Charleston, WV Mission Trip Day 2: Work begins!

Just a little clarification as to why I felt like a bucket of cold water hit me when we arrived.
There's no privacy.
Sleeping area is on concrete floor (I do have an air mattress, but some do not).
Two bathrooms on our floor with about 35 ladies to share it with.
Showers are off site community showers with 45 minutes to shower, change, etc... with only 4 working showers. We will be in shifts of smaller groups, but...yeah not looking forward to that.
Breakfast is at 7AM sharp and bed time 11PM sharp. The bedtime is fine with me except our schedule is so packed it's hard to find anytime to just think!

So, this is indeed stepping out of your comfort zone! It should be an interesting week!
I do think that there's a gold mine of valuable lessons to be learned and I look forward to it.

Here's today's break down.

Breakfast:
Some of our youth group boys had to do breakfast prep at 6:45 AM.
They actually only had to prep for lunch since breakfast was just cereal today.
See my FB for pics.

Devotions:

As I mentioned I just finished a week of all girls camp.

Our theme this year was about coming out of hiding from God ourselves and other. It was a challenge to be loved by God, to love, and do good.
Devotions this morning were on Jeremiah 6:13-14
It seems like this week will be a reinforcement of girls week lessons.

Work Crews:
Covenant is an emergency day shelter, transitional housing and resource center
West Virginia is considered the Meth lab capital of the USA, so the poverty rate is high.
I really liked this place and wished I could spend all day just picking their brains. They had some real exciting programs for homeless men and women.
Our actual work for them ended up being painting at one of their housing units.
I didn't know ahead of time we were painting or I wouldn't have worn the shirt I did. Bummer, now I'm covered in paint.
Surprise after surprise.
Oh well.
We then headed to a nursing home, but we were late and they didn't seem to be prepared for us. 

We ended up playing Bingo with some of the residents.
I enjoyed laughing with the ladies at my table, but it was a slow afternoon and I am tired so it was a little hard.
Raychel and Megan sat with another group of ladies after Raychel and I painted their nails. When our time was done there we headed off to those awesome community showers around 3:00PM
That was not a highlight for me. Too many little unknown things. Too awkward for me.
I'm just too tired :(

Free Time:
This was great. I had a chance to just relax.
I just laid in my bed and edited this blog and checked facebook.

Dinner:
Yummy tonight!
We had Alfredo.
Only my group had dinner clean-up, so I didn't get seconds of the yummy food.
Clean up went fast.
Ashley and Jonathon had a surprise for Mike and I.
They got us very yummy cupcakes and everyone signed a card wishing us a happy anniversary.

Worship:
Sang my favorite song. How He Loves
Our youth group participated and shared with everyone highlights from their day.

Church Time:
This is the time we gather just with our own youth group and talk. Everyone had great things to share about their different work sites today.
Most of our youth worked with kids today.
Each of them had good things to say about their experience.
We closed in prayer and each one of them prayed aloud, which I know is a big step for some of them.
I'm proud of how open they have been.

Goodnight!