A Random Collection of Fun Events

Eb's 50th Birthday!
On Tuesday the 23rd of June, it was Eb's big five-oh! We recognized the day first by coming up with any way possible to use the number "50" in our daily speech. For instance:

Jimmy: "Hey Ben, about how many shingles do you think we've laid so far?!"
Ben: "Ooo, I'd say about 50!"

OR

Eb: "How many of those combos have you eaten!?"
Tucker: "ummm... 50."

Needless to say, we needed to honor Eb in a real way (and a nicer way), so we serenaded him and made him delicious cake... as seen below:







Our Adventure to Sonic
We are fascinated by the wonder that is "Sonic". It is a drive-up fast food chain found west of the Mississippi (as far as I know) that specializes in delicious milk shakes and smoothies. As our "night out" we piled in our five vans and invaded Sonic.




Needless to say, everyone enjoyed the delicious snacks and the beautiful Iowa sunset.









Harmonization
Ben, Tucker, and James have a unique talent for singing when it comes to the word "butter"... take a listen.



A Glimpse into the Lives of Weary Travelers
On the way to Iowa, we pulled over off an exit for a bit so that our drivers could stretch and rest. This video, taken at that time, captures the state everyone was in at some point on our 5 hour car ride.



A message to my fellow 26 mission teamers: If you have pictures or other events you want to add to the blog, please feel free to email me or message me on facebook to let me know! You can be a contributor to the blog to! I would love for you to share your videos and pictures with everyone!

Also: More posts to come on the work we did and our last two days together! Stay tuned :)

We're Back!

I just wanted to post real quickly to let everyone know that we have made it home to Towson safe and sound! A big thank you to all who picked us up from BWI!

I have plenty more pictures, videos, and stories to post on here and hopefully they will get up once I recover some energy! Thank you all for checking in and I miss all of my work campers already! Congratulations on an amazing week everyone... I am truly proud to have been a part of the Iowa Mission Trip.

The Work: Part I

Job: Mucking out a flooded basement
Workers: Keith, Charlotte, Patty, Kayla, Diana, Andy, Tucker
Task: This dedicated team spent Monday and part of Tuesday mucking out the basement of a “painted lady” house that was submerged in 35 feet of water during the flood. They were sweating through tyvek suits and breathing through masks in order to clear the room of ruined valuables and antiques. A city councilman owned the house and he was extremely grateful to have some of his belongings salvaged!


Note: Notice the water line on the door frame...





Job: Rebuilding a fence
Workers: Jim, Kevin, David, Susanna, Hayley (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) + Andy, Henry, and Brittany (Thursday)
Task: "Team awesome" spent Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday tearing down and rebuilding a backyard fence. Everyone took part in the destruction and rebuilding process. Susanna and David became naturals with the screw gun and Kevin and Jim had way too much fun with the circular saw. Andy, Henry, and Britt dug holes for the posts. Hayley took time to bond with the homeowner Phyllis! She had a pet baby raccoon that she was nursing back to health and it was neat to see “Rocky” follow her around!









Job: Roofing a Church
Workers: Eb, Jaime, Ellen, Ben, Emily, Hayley, Brad, Tucker, James, Brittany, Susanna, Jim, Pat, Keith, Kevin, Katie, Juliah, Diana, Andy, David
Task: The Calvin Sinclair Presbyterian Church is the local church that is donating much of our home church's supplies for the workers (a.k.a DELICIOUS snack bags, water bottles, paper goods, etc...). We couldn't be here without them! That is why Eb is leading a team of dedicated workers to re-roof part of their church (it was in bad need of it)! The task was tremendous, necessitating three work crews to go over Tuesday and take shifts ripping off the old roof and beginning the process of re-shingling. It has been inspiring to see everyone come together and finish this roof (it was finished on Thursday!)









Job: Painting (Marie's House on C Street)
Workers: Linda, Marylou, Sallie, Tucker (Monday) , Henry & Kayla (Tuesday)
Task: Prep and paint the front of Marie's house on C Street. Marie's husband had passed away just after the flood. The house front had never been painted. The wood siding was mildewed and stained with mold. We had to scrape, sand, caulk, fill and fix holes and damage, and tape up the porch before priming the first day. The second day, we painted carefully matching existing paneling. We improvised and found ways to get to the higher edges by taping a paint brush to an extension pole. Our cheerful crew worked hard and the result was beautiful. Marie was very pleased.






Job: Dry Wall (Deanna's House)
Workers: Pat, Brittany, Katie, Henry, Juliah, James, Keith, Emily, Diana, Brad
Task: The basement and two feet of Deanna's first floor was submerged in water during the flood. In order to help her, our task was to put up new dry wall and tear down a ruined kitchen ceiling. Deanna is an admissions counselor at the local community college and she presently lives with her mother in a FEMA community. She cannot wait to move back into her home and we were honored to help her move a step in that direction.

The Beginning: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

On Saturday the 20th, the TPC Youth Mission Team left for BWI airport at 11:00 a.m. (thank you to all who drove us, you were an AWESOME help!). After standing in line to check in for way too long, we finally made it through to our terminal and took off for Chicago!












After we arrived in Chicago, we claimed our baggage and rented our vans. On the ride to the First Church in Oak Park (just outside Chicago), we were already pretty tired. When we finally got there, we couldn't contain our excitement! The week's journey had officially begun!








That night, we had genuine Chicago deep-dish style pizza at a friendly restaurant called Geppetto’s. The food was delicious and we left with doggie-bags for Sunday’s lunch!








Next, we ventured into downtown Chicago (using the L train and the bus system) to see the fireworks at the Navy Pier. The show was an awesome way to end the night and when we finally got back to the church, we all fell asleep to prepare for the next day’s drive to Iowa. So, in short, Saturday was “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” in real life.






On Sunday morning, we stayed for our host church’s service. It was an absolutely beautiful service that was preceded by a short concert on their impressive organ. The hospitality and welcome was greatly appreciated!








Around lunchtime, we piled into our 5 rented vans and began our 5-hour drive to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The time in the car was passed with walkie talkies and a fun game called “story time” where one van would begin the story and then pass it to another van via the walkies. Creative characters were invented and laughs were had for all. During this trip, we also stopped at the “largest truck stop in the world” and were surprised by a show from The Blue Angels when they flew overhead!





We arrived at the Christ Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids around 6:00 and were greeted and showed around our home for the next 6 days. The building is very nice with a full kitchen, meeting/dining room, a gym where the women are sleeping and separate rooms where the men are housed. We all have air mattresses and sleeping bags to keep us cozy at night! That night we had a delicious dinner of sloppy joe’s and a beautiful prayer to kick it off.






These are the trailers outside of our home church. One holds our tools and the other holds our showers.
The magnificent vegetable garden outside of the church!
Our Kitchen!


We ended the night with a devotion that explained our theme of “Drop in the Bucket”. Jim showed us our bucket (filled a quarter of the way with water) and spoke to us about how this water represents our efforts in helping the people of Cedar Rapids rebuild their homes after the devastating floods last summer. From now on, we are challenged to find a rock at the end of each day that symbolizes the effort we think we put into our work that day. We will then drop it in the bucket and watch as all our efforts combine to raise the water level and symbolize the change we have made in these people’s lives through hard work, teamwork, and prayer.


Coming soon: Updates on our work so far this week!