Progress: it’s a remarkable thing. Today was great because we got a ton done. This morning we had breakfast at 7:30 and got to work right away. Noel Brown (who’d been heading up most of the work with the shelter house) stayed with us until 10:15am and then left to go on a fishing vacation with some of his relatives. When Noel left we’d just finished putting the brace on the other set of the posts. By lunch time, we’d put up five of the seven trusses:

This was fun since the trusses marked a significant improvement; it finally started looking like a shelter. After lunch, we finished putting up the other two trusses and put up around half of the supporting 2×4 beams between the trusses. Do you ever have that feeling knowing that you’re running at the maximum efficiency possible for the situation? It’s SO refreshing! We had three crews of youth up on the top of ladders measuring the distance for the beams. They were all calling out measurements and Leah was cutting the beams and a couple on the ground were delivering them to be hung. It was phenomenal how systematic and rhythmic the team was working. This is the view I just took a picture of:

We’re now off to Adventureland (the Des Moines area amusement park) for a cap to our mission trip. The shelter is getting there!

Morning progress is something I wish I could simply replicate and clone for the afternoons. This morning the group I was in working on the picnic shelter finished setting nine of the support pillars for the shelter. Tuesday afternoon we’d only done three and after lunch today we finished the other two fast and then worked on putting a plate around the outside at the top of the poles.

The plate was taking quite a while and it was at that point that I wished we’d maintained our speed and efficiency of the morning. Granted, with work that high up we could only do it at the pace we did since most of the youth are under 5’10” tall. I guess it’s just one of those things I have to accept. After we finished working, we got cleaned up a little and then drove for 50 minutes and had a cookout and a pool party at my house. It was great to see my parents and brother again. My parents had come up on Tuesday to bring me some stuff for camp, but I only visited with them for a short time. It was also fun for me to let a bunch of the people from the church see the horse farm and understand some of the context of what makes me ‘me’. My family and my home are a huge part of what shaped me. Tomorrow is a busy day (hopefully we’ll get the trusses onto the shelter house and start laying the roof), so I’m getting some sleep.

Today I was a floater (NO, not the toilet type). This morning when we finished breakfast we looked outside and saw dark, dark skies. We pulled out the laptops and used the camp’s high speed wireless internet (yeah, definitely enjoying it) and saw that we had a pretty big storm cell heading for us. The cabin group was still able to work on the bathrooms, but the rest of us weren’t able to do our originally planned projects.

So I floated around between several groups. It was great for taking pictures, but not for knowing exactly what I was to do. We did get a crew set up cutting and sanding and drilling all of the wooden name tags that campers use during the summer. We also had Butch (Lea Hendrick’s husband) who did wiring in the intern’s room and a set of youth who went and worked on the kitchenettes in the afternoon.

My big adventure for the day was a car ride during the rain. In order to get the name tag crew going, we had to get a sander from Bert’s (the lady who helps run the camp) garage. We took one of the trucks and picked it up in the middle of the storm. We found a tarp to cover it, but ran into a problem since it was setup on its stand. So, after driving for 20 yards, I realized that I had to stand in the back and hold it down while we drove back to the camp. Bert only drove at 20 MPH, but I still got completely soaked and cold. It was insane. When I got back I changed into dry clothes 30 minutes later. Writing this I still haven’t warmed up since getting back around 10:15. Yikes!

Cathie asked me one of the funniest things I’ve heard in quite a long time. We made hose bats. Yes, we took two pair of thigh-high panty hose and eight wire clothes hangers and bent the wires into ovals and slid them through the hose, tied it off, cut it, and then taped off the end with duct tape. These things are going to be great. Tonight we have “Goofy Game Night” where the kids under 6th grade will play kickball and do some games with balloons and the bats. The older youth are going to play crab soccer with beach balls. So I can now say that I know how to make hose bats!
This morning Matt also took me on my first hospital visit. We visited a church member who has been in the hospital for quite a while. Matt was great because he had me follow his lead, but as we were walking into the hospital and to the room he was explaining a lot about his style of hospital visits. He gave me a lot of practical advice, like always stopping at the bathroom ahead of time and afterwards to wash hands so that germs aren’t spread one way or the other. He also explained why it’s essential for the church’s representative to pray each time.
Well, it’s time to prep a little more for the First Wednesday stuff tonight.