CHill on a Mission: A Large Family

The largest group of the summer thus far (we will see what the team from Canada brings in August) came from Family of Christ Lutheran Church in Ham Lake, MN, which is just outside of the twin cities. The leader from this group, was the DCE/Youth Minister at Our Father in the years after I graduated from high school. It has been a great summer of reunions with people from OFLC.

The 30 youth and 5 adults broke into 2 groups, one building and the other doing VBS at San Pablo. They are used to having nearly 350 kids at their VBS at home, so they were well prepared for the ones that would come to San Pablo. On Monday, they canvassed the neighborhood with flyers, and were ready to go on Tuesday. They got up to 50 kids by Thursday, and each one that came had a fantastic time learning about Jesus.

The construction team laid what is the cornerstone of the Arredando home by building a closet, bathroom and bedroom. Future groups will be adding on to this home for the family of 6, similar to what we did last year with Gilberto and Dora Hinojosa. We ran into some challenges with wood that was not straight, or had too many knots in it, and of course it was difficult for everyone to deal with the heat, especially on the first day, but by lunch on Friday, everything was basically done. Just a little bit of sanding left for the next group, and maybe another coat of joint compound.

It seemed that every shiny metal object on the site was left in the sun at some point, usually right before I needed it. I jokingly told the group on Wednesday that next time I found a tool in the sun, they had to do 10 push-ups, and then add 5 for every subsequent tool. That fixed it. I didn't find any until we were almost done on Friday, and jokingly I told them they all had to come outside and do 10 push-ups. Guess what? They did them. It was awesome, and fun.

Every night, they had group time which included skits, songs, YAY God's, and small group devotions. I got to share my story one night, and feel that it was pretty encouraging to the group. It has been great to have some of my old youth leaders here, and they really made an effort to encourage me and support me in the new direction He has put me on.