Today was a long one but good one!
We are blessed to be a blessing to others, and it was a blessing when we could bless others.
We start each day without knowing what each day will bring or what surprises will come our way. Today’s work was about a bunch of big trees and one especially huge one. The result was new friendships, recommitted Christians, and a profession of faith in Jesus. As the man of the house was driving home after work, he asked his wife in bewilderment, “Why do these people do all of this work for free?” She answered that they would explain when they got home! He was overwhelmed by what we had done, and our involvement helped build a stronger connection between the household we served and their next door neighbor.
The three-generation family had stayed in their home for the storm. The six-year old boy had enjoyed it at first, when the lights went off, but then the rain came, the wind blew, and trees started falling over. One of the big oaks was leaning on the roof above his bedroom. The storm had made him so scared that he had not stepped out of the house since the storm. Greg struck up a special relationship with the boy, who actually asked Marcel if Greg could get a break from the work to come play with his cars. When it started raining, he offered the house’s shelter to us, and I had to explain that we needed to continue working. By the end of the day, with Leslie’s help, and after the team had cleared all of the fallen trees, the boy was outside with us, playing and running around his transformed yard.
The weather changed on us today. The previous two days had been hot with clear blue skies, but it hadn’t been too humid. Today was somewhat overcast but very humid, with a front coming through in the afternoon bringing rain and cooler temperatures, which was a great change!
Today was long and hard. The load was well shared with people getting their second wind at different times throughout the day. The work doesn’t stop until Marcel tells us to stop!
The story of the tree clearing is best shown by the photos below. In summary, it was lots of manlift work and cutting huge trees up to 38-inches diameter.
