She blessed us with song

I don't know that we have ever had a Monday quite like today!

Usually Mondays are a combination of confusion, questions and getting adjusted. Not today! This North Carolina team is beyond awesome! They were ready for devotions before 8am so away we went. From devotion they had already self divided themselves for the 4 jobs that we had lined up. They had taken each one of the names, knew the stories with each one and prayed over them last night. They asked God to direct them in the selection of the teams and of course, God did just what they asked.

We had a team follow me to Dane's "high and lifted up" home. The team from Alabama were already on their way and that team had grown from the 4 expected to 9 men! Dane was blessed even more! This team worked on getting the hurricane strapping done along with electrical issues and so many other things that they couldn't even name all of them. Dane kept busy with getting all of the supplies they needed. He also donated a fantastic mitre saw to Convoy of Hope as he had been blessed with a new one and knew we would be able to put his other one to good use helping other people.

A second part of the team followed Monty to Lowes for supplies and then to Barbara's. They got her bathrooms torn out and redesigned along with hanging and finishing sheetrock. They were also blessed to meet Barbara as she made the nearly 3 hour trip to meet these volunteers. She will most likely be here most of the week as she finds it difficult to not be here and see the progress and all the blessings happening each day. They feel like they will have her house almost, if not completely, done by the end of the week! WOW!

The third part of the team headed off to Julia's house. Julia has so much stuff inside of her home that we cannot even begin any tear out or rebuilding until things are gone through and either trashed or stored. This house has atleast 10 rooms and no doubt the volunteers will be busy the entire week. Julia's husband, Oscar, was so thrilled to be able to finally sit in his chair on their front porch as it had been so cluttered since the storm that when he could finally sit, he did so for the rest of the afternoon!

The fourth and last part of the team went up the road to Delores's house. They got busy with hanging sheetrock, doing electrical and some structural rebuilding. The women helped Delores also go through some of her things and decide what to keep and what needed to be tossed out. These 2 women have already bonded with Delores in such a way that only God could have directed them! They "uncovered" Delores's piano and in the process learned that she had been a music teacher and that she also wrote music. One thing lead to another and Delores ended up singing some of her songs to them.

The biggest blessing came for all of us this evening when Delores came over and sang a couple of her songs for us! OH MY! Everyone was sitting outside eating dinner together and having such a wonderful time of fellowship. They cooked hamburgers and hot dogs and along with devotions they gave testimony as to some of the things they had been involved in during their work day. After all of that Delores started to sing and saying it was outstanding doesn't begin to do her justice. She was awesome and you could physically feel the presence of God with all of us! The team then prayed for her and sat with her for quite a long time. They were also able to send an entire meal home with her. The relationship that has been built in just one day is life changing, for all of us! And they will be working with her for 4 more days! They invited her back any evening and I imagine she will be here! I wish I could describe how wonderful it all was but there just aren't proper words to do the entire evening justice. It was just something you had to experience and I am sad that you weren't here to do so.

Tomorrow the women from this team will be conducting a Vacation Bible School here in the evening and will be coming back from their jobs a bit early to prepare and set up for. The puppet stage is already being set up and it should be a wonderful 3 evenings for the children and a fantastic outreach into the community. Please keep everyone in your prayers, the children who are coming and those who are doing the teaching.

I would imagine that everyone would get a good nights sleep tonight. Although is wasn't as hot as usual and there were some clouds they are still quite tired. But the thing is, God will come in and refill them and they will be up and raring to go come tomorrow morning. God has a way of doing that when you are following His calling and serving Him.

We are just so thankful for both of these teams. Taking time from their lives, time to come down here, to work hard, to sweat, to sleep less comfortable than at home, to be away from their families....we pray God will turn around and bless them in return as we know He promises to do! They have only been here 1 day and are already experiencing the life changes that come from helping others, from being servants for the Lord!

Be sure and stay tuned each day as it has only just begun and God is moving like never before! You don't want to miss out on a thing! There should be photos of the jobs tomorrow evening. Please keep all of us in your prayers, we need the wisdom, strength and guidance that can only come from the Lord!

Until tomorrow.....Susan and Monty