Day 4- Who's Impacting Who?

Day 4 of our trip began with breakfast at the church and then dividing up into our work groups. The CCSP group headed to a new work site at a trailer park on the east side of town where they worked all day doing repairs on a trailer home. The group repaired the deck, replaced rotting sub-flooring and tile squares, and installed new carpeting. You haven't lived until you've seen Karen Richardson using a power saw to cut decking and her sister Sydney and Anna Dahlstrom using a carpet stretcher and staple gun to install new carpet.

Our Habitat for Humanity crew headed back to their job site to stain their fence and put finishing touches on framing. They also readied the kitchen for cabinets by framing the kitchen. Tomorrow's work includes installation of blue board which is an exterior insulating material which will go all around the house before the stucco is applied.

The Alamosa "paparazzi" were out to interview the Habitat crew today and their local newspaper is going to write an article about our work here in the San Luis Valley. They took some pictures and spent some time with the team, getting a feel for the work we've accomplished this week.

One of the most moving thing that we did today was to visit with the children and director of the PALS program. PALS is an agency that works with at-risk 5-9 year old children in the valley. These children come to the program via the court system, social services, or upon recommendation and are all living in extremely dysfunctional and in some cases, abusive homes. They are licensed for 20 children but currently have 17 on their roster. To see their little faces and know what their home lives were like was heartbreaking and heart warming all at the same time. The director of PALS, Tim, says that the goal of the program is just simply to provide these children with a safe place for a few hours a day. He was humbled at our gift of the baby blankets as well as the stuffed animals provided by the Muckle family. Please keep these children and the PALS staff in your prayers.

Our devotional time each evening always begins with a short debriefing of our day. Dr. Scott, along with our devotional guide provided by Rebecca Glancy, have given us good food for thought as well as lots of great discussion starters. Tonight we really explored the question of, Who is Impacting Who?  There is no doubt in our minds that our work here is more than appreciated but we are all feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude and humbleness at how our work has impacted us as team members. I would definitely call this a side benefit of our experience. We ended our devotional time on Tuesday night and tonight with Holy Communion which was a meaningful way to bring us together and remember that even though we were all making sacrifices this week, that Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us.

Tomorrow will be our final work day and some of our team will be heading home. Please keep our team in your prayers as they return home. We will be sharing our experience during church on Sunday at 9:15 and we hope that you can join us. We have lots of pictures to share as well as stories to tell. My final blog will be tomorrow night; I hope this has helped you to follow us on our journey.