7:30am came so quickly this morning, and I was dragging as I woke and began my morning routine, in fast motion. Finishing my teeth and hair, I turned to put on my makeup and remembered where I was headed, so the makeup stayed in the bottle. All I needed then was my visor, my camera, and a quick cup of coffee to escort me out the door, although I did eat a quick Activia as I stood in the kitchen, swallowed my daily meds and checked my "take" list one more time, oh, and work gloves.
Today was my first day working at this year's local assistance project. I'll be meeting 75 of our high school students and 25 adults at our campground before heading out to our site for the day. It is usually hard work and can be buggy, dirty, sweaty, and a myriad of other descriptors. The temperature stayed in the 70's most of the day, until the sunshine broke out around 2pm. Our group was building a deck, planting flowers, putting out mulch, and various inside upgrades...taking giveaway clothes to GoodWill, shredding stacks of unused papers, replacing sink faucets, hanging pictures, building shelves, moving curtain rods.
What we didn't count on was....when we started the washing machine with a load, tested the new dishwasher, and flushed a toilet...the waste water became clogged and backed up into the shower and both bathtubs...eeeeeeewwwwwww! We quickly shut off the water to keep the toilets from overflowing and quickly starting looking for the outdoor trap to clean out. The unfortunate thing about this was we couldn't find it...really. All the work that had been done in the front flower bed with new mulch had to be raked out and we had to dig a trench across the front of the house to find the pipe heading to the street....oh, my goodness, what a mess and what a lot of work...digging in red clay 18" deep. We were blessed to have two angels show up who knew how to glove up and clear the trap....thank you, Jesus!
It always seems we have a surprise missiion in a mission each time we do this...and I'm so thankful we were able to handle this for our client without them having to pay for a costly plumber.
We'll be going back tomorrow to finish the deck and a few more things inside.
If you've never done this kind of service before in your area, look for a group you can volunteer to help. It really is a great way to see God work his miracles in ways you never expect.
I have to remember when I go back tomorrow to retrieve my Starbuck's travel mug...I left it on her dining room table....My Mom always says I like to leave something behind so I won't be forgotten.
