Day 3--WEDNESDAY

Today was another FANTASTIC day over at Lathrop homes! We got a TON accomplished! Split into the same teams as yesterday we started tackling projects left and right. We took the truck and trailer with us today and offloaded ALL the furniture and beds that we brought with us. Everyone pitched in to get everything wiped down, freshened up and vacuumed clean, ready for delivery.

Team by team, we loaded up in the back of the truck with a few items at a time in the trailer to drive a block down the street and start on some new apartments while finishing some apartments from yesterday. Jeff and Sarah's group spent the day working with Trina. They were able to put together a new dresser that Trina had gotten for her daughter and they also assembled a new stand for her living room. We had brought a donated bunk bed with us but after a few minutes found out why a stranger gave it to us for free... There were several mission parts to the bed like side rails and braces and a few other important parts. So the team kept working and cleaning and Jeff and I made a run to a local furniture store and bought Trina a brand new bunk bed for her girls. Cool thing is today was her daughter's 5th birthday and she gets to sleep in a brand new bed with a brand new mattress!

Loretta and I's group headed over to help Flora out. We tossed out a really old couch that was beyond any hope and replaced it with a couch that had been donated from one of you guys! It was pretty apparent that the apartment could benefit from some deep cleaning so the team jumped on it and worked like crazy until lunchtime. After lunch it was back to Carol's apartment to help her continue on with the massive project of cleaning her apartment. We brought with us two donated dressers and a brand new bed for Jason. Jason is Carol's 18 year old son who has decided to join the national guard in order to help make a difference and to earn money for college. He was extremely grateful for the new bed and new dresser. We also helped fix her younger son, Jasper's, dresser that had been falling apart, but just needed a little TLC with some nails and a hammer! Carol was so grateful for all the help that the team had done over the last two days and is determined to finish the projects we helped her start so that if and when we ever come back to help again, we'll be proud of her continued progress!

Dave and Carol's group helped deliver furniture to several different places. One apartment they delivered a brand new bed for Lillyanna who just had her baby on Saturday. She had been sleeping on a twin that was in worse shape than anything that anybody reading this blog has probably ever laid on, much less slept on. They also helped deliver to about 2-3 other apartments in the morning that had different items of furniture that we delivered. After lunch they hopped on over to Flora's apartment to do some painting and final cleaning.

This evening then it was off for round two at Wendy's! Apparently the team enjoyed it on Monday so much they were ready to go back!

As were were sitting around this evening after dinner, we spent time talking about the day once again and sharing stories of what we all did and of the amazing experiences we had. If you are a parent of a student on this trip, you should be proud. If you are a freind of someone on this trip, you should be proud. If you are the son/daughter/spouse of one of the leaders on this trip you should be proud. This team gets it. Their actions over the last 3 days has shown that the words "Other People Matter" are a lot more than a catchy phrase or cool shirt. This team has shown love to other people by serving, by talking, by caring, by acknowledging someone else in this world other than themselves. The residents we worked with over the past two days many times could not put their appreciation into words and sometimes it spilled out in tears of joy and thankfulness that someone cared. There are over a dozen residents in Lathrop homes that have witnessed firsthand the love of Jesus because of what your students are doing. There are hundreds more residents of Lathrop that have been impacted by seeing your students love and care for and clean for total strangers when many times they are not even willing to help each other out as neighbors. The impact is far from over. Dyla and CeCe from Service Connector are so grateful, impressed, amazed and in awe of this team that they extended an open invitation to come back and help pretty much anytime! And I think we'll take them up on that offer!

The team is doing well. Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for the comments. Keep on praying, keep on commenting. The kids love hearing encouraging words from back home. And remember that you are as much a part of this team as those of us sitting here in Chicago. Your support, your encouragement, your prayers, your money :), and all the years of you raising such good kids has made this trip what it is. There is NO way this could be possible without all your support and of course your permission for me to take your kids to Chicago!

Good night! Be praying for the team tomorrow! We will be stretched and pushed beyond our comfort zone in a big way tomorrow! We'll update tomorrow evening!

Love from CHICAGO!
Johnny and the team.