Bob's week away

Bob spent the last week in Kentucky on a mission trip. Our church has sent a team to this area for several years.  There is a resale store that we send things down to. It helps fund some of the projects our team worked on. Quite a few people from the team helped there, sorting and stocking things.  Some people helped put on a Vacation Bible School, and a lot of people were there to help with construction and home repair.

This was where Bob and several others stayed during the week.  It's set up with several rooms with bunk beds to hold lots of volunteers when they come down.

Here's some of the team, gathering after breakfast where they would have devotions together before starting their day.

This old building which is near the bunk house Bob was in, is being repaired to be used as a Christian academy.

Other things near to them were cows...

barns...

and this beautiful pond.

Bob and his team started here.  An elderly woman who had rented a house for years was left homeless when someone bought that house and evicted her.  The ministry was able to get this for her, but it was an empty shell.

The guys put in walls, rafters and all the basic framing to get this place ready to live in.

(Bob and Ken working in the bathroom)

They spent the second half of the week in another home, a trailer that was in bad shape.  The floors were sagging, the plumbing didn't work well and the lady living here had no way to fix these things.  They replaced a toilet, put in new base flooring and retiled the kitchen and bathroom.  They put in a new ceiling, fixed the counter in the kitchen and repaired the plumbing.

Here's Bob, the 3 men he was working with and the lady that lived here.  He said they were able to get to know her quite well and they all enjoyed that.  He also enjoyed working with the young man on the left.  He's a high schooler from our church, and this was a great way to get to know him better.

There was another group of men putting an addition on to a house, which was something they worked on for 2 weeks, but they got it up and ready to be finished inside.

On Thursday evening, many of the group went to this beautiful waterfall.  Bob didn't go because his knees were very sore from being on them to lay tile all day, but I got these pictures from someone who did go.

They had fun jumping and swimming in this beautiful spot.

One thing I didn't mention was that our worship leader was heading up this team.  However, he ended up in the hospital on Tuesday and was found to have diverticulitis with a perforated bowel.  The rest of the team picked up his duties and things went ok, but they all felt terrible for him.

Most everyone left early Saturday morning and Bob was home shortly after 3pm.  I was happy to see him back after a week away!
Chad, who was in the hospital was discharged Sunday morning and should be back by Sunday evening.

They all said they had a wonderful week. They grew close as a group and really enjoyed meeting the people there and hearing their stories.