Bethel College

We welcomed Bethel College last night and today they really "went to town" working! There are 11 of them and they came to do drama shows at some of the local schools. For those of you who aren't familiar with this college, it is located in the northern most part of Indiana, near Notre Dame college and the Michigan state line.

They did not have a drama scheduled for today and went to work around the church. They painted nearly all of the rooms and worked on grouting the tile floors. They were cleaning the mess left by the painter and washing windows. Everywhere you looked you could see one of them working on something. And every room you went in to you would hear a different song playing! Although most of them looked quite tired when they first got up this morning, by afternoon they were smiling and laughing and having a good time. This evening they are in the sanctuary trying to figure out the sound system to practice for their show tomorrow. Some are in costume and others are just testing the mics. Stay tuned to see photos as we get them.

Monty spent the morning texturing a house. This is a tricky process if you don't know what you are doing but he has managed to master it and makes the walls look awesome and ready for primer and paint! We also stopped by where he will be installing can lighting tomorrow. One just never knows what one can be working on next around here! But one does know they are working for the Lord and that is all that matters!

We have been working on the floors in our trailer the past couple of days. We will be moving back into ours in this upcoming relocation and the floors needed some work. It's been difficult but we are almost done reworking them and they will now support us. There had been some previous water damage and some areas were weak but that is all taken care of now. The weather really cooperated today. It was much cooler, low 80's, and windy enough to keep the mosquitos and gnats away until a couple of hours later than the norm! The gnats come out first and as soon as they go away the biggest mosquitos you have ever seen come out --- with a vengence!

There was some bad news with the church this evening. The main air conditioning unit went out yesterday morning and it appears that it is done for. The HVAC people estimated it to be about 30 years old, the age of the church, and said that is about 15 years longer than it should have lasted! Getting the thing down from the roof will be a major operation as well as getting the new ones installed! The entire process will be quite costly! The members may have to choose between getting the pews they want or having air conditioning! Living in southern Mississippi should make that an easy decision! Unless someone wants to go into the business of making the old fashioned hand fans that looked like they were made out of over sized popcicle sticks!

We had the opportunity to meet Ms Barbara this afternoon. She is a member at the church here and our next full house project. She stayed here during the storm and told us about sitting on her bar stools watching the water pour into her house. She finally had to take her feet and put them on the stool beside the one she was sitting on and watching the water continue to rise. She remembers thinking she was surely going to die and told God she really didn't want to die by drowning! The water stopped at the edge of the stools! She has since been forced to move to another city to be near family as she is also facing a double knee replacement. When Monty and I were here with our church doing volunteer work back last December her house was the first one we went into and tore out all the sheetrock, walls and ceilings. We had no idea her house was still sitting in the same condition! It never even occurred to us, we thought it was surely done by now! After speaking with Barbara we immediately put her at the top of our list! Since she was out of town, Monty and I went to the proper officials and got her building permit and scheduled the mold inspection. She told us today she was here for a couple of doctor appointments and also to meet with the electric company for them to also inspect the house and turn the power back on. She will call us when this is completed and we are then ready to bring in the 180 sheets of sheetrock it will take to do her entire house, thanks to Convoy of Hope! She is so excited and realizes how God has been working in this entire process. She knows that what seemed like a delay was only God's timing, which is usually different than our own. She told us that if we had rebuilt her house any sooner than now she would not have qualified for the financing she is currently looking in to. Once again, man's timing would have ruined so many things for her. God is never too early and never too late, always right on time. It's only when man sticks his nose in things that they get messed up! We were so happy to have the chance to meet her and spend some time with her. It will be such a blessing to be able to rebuild her home and get her moved back in , hopefully before she has her knee surgery! Thank you Barbara for allowing us to be a blessing to you and thank you Convoy for supplying the sheetrock! Make sure you stay tuned to keep up on the progress of this rebuild! It will be exciting, for sure!

If you would like to become a partner in this rebuilding of homes and lives you can send your tax exempt gift to us through Vineyard Community Church at PO Box 3277 in Bloomington, Indiana 47402. All 100% will be sent to us to be used in this relief effort of blessing others, giving them hope and helping them to get a glimpse of Jesus through the volunteers who come to work! Without you and without them this work would not be possible! Thank you and may God bless you!

Until tomorrow ... we will thank God for His perfect timing ... and we will thank God for the opportunity to be here serving the people and serving Him! Susan and Monty