Sweating, shivering, building, digging, singing, laughing, yawning, playing. This is some of what 119 teenagers and 41 adults have been up to the past few days in Ohio. I'm on the Woodswork mission trip with my church this week. And it has been a beautiful thing. Oh, it hasn't been perfect, mind you, but it is no less beautiful because of its flaws.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, every year, our church sends out a ginormous group to serve with Habitat for Humanity for a week. This year we've been in Twinsburg, Ohio. If you've never heard of it, that's no surprise! ;) It wasn't on my radar, either. It's a small podunk kind of town that we've suddenly been plopped down in.
We had hoped to work on 3 houses, as we had in years past, but certain permits didn't go through and so consequently, we had to identify other projects to work on. In addition to working on the 1 house, we've done prep work for other houses, worked on some local schools, and such. And today some of us are going to pack up medical supplies for use around the world and others are going to a state park to eradicate some exotic plants.
More important than the work we do is who we are. I am always amazed when I hang around young people by their beauty and "freshness". There is an effortless vitality and energy around the kids that you kind of wish you could bottle up and market. It's funny because the kids aren't even aware of it, and that's part of its charm.
But it's not just the outside of the kids that is beautiful. They are giving 110% of who they are to making a difference on this planet and they're not doing it for themselves, but in God's name. That kind of selfless service is a gift to all of us. It gives us hope when we start to think that our world is going to hell in a hand basket. It's not. There are kids that are ushering in God's kingdom, one shovelful of dirt at a time. And it's a beautiful thing.
To check out pics of these beautiful kids, go to our website: woodschurch.org and on the home page, you'll find a link to our Woodswork photo album.
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