Driving Home

Good morning WPC! This is Elizabeth Spivey reporting from Carlos Noriega’s laptop from van number 2, in somewhere East of Eden, at about 10:40. We’ll post this as we approach Austin.

Last night we stopped in Midland Texas, at a Trinity Presbyterian Church where Carressa’s aunt is a Pastor there. We got in so late we didn’t write a report, but after a long day of travel (in which we scared a few adults with our cabin fever) we had a great devotional at about midnight and ending at about 1:30. We wrote to each other on our affirmation blocks and shed a few happy tears at some very happy memories. We managed to get up at about 7:15 and hit the road at 8. We are shooting to be back at the church around 5 PM. So far, it’s been a safe journey and we are praying it stays that way. We’ll see you soon!

The irony of being tired

Hello WPC! Greetings from Elizabeth Spivey, Marshall Godwin, reporting with tonight’s blog.
(Edited by Rebekah Spivey, Graham Montgomery, and Travis Fuller.)

It was a bit of a slow start this morning for the girls, because we kind of accidentally left the windows open all night. Sooooo, we were all so cold and had trouble getting up. But we made it! We loaded up in the vans and sent a group to the resale shop, the rec center, and the Habitat house construction site.

At the rec center we divided into two groups; a group to pick up loads of rocks that were in the way of the community’s children’s play, while two other people (Graham Montgomery and Marshall Godwin, the latter of whom is writing this paragraph) got gargantuan gas powered weed eaters to eat away at the preposterous amount of plants that covered the park. It was actually surprisingly fun hacking away at giant stalks of grass, and the work day was made by a touching confessional made by the man who is the ONLY full time employee at the park. To make a long and emotion invoking story short, he told us that no matter what happened God would see you through, even through horrible, heart rending events. This, honestly, made my day, to touch someone’s life in such a way.

While those guys were having a ball at the rec center, Rebekah Spivey, Austin Stubblefield, Erik Kinzler, Amy Waehner, Jennifer Paden, Melissa Moede and Carlos Noriega, did a lot of work on the exterior of the Habitat house. Some of the things we did were put down tar paper, glue Styrofoam, paint with tar, and build two frames. At the end of the day the two wall frames were put up and we were all happy that we got to put up some walls, not just build them. The work was hard but rewarding, and the homeowners and other Habitat volunteers were really excited and proud that we got so much done so quickly.

At the resale shop, we did a lot more clearing out, but we got a good start on the shed out back. This shed is going to hold a lot of piping, lumber, tools, and other shed-like materials for the Habitat Home Supply store. Today we hammered a lot, rather that taking out nails (although some of that still went on.) The very brave Shelby McNeill, Sarah Cravens, and, for a little bit, Rudy Noriega, cleaned out another fridge. We also heard that one of the previous fridges we cleaned out got sold! Travis Fuller, Brandon Looney, Elizabeth Spivey (me) and Rudy worked on building the shed, taking apart some wood and sanding the affirmation blocks. Sarah and Shelby helped there too. Shelby and I also sorted through a ton (literally) of books and shelved them. I even found a book I wanted, and the very nice Mr. Ross gave me a 20% employee discount (a whole 7 cents off a 50 cent book!) As you can tell, a lot of work was done today, and we ended the week with a strong outlook on the future of the Habitat homes we worked on, and the resale shop.

Tonight the Bayfield Lion’s Club graciously fed us a wonderful dinner of hamburgers, macaroni salad, beans, fruit, brownies and cookies. We got to hear from the Habitat staff, and some homeowners. One homeowner had a truly touching story of rising from a dark place, and how God and Habitat gave her a hand up. It was great to hear how much we were appreciated, and it really felt good to know that we have done a very good thing.

All in all, the week was really worthwhile and a great opportunity. We cannot thank the congregation enough for their support, love, and care so we could come out here and do God’s work. The experience was truly amazing. We donated $4,500 to the Habitat for Humanity of La Plata County, and they were so happy to receive it that we all felt very grateful for the support Webster Presbyterian Church has given us so we could bring this hope and happiness to Habitat staff and the homeowners. Every little bit helps, and just by you guys supporting us we have impacted many lives, including our own, this week. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We will be heading out early tomorrow morning, so goodnight WPC, and again, thank you for helping us help others. Peace.

A series of unfortunate events

Hola fellow Webster Presbyterian members. This is Marshall Godwin and Sarah Cravens reporting on our third day of this amazing Mission Trip. (And edited by Elizabeth Spivey and Travis Fuller.)

The day is Thursday, June the 19, and it is a beautiful day in the town of Bayfield, Colorado.

This morning didn’t start so well, but things have gotten better as the day goes on. At approximately 3:30 AM, Hugh Evans was taken to the hospital due to high blood sugar. James Kinzler and Watson Dupont sacrificed their sleep to make sure everything with Hugh worked out. He is currently in the hospital resting, however frustratingly waiting his release. He is looking forward to being back working in the killer sun tomorrow morning.

Okay not to confuse you this is Sarah speaking. After being together yesterday, the group was split. Most stayed at the work site and some went to the resale shop. I will tell you the behind the scenes of the resale shop. The shop is going to have a huge sale Saturday and needed lots of help clearing areas in the back and removing nails from lumber. The only problem was that a majority of the nails were sticking out every which way. One of the nails took fifteen minutes to remove. The work site seemed like a dangerous one. Elizabeth Spivey had close encounters with six nails but was not harmed. James Kinzler and John Grady’s head almost got taken off by rotating wood. But we all learned that safety is very important, and after a lecture from the “safety policeman,” James, we all sharpened our safety skills and had no accidents.

Some of the group went off to clean a refrigerator and freezer to prepare it to show. Not to gross you out, but the refrigerator had a huge amount of mold and a mysterious red and yellow substance. Emily Fernandez, Shelby McNeill, and I cleaned the employee’s kitchen and bathroom. We had to do some dishes which included a bucket. This was no ordinary bucket; it had old, rock hard, strawberry ice cream. Let’s just say gloves and forks were used during the sanitation process. We kept our energy up by singing pretty much every song from every musical we have seen. During the song Doe a Dear, a worker popped her head in to join us. The shop enjoyed listening to our show- I think.

We met Chrystal. She is super sweet and is wondering what she and her husband, Daniel, are going to do with all the extra space. She is eight months along and is working five days a week. Major kudos to her. We all have something to do and we are getting very good supervision and instruction so the work goes well and fast. They are all surprised by what the WPC youth can do!

A few of the youth stayed at the construction site to assist in the creation of the couple’s house. It was a hot day, making working with tar paper quite the task, but it was a blessing to everyone to be able to help in such a big way, especially because several of the youth had not yet had the chance to work on the actual house. With tar paper boiling and walls a’raised, the WPC Youth Group once again conquered the task set out before them.

Editor's note - These are the views of our highly impressionable youth as described in their own words. No animals were harmed in the making of today's blog.

Work and Fun

Hey fellow Webster Presbyterian Church members, this is Michelle Dupont updating you on day 2 of Mission Trip.

Today is Wednesday, June 18, 2008 on which all 30 of us embarked on many adventures.

After another night of wonderful rest, we headed back out to the worksite. Many of us continued to work on the duplex house and the can houses. It is amazing to see the change in the can houses from one day to another, just yesterday we started building them and today we completely finished a can house. Finishing a can house called for some of us to unleash our inner roofer side, meaning we had to learn how to put shingles on the roof. Those who are working on the duplex home finished their work on the interior walls and have moved onto the exterior wall work. Some of those strong boys and men helped dig a hole to find a pipe, which after a little while they successfully found it. After receiving a wonderful meal from Christ the King Church, where two of the future home owners attend, we headed back to the church to get ready for some white water rafting! A small group of 6 people headed over to the resale shop to lend a helping hand, which included the two girls successfully cleaning out a refrigerator.

Then everyone headed to the white water rafting on the Animas River. We had four rafts which the group divided into as we began a totally freezing adventure. The guides told us that the water was somewhere around 38 degrees, way colder than anything we have experienced back in Texas. At one point we came to a calm area in the river where anyone who wanted was allowed to jump in and get a quick swim, I have to add that I was the first person to test my ability to swim in almost freezing waters and many people followed that by jumping in the water too. Once we all were back in the boats we headed down the rest of the way where we hit some raging rapids and only had one person fall from the raft. Almost everyone got soaked, yet some how Jennifer Paden managed to stay sort of dry. Other than the cold water, everyone had an awesome time with that.

When we returned back to home, “Bayfield Christian Church”, we had a wonderful, warm meal and then hit the showers. And if you haven’t read the blog before today then you probably haven’t heard about how cold the showers are at the rec-center. The first night of showers the water was unbelievably cold! Half of the group decided not to take them because of the water temperature. Then the second night they seemed to be a little warmer, but not close to the warm showers we would most likely take at home. But tonight when we returned to the church we learned the Pastor of Bayfield Christian Church, Pastor Troy, arranged with a local middle school the use of their “warm” showers through the rest of this week. So tonight every single person here got a warm shower and is squeaky clean!

Well as we come to the end of our day we are getting ready for a devotional then so hard core sleeping. And once again there is a surprise for James when he gets back from his warm shower. Like every year his sleeping bag as gone missing, hmm… wonder where it could be?? Well goodnight everyone and check back tomorrow for another mission trip update. Also, thank you so much for all the love, support, and prayers!

The First Day of Work

Hey y’all, this is Susanne Plaisted and Elizabeth Noriega here.

Today was our first work day, and it was rather light. The whole group split into 3 different groups, after all starting off at the house site to see what was going on. The first group was comprised of only those members 16 and older, due to Habitat’s policy. This group was designated the “house” group, although due to the house already being 2 days behind schedule and running out of lumber, all that was accomplished 8 walls. The second group was the “can” group who was in charge of making the can houses for habitat donations. They accomplished 2 and a half houses plus the one original model can house. This astounded the habitat folks because they were only expecting four can houses for the week. All in all, these two groups completed more work than was expected, and now the habitat people are struggling to find work for the rest of the week so they released us early. The third group went to the Habitat resale store. There they met one of the future home owners, and also cleaned out a refrigerator. They also helped to load trucks for the store.

Van Fever - Finally Made It!

Greetings everyone at Webster Presbyterian Church! This is Marshall Godwin, writing down the blog for the Mission Trip, Monday, June 16, 2008.

Today, we drove out of El Paso at roughly 10:00 in the morning, and we had quite a time on our final leg of the road trip. It was a pretty peaceful drive, and we saw about 33 different state license plates, including ones for cars from the U.S. government when we got within the vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico…but that’s another story. Well, we have traveled over 1,245 miles, or 2,191,200 yards, or 6,573,600 feet from WPC. Not that we had too much time to figure all that out. We enjoyed some fun games like “Which Would You Rather” after which we told ghost stories and took pictures of the outstandingly beautiful desert scenery (as well as pictures of each other when we fell asleep). After about 8 hours, we arrived at Bayfield Christian Church, where we set up camp. A dinner of pizza and salad can do wonders for you after a day of playing games and sleeping. The people here from Habitat for Humanity are exceedingly kind to us, and from what I gather, this is going to be far from boring. This is going to be an excellent mission trip!

Marshall Godwin, signing out

Sunday's Drive - Only two flat tires!

So. It started out as a wonderful send-off at the 8:30 worship service. And a flat tire. But it got fixed and we were soon on are way, for a not so soon stop in El Paso. But we made it. The wonderful little car bags the VBS kids made were absolutely wonderful. They seriously gave us some entertainment on the 11 hour car ride. Towards the end of the day another car got a flat, but we were able to fix it and get back on the road. So far, we’ve all discovered we love each other very much, being so close together for so long. We’re all still excited and pumped for Colorado, despite the exhaustion that has overcome us. We have a shorter drive tomorrow (yay!) and we can’t wait for what God has in store. Keep us in your prayers, and thank you for your wonderful support of the WPC youth!

You too can participate in the Mission Trip with our Youth and Sponsors!!

Be a Prayer Partner! If you haven't already received a Prayer Partner card from one of our Mission Trip Participants you can still catch them at first service on Sunday before they leave.
(A little secret - You can still pray for them without a Prayer Partner Card!)

Read the Mission Trip Blog and send them a message! Go to www.wpcmission.blogspot.com/ and read the latest update. If you want to post a message to the Mission Trip Participants:

1. Click on the title of the latest blog posting
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the posting and click on "Post a Comment"
3. Type your comment
4. Type in the security word verification on the screen
5. Type the User ID and password sent out by Daphne (or your personal gmail account id and password if you have one)
6. Press "Publish your comment"

Listen to the Mission Trip Update Message! Call the WPC main number, 281-332-1251. If the phone is answered, ask for extension 17. If not calling during office hours, press ext. 17. The extension will ring 3-4 times, and you will hear the message for the day.