Day 3: What Happens to the Gum You Put Under Your Chair

We're now on the homestrech for our trip. Today was our third day of working with Union Gospel Mission, and it was another busy one. Our students were split up into three different locations. Some returned to Simonka Place to finish laying bark dust and wood chips where they were needed. Others went to the UGM thrift store to paint lines in the parking lot, lay bark dust, and finish organizing the books. Our third group went to the men's mission, where they worked on cleaning up the chapel area. Our students have continued to do a great job. They seem to be impressing the staff at the mission with how quickly and how diligently they complete their tasks. They have also be doing a fantastic job of stepping out of their comfort zones and interacting with those at the mission when we eat their for lunch. We have more more day of working before we go to the family fun center on Friday and then head home! Thanks so much to those who have left words of encouragement. Keep them coming!

"I have to say, we did a pretty good job today. My group went back to Simonka to finish up the work over there, which included spreading barkchips under the playground and putting new barkdust on all the flower beds and around the trees. From what I've heard, there's not that much work for us to do tomorrow. If we all work hard then we can get that done and get some of the things that they didn't expect us to do =). We really need prayers for the strength and energy to get a lot done on our last day of work. I know I need it! I was so tired that I had to go take a nap as soon as we got back!!"
-Ted

Hello blog world. I was so happy with what we got done today. I got to paint almost an entire parking lot until we ran out of paint :( Being here at the mission has been life altering. Being around all of these people has made me realize how lucky I am and it has made me altogether more happy
-Sea

Hello, today has been amazing. Amazing people, stories, and perseverance. I can't even begin to explain just how proud I am of my youth group. I'm in an amazing group of people that worked very hard today. We did atrocious tasks with servants hearts. Things like scraping gum off of the bottom of chairs and cleaning sticky stuff and dirt off the walls. Although these tasks weren't fun, God really touched all of our hearts. I didn't hear a single complaint. Yesterday I sat by a guy named Steven, today I saw him and said hey and he smiled the biggest smile I have seen in a long time. We have also been blessed by an amazing group of people writing devotions for us, so that we continue to have servants' hearts. We did so much today that we ran out of things to do and had to go back early :( but I'm kinda happy that we worked so hard. Anyways, continue to pray for us, we still have one more full day of work to do :)
-Haley 

Eating lunch at the men's mission.

Finishing up the bark dust at the mission store.

The chapel at the men's mission, where our group did a lot of cleaning!

Taking a dip in the creek after a long, hot day of work!

 Some of the gum our students scraped off the bottom of chairs in the chapel. Sick!