First Day's Work

We all woke up and had breakfast. Many of the kids packed lunches, but some of us lucky few had lunch provided where we were working that day! With a group our size, we break the kids into work teams and all head off to different work sites. In Mexico last year we had 3 teams and we were able to build 3 houses. This trip is we split into 5 work crews and all head out in different directions.

The crew I had with me didn't get too far. We went into a little town called McKee. If you have never heard of it, don't worry. I hadn't either and I don't think too many people have. Although it is an adorable little town of less than a thousand people, it is certainly a kind of "blink and you'll miss it" place. I will say that the local gas station was quite happy when we pulled in and filled up 6 vans! They even said THANKS!!

Our job that day was to actually help out Sister Mary at the church she tends. It was obvious someone told her a group of teens were coming to help and to make a list. She pulled out her little notebook and walked us around the place, pointing here and there, and explaining what she would like to see get done. I was able to get the kids to say what they wanted to do, and we were nearly finished before lunch. Sister Mary fed us all hot dogs, beans, salad and an amazing home made corn relish.




I told her we had some more time and to think of anything else we could do while she had us at her disposal. She found a few more projects, and I would say that we did above and beyond what she expected. I know for a fact that we saved this sweet older gal weeks of working on her knees, and probably a few aches and pains to go with it.





A special treat came at nearly the end of the day. A couple of the girls were doing some final work near the front shrubs. They noticed a bird fly out of a very tiny hole. Thinking this was odd, they carefully looked a bit closer.....such a nice treat to see. We carefully walked away and didn't tell anyone else our secret find.


At the end of it all, we felt like we had made a new friend. Mary had told us all about her life before coming to this area as well as what she does in reaching out to this small community. It did seem a bit like we were just helping one person, but in reality we were helping a lot of people. Giving Mary a needed break from hard physical work frees her up to love the people that come to see her each day.