Plymouth North Carolina Mission: The First Team on the First Day

Greetings from team number three, "The First Team". It was a beautiful day here at the church, we woke up to sunshine and music from our beautiful worship team. Jim Post created bacon and eggs for breakfast to nourish our bodies for a long day of work. We are blessed to have Jim joining us on this trip. We heard from Jay, the program organizer for CROSS: Christians Reaching Out in Sacred Service at Plymouth UMC.
This church is somewhere near 170 years old!!

After we packed up and arrived at our work site, which happened to be a three team job, we scoped out the expectations for the week. Our home owner has gone through some trials in her life, including losing her husband and then her house because the payments were too much to handle. She was gifted a very old house and we are blessed to be able to put many finishing touches on it for her so that she can move in beginning Friday. Our team was assigned many tasks inside the home. Steven and Andrew were working in the bathroom. They cleaned the tub, which was repulsive so say the least. I am proud to report it is now showerable, minus the running water =). They also filled some holes in the walls and sanded the putty down so that it was smooth. Aniya, Brandon and myself were given a lengthy, very informative lesson on wiring "receptacle" into the walls.I am very proud to say that not only did I wire my first receptacle, Aniya and I also learned how to piggy back from one to the next to send the electricity to another source. The kitchen is almost finished as far as wiring is concerned. Seeing how proud Aniya was and the smile on her face when she wired her own receptacle was PRICELESS.

At lunch, a simple salamander with a healing wound reminded us of God's ability to heal the broken and save the hurting. We are reminded that amphibians are very resilient and with their extreme perseverance can make it through the worst of storms, much like the obstacles our homeowner has encountered and like those we will encounter this week.

Brandon and I worked on chipping access paint off of the ceiling and then sanded it down so that it was in a condition suitable for painting in the next several days. It was a very difficult task since the electric sanders were heavy and chipping the paint was being done at a weird angle, but God brought us through.... with jello arms!

At the end of the day, our mission this week was brought together in the group prayer that we shared. Gathering our work team together and praising God that we are able to be here and work as a team to serve one of his beloved, well that's what makes this trip. We are all looking forward to getting to know our new "family members" as we work through our tasks this week.

God Bless,
Ashlee (The First Team)