilarious to see.We began our official work and split into groups. My group resurfaced mulch on a playground at a fire station. We ran out of mulch, so we made plans to come back the next day. We came back, ate lunch and I met with the craft team to prepare para cord to make out craft for that evening. A boys versus girls frisbee war broke out which was very fun to watch.:) We went to the chapel to hold our first "Hang Time" with the kids. They were all near our ages (middle and high school). It was incredible to hear their stories. Some shared that they had been abused, or that they were orphans, ect. Some didn't share, but I could see the pain hiding in their eyes.

When we came back, I was sitting with Hanna (whose 17th birthday was that day) during dinner. She was wishing she had a cake. A few minutes, a cake was brought out to her. Gotta love how thoughtful Shelbi (in the gray) was to get her a cake and hide it! We talked about our families in family group and a lot was shared. I never realized how much I had in common with those in my youth group and the struggles we face as one.

Day 5:

I awoke to rain, which was beautiful. We worked on  the playground a little then we painted an office in the girl's home. Afterwords, we played Just Dance 2 with some of the girls living there, which was super fun. We held Hang time again and I got to know loads more teenagers. We had KFC for dinner and pie for desert, which was quite a treat! Mitch licked pie off my jacket, which was weird but funny. I can tell that he is desperately in love with pie, he had two slices. It was a stressful day, but I got by with love from my friends.:)  It was a fun night.

Day 6:

 This morning I awoke with a faint memory of a dream involving t-rexes and an advice giving beaver.Nice. We finished off painting the office and then made plans for tie-dye for crafts that night. Then the girls not working on any projects went for a walk through the neighborhood with gardening tools, on a mission to find someone who needs help with their yard. We helped this one guy attempt to scrub paint off some old shutters so her could re-paint them. We used the hose and had a blast spraying them and each other. We also trimmed and tidied up the church a bit. Some of the girls and I slid each other across the gym floor on blankets. Mitch and I flung bottle caps which was awesome because Drew had already taught me how to.

Tonight was our last night with the kids. Their choir sang for us. I lost is and started bawling like a baby when they began to sing Blessings. 

"When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win, we know
That pain reminds this hearts,
That this is not, this is not our home....."

It was killer because despite all the horrors they have faced, they still believed in God and in love.

 We tie died and I got covered. It was so fun. We later went to the baseball field and played kickball. I didn't play but took pictures and wrote notes in some of the kids' bibles we gave them.

I think I can fit the rest of Choir Tour into one more post; then I will be moving on to semi-regular posts. I hope you guys like hearing about Choir Tour stuff and I hope you all are well.