Yesterday was too too hot.

We are having record setting high temperatures this week and it has made a few of out activities difficult. The SERVErs went to three worksites yesterday - cleaning up litter in the downtown with Winnipeg BIZ, sorting clothes and other things at the Bible for Missions Thrift Store (or as one participant said, "My grandma's work." The last group went to Park Manor Senior's Home and played games, sang songs and brightened the day of the residents.

In the afternoon we had an extremely hot ride on The Prairie Dog Central - a train that is very old. The car we were in was built in 1911. Obviously no air conditioning. When we planned this in January, it sounded like a lot of fun. It didn't turn out quite like we planned but it will be a good memory and we really appreciated the AC at church when we returned.

The kids FINALLY got showers after that at the Cornerstone Apartments. (Note to next planning team - SHOWERS ON SUNDAY TOO!) Several families from our church live there and offered their homes to our SERVErs for showers. Greatly appreciated.

After another delicious dinner - taco salad, we met for worship. Shellie led the team on another shoulder or toe or something of the Amazing Race. Peace is a Status. We are so thankful for the fun and wisdom she shares with us everything evening. She is the queen of the object lesson!

Today, the news says we are going to break the old record for high temps but 3 degrees! That is 3 degrees Celecius! The work site this morning were warm and two were outside. One group was with the Winnpeg BIZ again and another group planted plants at the Indian Family Centre. They were warm but were troopers and got the job done. The other group were the lucky ones who were at Winnipeg Harvest- our local food bank. It was air conditioned.

We came back to church for a delicious lunch of pizza. Our cooks are amazing - everyday we have these delicious smells coming from the kitchen. And we are served lunch and supper by smiling women. We really appreciate the work they and the men in the morning are doing.

Now everyone is back from showers and getting ready to bowl. We changed from mini-golf to bowling because of the heat and everyone is excited for GLOWING IN THE DARK!

We are so thankful that everyone has survived the times outside with very few headaches or any heat issues. The church is comfortable and every one seems to be sleeping well. Thanks for your prayers!

If you really want to see pictures and there are hundreds!!! Check out Ron Hosmar's blog. He is the camera guy and takes much better pictures than I do. He is the youth pastor from Ottawa and we are so enjoying the kids be brought to be our mentors. You can also read some of the thought of the kids on the experience there too. http://www.ronhosmar.blogspot.com/

Have to run now. The troops are ready to go! Carol

Good morning, Its Day 3

Wow! Its Monday morning and the crew is slowly wandering around waiting for breakfast. A wonderful group of retired gentlemen from our church who meet Monday mornings for breakfast, Bible study and fellowship is here every morning to make breakfast for our crew. They have the coffee ready and great food. Today its pancakes and sausages.

Today is the first day for going to work sites. One group is going to work at a nursing home, one to work at a thrift store and the third is going to help something called Downtown BIZ. They help keep the litter under control in downtown Winnipeg.

Its time for breakfast. I haven't had as much time as I had hoped to post pictures and things. There were a few kids who needed tucking in last night and we meet with the mentors at 10:00. Hopefully later today I can add a few more details of the wonderful time we have been having. Be sure to check out Ron's blog too. He has lots of pictures!

CArol

Day One

It's hard to believe but we are settling down for sleep here after a very busy day. The morning was spent in mentor orientation and after a delicious lunch, we did the last preparations and somewhere between 2 and 4 all the participants arrived. Moving in, small groups and then worship. Crafts, games and everyone settling down to sleep. The participants have all settled in and the mentors were sent off. Now the rest of us are getting ready to sleep in various strange places. My bed is a couch in our nursery with Bonita in the cry room and Shellie on the other side of the orange slide. We will see how this goes.

It is very hot here and the AC in the church is working overtime. We are pretty comfortable but we keep telling the kids to drink water. Tomorrow after church and our commissioning service we are supposed to spend some time in a park. Its a good thing there are water games planned.

No pictures tonight - sorry. I'm too tired to figure that all out. So if you want to see pictures, check out Ron Hosmar's blog. He's busy at it right now. We are off to a great start. More tomorrow! CArol

Counting down.....

Tonight will be our last normal sleep at home for awhile. Tomorrow we will be hosting two mentors who have flown in a day early and I think we will move into the church on Friday. Friday will be a busy day with the mentors - team building and a lot of other fun stuff.

Then on Saturday there will be some more training and the participants start to arrive around noon. Our first worship time is at 6:30 on Saturday and then swoosh....WE are off and running.

It been a lot of planning with some ups and downs but now it is really exciting. My prayer is that we will have a safe time together where we will all get to know each other better and all grow together in our faith. Carol

The Mentors Are Coming, The Mentors Are Coming!

Many of the mentors at this SERVE are coming from Ottawa. They left yesterday to drive here. Their fearless leader is Ron Hosmar, the youth pastor at Calvin CRC in Ottawa and the coordinator for the Special Needs SERVE s for three years in Ottawa. As someone said to me this week, "He is a committed blogger." And you can follow their progress on his blog. http://www.ronhosmar.blogspot.com/

I just realized that there may need to be an explanation of some terms.

Participants are the young people that are coming to SERVE. They usually have some sort of special need that has kept them from participating in a regular SERVE experience.

Mentors are the young people who have volunteered to come and to walk along side our participants for the week of SERVE. They are with their assigned participant for 24/7 during this time. With out them, there would be no Special Needs SERVE!

More to come tomorrow. Carol

Home again

Hi all,

A few hours ago, my husband, Hank, and I came home from a quick trip to Sioux Center, Iowa for a family reunion. We stayed on campus at Dordt College for a get together with my mom's family. I wasn't completely able to put SERVE out of mind but we really did enjoy the time away. As we were busy doing a lot of activities, I thought how SERVE and the reunion were really alike in a lot of ways.

1. Laughter. We laughed and laughed. Sometimes we were remembering really silly things we did as cousins or our parents told stories about things that happened in the past. But we also laughed at things that happened right there in the games we were playing or something a little kid said.

At SERVE I am sure we will laugh a lot. There will be games and planned things that will be fun but there will also be times when we are just hanging out and funny things will happen.

2. Tears. My dad and my brother passed away since our last reunion so we took time to go to their graves to remember them. Some of us cried then and some of us cried at the Sunday morning service when we sang the favourite hymns of those family members who were no longer with us. Every family there had something sad to remember so we hugged each other and remembered. And then as we remembered we started to laugh again - at the same time!

There will be tears at SERVE. Someone may be homesick or get their feelings hurt. I pray we won't have anything sadder than that but whatever happens we will talk and we will pray and in the end I'm sure we will at least smile again.

3. Getting to know people. I hadn't seen some of my cousins for many years. The best part of the weekend was that we had a lot of things to do together so that it was easy to get to know each other again.

We will get to know each other at SERVE because we will be doing a lot of things together. Our prayer and worship times will bring us together but so will working at the sites or playing games in the sun. I had a great time with my mom's family but I am looking forward to expanding my family in Christ through working, worshiping and playing with all of my SERVE friends in a few days.

I'm praying for all of you and for our time together. I hope we will understand what is really means to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

Carol

A Few More Pictures

I had a few more pictures to add. Here is our fellowship hall. We will be having our meals here and games will be set up at one end. There are basketball hoops but if you like to play, we are going to send you outside!

This is the parking lot and the field by the church.
The Hope Centre Ministries bus. I will explain more about Hope Centre in another post but we are able to use their little bus during the week. It will be taking some of us to worksites and to special places like Kildonan Park and Prairie Dog Central. More on those places later too. Its going to be a great time!