Finally Catching Up!

Yesterday we left our pad around 9:00 in the morning to go to the church office, where we spoke with Bruce and were instructed on what he wanted to accomplish, namely the spreading of flyers letting the neighbourhood know about the VBS that we are putting on next week, and to let the community know about the church. I was paired up with Betty and we took a few streets, trying to be careful not to do the same street another had already done. Before long, Anna showed up and started working with David and JD.

The first six houses or so were empty (so it seemed) because no one was at home. Finally we met one lady who said that while her children were grown, she might know some people who would be interested so we gave her a flyer. A couple more houses down we knocked on a door and dogs started barking, a lady yelled at them and then peeked through the curtain on the door briefly and then nothing. Either we looked like solicitors or she just doesn't like visitors!

A few more houses down we went through a gate (which didn't have a sign on it) and knocked on the door. A large, rough looking woman came to the door and said "You know, we have a Doberman and a Boxer and you are very fortunate they are inside right now. What do you want?" We told her that our church was putting on a VBS program and we just wanted to invite her children (there were toys all over the yard and I suspected they weren't just for the dogs). She took a flyer and said rather gruffly "Maybe. But you'd better be careful next time and realize that if there is a fence there probably is dogs." We left.

One door we knocked on had a man who pulled down part of the blinds and peeked out. After another 30 seconds of waiting (and no door opening) we put a flyer on his door. I just would have a hard time ignoring someone at my door, after all, they are people too, not just machines and it seems rather inconsiderate to make them think you're coming or might be coming. I don't know, such is life. One older lady said she had grandchildren and great-grandchildren but they didn't live around here. We asked for her to take a flyer anyway so that she could give it to someone who had children if she ran into them. She said Okay to that.

The most interesting one was when we were crossing the street at an intersection and a car pulled up to the crosswalk, a man leaned out the window and said "what you got?" I told him that our church was putting on a Vacation Bible School program next week and asked if he had any children. "Yeah!" He said, and so I quickly handed him a flyer. Who knows, but it sure is nice to have someone come to you and ask for a flyer (basically) instead of peeking out the window and leaving you on the step! Encouraged by that, I tried asking a couple of rough-looking women, one of whom had a small daughter in the car. They were by a dumpster at the gas-station (who were looking through boxes it appeared) but said they weren't from around here. We carried on a ways and then headed back to the meeting point after Evelyn told us that everyone else was going to be heading back.

We didn't cover as much ground as I would have hoped, nor did we get as many favourable responses as could have been hoped (a couple of other teams had people that sounded interested), but all in all, it was good. For me, it seems to be always difficult going to the first house (there is that awful suspense waiting to see if someone will open it) but after seeing one person I feel like I warm up and am a lot less "stiff" or "nervous" or whatever you call it.

Then we ate lunch and began painting the church office. The first thing to do was to take all the books off the shelves and move them into the adjoining room. Then we cleaned off the shelves and baseboard with a broom, or hands or rags and one Paster Parnell arrived, I began caulking. I asked a couple of people if they wanted to try caulking but Laura and JD were the only two who seemed to desire to. Laura actually began having fun after trying it (getting fingers all gooey is always fun in my opinion). JD is an artist in whatever he does. Both did a very good job and probably better than I ever did when I first started.

We put some tape on the floor to keep the paint from dripping down onto the carpet and some of the girls began painting the back wall behind the bookcases (which was a light greenish-blue) and some others began on the window trim and bookcases themselves, which were a white. I went around and put spackle on the cracks in the wall and eventually on the ceiling. I'm not quite tall enough (though standing on a bucket) so I was stretching out on my tip-toes most of the time and that evening my legs felt a bit stiff. The ceiling had quite a few cracks in it, some of which had been patched previously. We had a very good team going and the painters were very careful and got a lot done! Evelyn worked around the baseboard and trim while JD, Anna, and Sam started on the walls, the walls were painted a light, chocolatey brown, which looked almost good enough to eat!

The rest of the team was working in the far back room most of the time, tearing out the old ceiling tiles and putting in some sheetrock in their place. It was a great group to work with and I am thankful I was able to be a part of it. I tried to give tips on certain things but I hope that doesn't appear bossy or wanting to take over. I'm sure I don't do everything quite right and wouldn't want to give the impression that I think I know everything, because that's not the case! Next to my father I'm an amateur, he's been doing it quite a while and probably could have whipped it out with his spray rig in no time flat. He's very smooth at cutting in the edges.

After painting, we went back to take quick showers (we had less than an hour to do all the traveling and showering in) and then went to supper at the C house, since they had invited us. I was glad the team got to meet Mr C and their family. I really like the clear head that Mr C has and how he definitely puts things in a bright light! The meal was fajitas. Nathaniel, being from back East, didn't know that and since it was in a pyrex dish, said "this is really interesting, I've never seen a meat cassarole before" to which Mr C grinned at me and broke in later with "these are very common around here and are called Fajitas." Or something along those lines. The fireworks show in Stillwater had been cancelled on the fourth and postponed until the fifth so we went down to the lake and waited a while, David and I were running and wrestling with the boys. It was funny, at first when the boys started away and David grabbed one of them into the air, Mr C called out "David!" and started walking towards him (David dropped Nathan to the ground and looked back at him. Perhaps he shouldn't be doing that? Mr C said "David, I just want to let you know that in our house, boys are expendable, so do what you please to them." David got a big grin and said "all right!" and promptly scooped Nathan back up and shook him around.

We had a lot of fun, while waiting, doing some wrestling, "fist-fights," running, bicycling etc. I hopped on Nathan's small bike and started furiously pedaling around on the grass with him chasing me (and laughing quite a bit). I was sweating after a while. I don't think (for a long while at least) that I've sweated near as much as I have in the last couple of days. David and myself really enjoyed the romping. Clay joined every once in a while with a tickle here or there. Emily is speaking a lot now and really, really enjoyed the fireworks (once she got over the initial surprise, which they had tried to prepare her for). These were her first fireworks and when they were over and we were walking back, she said "I want more!" and then, to our surprise, another one came in back of us, about 5 minutes after they had stopped with the grand finale (which was a huge multitude of fireworks all at once so that the sky was lit up with brilliant colours). Mrs C said "Hey Emily, they must have heard you!"
"Oh." she said. Then turned around and yelled "MORE!" a minute or two later, there was another pop and we turned around to see the colours in the sky. After that they did a few little ones but Emily was happy to tell her father that she said "more" and they did more!

Our team headed home, I was feeling tired, it's been hard getting to sleep at nights for me, and we're not all on the same time-table. We stopped off at Walmart for breakfast supplies and I filled up on gas, then we went home and got ready for bed. I typed up last night's post while waiting for everyone else (since I can't get to sleep with the lights on and the commotion anyway) and I felt it was beneficial. Even though it meant I was up until about 12:30. Today (Thursday) it appears that our schedule is essentially the same, I'm looking forward to it!