Wow! God has certainly been providing for us over the past 48 hours. It was midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning that we gathered at church to load the vans and begin our trek to Lexington, South Carolina. We expected to arrive at our destination between 5 and 6pm. At 10pm last night, we finally pulled into the parking lot of our host church in South Carolina. We drove through quite a bit of rain and storms, took a long detour to get around some backed up interstate traffic, and learned that it takes quite some time for 46 people to use the bathroom when there are only 2 stalls available. We were tired and frustrated, but were met by an energetic and accommodating Next Step staff. We also met the people from a church in Ohio who are also participating on the mission trip with us this week. We quickly found new friends in these people!
How did God provide? First, the church was able to purchase a new van just before we departed! YAY! One less rental. On the way down to SC, we had planned to have a picnic lunch (packed by our awesome moms!). However it was raining and we couldn’t eat outside. We pulled into a travel center and, after hearing our needs, the staff ushered us into a private dining room and made us feel right at home! Later that night, God multiplied our “loaves and fishes” when we needed dinner. We had planned to be in South Carolina at dinner time, however we needed to eat on the road. God worked that out and we had enough lunch left over that each person had a feast for dinner as well. Yay God!
Today was hot! We started on our worksites this morning, and are so excited about our tasks for the week. Most of us are working in the same neighborhood, but on different homes. The community we are working in is incredibly kind. We making a lot of friends, playing with kids, and really enjoying working alongside of each other. Some of us are roofing, others are doing flooring, some are building ramps while others are fixing bathrooms and working on siding. One group even got to demolish a large shed today and will be rebuilding it during the week.
Worship tonight was a highlight of the day! We sang, watched an amazing video, and celebrated how we had seen God during the day. Tonight we talked about how easy it is to believe lies instead of trusting in God’s truth. We talked about the danger in making decisions based on our emotions, and the importance of focusing on the unseen – God and His truth.
We’ll be back tomorrow with more updates! Thanks for praying for us.
