One More In The Kingdom

Week 5 of 6 is over. this was an incredible week. we had a great group of campers, got alot of work done, and had an amazing time this week. i had a surprisingly easy roof this week. the main part of the roof was only 8 square, and another square over a front porch they had. the front porch was very, very rotten (a girl had fallen through the week before while painting) and every rafter had to be re supported. I had a really great crew and we all had alot of fun together. Whitney and i crew chiefed together this week, which we always manage to have a good time together.

First of all, my homeowner this week prayed to recieve Christ!! this was definitly the most amazing part of the week. countless prayers had been prayed for this man. he is single and lives by himself, although his family and some friends are almost always there. he lost a leg and is restricted to crutches. it was incredible to see how well he moved around on his crutches and refused to let himself be inhibited by his circumstances. last week two crews were at his house, one painting, the other building a handicapped ramp for him, and ofcourse this week we were putting a new roof on his house, we were also able to do a ton of yardwork around his house. He was increidlby moved by the work that had been done around his house. wednesday morning, marcia, one of the adult chaperones on my crew went inside and talked with him, im not entirely sure of their conversation, but all i know is he prayed to receive Christ. thursday night, we also had another homeowner accept Christ, it was an amazing week! i also recieved a huge compliment from todd, while he was at my house, helping me restructure the rafters, he pulled me aside and pointed out the work God has been doing through me, and talked about how i was definitly suposed to be here this summer. i certainly took it as a complement, wether it was meant as one or not. is certainly is amazing to be where God wants you to be!

Going into this week, i thought we were going to have a bear of a roof, i knew we had a two or three layer tear off, which can make life incredibly difficult, and i also expected to have to resheet the entire roof as well due to rotten boards. As we began tearing off, we were able to get under the ridgecaps easily, and then tear all three layers of shingles off at the same time, making life much easier than expected. generally, we have to replace alot of the sheeting, this week, we had one board on each side of the roof to replace. it was an amazing blessing. we had to replace the bottom board of the sheeting because drip edge had not been installed and the wood was rotting, that was it. it was amzing not having to feel rushed to try and complete the roof, being able to spend extra time on his yard, and being able to relax a little while shingling. the entire back side of the house was also pretty much completely covered in shade which was amazing. in addition to an easy roof, i also had two capers, one an adult and another a camper who i let shingle the entire front side, minus two short valleys. they did a great job and i think the roof looks great. the camper, who i thought was in college and was here as an adult chaperone turned out to be only 16, which was quite a surprise, considering that i felt comfortable leaving him in charge of the roof. i had a very large crew this week, and wasnt able to keep everyone busy on the roof because it was so small, so we were able to do a ton of yardwork in his yard. his yard had not been kept up well, for obvious reasons. Marcia, the adult chaperone who led the homeowner to Christ, i gave free reign over the yard work, they cut crass, weed-eated, trimmed trees, cleaned up trash, cleaned up the road a little bit, and were even able to cut one of the neighbors yards who has cancer. it was amazing seeing the difference from when we got there to when we left, that place looked much, much better. i was also able to earn my 'man badge' this week. during training someone decided that you could earn your man badge by carrying up two loads of shingles (about 160 lbs) up on the roof at a time, and i was able to do that this week. while it may not have been the smartest thing ive ever done, it was pretty cool to say you could carry it up the ladder.