Tuesday in Joplin

Tuesday morning was a bit tougher. The kids were tired and so were we.  It was complicated by the fact that the girls pranked the boys.  They took over 100 cups, filled with water, all over the porch of the boys house.  They then saran wrapped their whole front yard, using folding chairs and whatever else they could wrap.  They toilet papered the saran wrap.  They found out later that they had used all of our toilet paper in the girls house and had to do without. This girls got up at 2am to complete all of these shenanigans. It was all in good fun and everyone had a good laugh. I wish I had taken a picture to share.

After breakfast, we divided up. Some of us went back to the first house to paint and the rest of us went to the second house to work on the retaining wall and landscaping.  I was on the painting team. When we arrived at the house, we closed the garage door in hopes of helping to control the heat.  We searched for a fan that we could place in the basement doorway to bring up some cooler air.  When we went to the basement to look for the fan, we saw that someone was staying in the storm room.  The volunteer that was overseeing the construction of the house, Wilson, didn't believe us when we told him someone was down there.  There was no running water in the home and no lighting. Wilson went down to the basement and talked to the young man sleeping there.  The man in the basement was the son of the homeowners.  He told us about how he was waiting for his family to arrive home from a family trip.  He told us about working in the mines in Colorado.  It was great to talk to someone who knew the family we were helping.  The rest of the work day was spent painting the garage, including the ceiling.  Sheila and I had to constantly push and encourage the girls to work.  The heat was grueling and the work was hard, but we found that we were anxious to get the job done.  We were sad when we had to pack up, having just a couple more hours of work to do.

When we went back to our sleeping quarters, a group meeting was called.  We met out on the lawn in front of the houses.  We had gathered our things to take to the YMCA for showers. We were all looking forward to cleaning up.  When the meeting was called, the boys came out with shaving cream.  They creamed us well. They then dumped flour over us. The boys had retaliated. Thank goodness they did it on the way to the Y so that we could clean up.

After much needed showers, we went back to the church for dinner and devotions. We debriefed about the day. We talked about how tired, but blessed we all were. It was an earlier to bed night so that we could rest and get ready for another day of work.