A Week Ago Today. Wednesday.

Day three. I get up around 0715 and get ready to head to the nearby town of Aurora MO to retrieve the part that has been ordered for us. I am feeling pretty good. It's been a little bit of a rocky start for our crew with the van giving us the scare on Monday night and then the late start due to the same on Tuesday morning. I planned on having the part back to a waiting Josh and Uncle Johnny and getting the brand spanking new chunk of metal into the van and being good to go by about 0845 or 0900. I make the drive in the beautiful rolling countryside of Missouri, passing ancient little towns of 2 and 300 with their town churches. Old beat up ford trucks parked in front of the town markets and little gas stops on the way. I really loved that morning drive, the sunrise casting a beautiful sepia colored hue over everything and the shadows playfully laying on the hills. In the distance a tractor rolls out of a huge red barn. I don't know why, but I absolutely love all of this. It's a bit like traveling back to a simpler time. I arrive at the Ford Dealership after asking a group of folks all out on their morning smoke break in the shadow of a grain elevator, they all point in the same direction and holler the same set of instructions, you would have thought the choreographed it! They catch the humor in it too and chuckle good naturedly as turn around and head out.
I ask the pretty lady at the reception desk where to go and she points me down the stairs, all smiles, and the fellas in the parts cubby are happy to see me. They're scanning in the part as I walk up and they say graciously offer thanks for our help in the clean up effort even tho they all live about 45 minutes from where it happened, it's just that kind of community. Hands are shook and the deal is done. I head back to the church and enjoy the drive back even more. It does not dawn on me that our part was broken at a bracket that came off the piece and that the new part does not have this. I don't notice this because I am too ecstatic that the new part made it in time! That these people were so eager to help us out, that we are going to be 100% functional now!
I get back to the church and note with some displeasure that the van is indeed NOT disassembled and ready to go, so I track down the team at a local eatery waiting for their breakfast orders! They haven't even eaten yet! So I grab Uncle Johnny and Josh and we start back to the church, even before we reach there Josh informs me that this is NOT the part that we need. I realize it immediately upon actually EXAMINING the part, and am crushed. I feel like an idiot, I was ready to get onto Josh for not having things ready to go, and that actually ended up SAVING us time. So the youth get back from breakfast little by little and I let them know the situation. Words are not adequate enough to convey the feeling of failure that I am feeling at this moment.
The group takes it all in stride and wonder only one thing. How long will it take us to get into town? I remind them that we ran the van pretty easily without the trailer yesterday and it did fine, and so we should be able to do the same thing today. We load up and I give Jenny the part to take back to the nice people at the Ford Dealership. I call ahead to let them know that it's the wrong part and that it's coming back to them. Jenni tells me later that they took it back with no hassle at all. We head straight back out to The Atteberry's house after a quick stop off for tools at the church to a startling discovery... A large backhoe is literally in the act of demolishing the house for clear out. Josh approaches the driver to find out what is going on, turns out that the Atteberry's have contracted out their house to be leveled. We start to work on the deck after the back hoe is off the property, but he comes back and says that he is going have 2 bulldozers come and clear the property that same afternoon. We head back to the church for a new assignment. The lady at the front desk is alarmed when I tell her that the backhoe has started the work. She asks if I cleared the backhoe worker to demolish. I ardently let her know that I did not. He was already working on the house when we arrived. There is a bit of confusion as we sit at the church, eager to work but taking full advantage of the air conditioning in the church. By stroke of blessing, the lady at the front desk assigns us there at the church doing various jobs and moving this and that, the girls "palletizing" different things here and there, and generally helping anywhere and everywhere that we can. We learn that the high winds put a tree on the roof of this church and tore it up pretty good. They have a deadline of August 17 to get the entire building ready for their Private schooling in the fall. We help everywhere and anywhere we can. This church is a beehive of activity and we are all over the place, cleaning and moving and sorting. It's a fun afternoon that doesn't kill us. I think it was well needed. I can tell that some of the youth want to be out "helping people". I have to remind some of them that for whatever reason, we are at the church for that day and the things we are doing are necessary too. They have such incredible hearts, this group.
I check in with the coordinator to get an assignment for the next day and we get an address on Wall St. We all agree to head into town early the next day to get a head start on it! We will be disassembling another deck and cleaning his yard, sorting bricks and stacking things, also, we'll be helping the owner sort through his belongings and getting heavy stuff hauled to the curb if he is able to show up. He has not been back to his home in 45 days due to the enormous emotional impact that the devastation has caused him.
The drive home is a bit less uncomfortable than the day before since we aren't cooked to the core. Also, we head home a little bit later than usual due to the light duty. Jenni has found another way to feed us all deliciously and very economically! There is a full spread of fried chicken, gravy, green beans, mashed potates, corn, and rolls!! It is all manner of DELICIOUS! After pounding some food, everyone lets it settle and an impromptu ball game starts in the churches gym. After watching for a bit and seeing enough of Josh pretend to be Shaq on all these teenagers,  (LOL BTW, JUST LOL) I started looking through some books that the church has sectioned out of their book ministry and let us know that we can have whatever we can carry. I get a pretty good little collection going, put in a plastic bag under the far Basketball goal, away from the game, and the book ministry. I watch a little more as the youth engage in what can only be called no-holds-barred full contact tackle basketball. Hosanna tackles ANYONE with the ball, on her team or not, Austin holds his own against Josh-Shaq, and everyone is having a good time until Joseph goes sliding across the floor on his face. Everything is quiet and standing absolutely still. Then he starts laughing and it goes from good time to GREAT TIME! I exit quietly stage left and find a nice quiet spot to write in my journal and hang out till the end of the night.
Around 15-20 minutes later I am writing away and contemplating calling Jessica when the lights go out. I look up startled as I was pretty deeply immersed in writing, and note that there is no one in THIS section of the fellowship hall where I am sitting. I remember that there was going to be some activity in the church that night and know that there are multiple switches to the same room I am in. I shrug it off and walk over and turn the lights back on. I sit down, I put the pen to paper as is so soothing to me, and the lights go off again. I chuckle, I say "Hello?" and walk to the hallway toward the sanctuary, seeing nothing, I go back to the light switch and turn it back on. Then they go off again, even before I sit down the third time, the lights go out, so I quickly make my way to the hallway and turn the corner, to see a little girl of no more than 9 or 10 years of age standing at the end of the hallway. I see her freeze, and BOLT to the right. I wait. No parent comes around the corner, and so I turn the lights back on. This time they stay on.
I think that any child or young person that has grown up in the church has a story or two of having the good gollies scared out of you in a church building. I think I just became legend to one little girl.
Lights out again. But the guys actually stay up this time, telling jokes and just generally having a great time. It feels good to be laughing this week. I love these guys and this crew from top to bottom. We finally shut eye around midnight, wondering if the ladies heard us and were kept awake by our raucous laughter. Tired and happy, when sleep comes that night, later than usual, it's hits hard, and lands soft. We all cut out within seconds of each other. God has been so good to us all week. Every manner of problem that has presented itself has been remedied by His hand again and again. The snores come easy and bother none as we are all apart of a snoozy chorus. It's been a good day.