Operation Barnabas teams are serving local churches in Pennsylvania and Indiana this week. Here are today’s updates.
Team Atlantic – Mulch Ado About Nothing: The Narrative – June 29th
“It was a good day,” he thought. “But how do I state it in a way that is fresh and exciting?” The wonderful, unnamed Team Atlantic blog writer struggled to find an opening statement for his blog that wasn’t the same, boring opening statement most summary blogs start with. The pressure became tumultuous. In a year where Team Atlantic’s blog must be better than Team Hoosier’s, opening blog statements like “It was a good day,” and cliche run-of-the-mill organization of information will not cut it anymore. The stakes have been raised.
This is the narrative blog.
It was a warm and airy morning in Palmyra, Pennsylvania. The unnamed Team Atlantic blog writer rolled out of his sleeping bag and promptly awakened the students on the team. “Grab showers and be ready for breakfast,” he declared. The unnamed Team Atlantic blog writer made his way into the dining area, met with the sights and smells of a breakfast feast. “Sweet,” he thought.
“Sweet,” students likewise thought, as they laid their eyes on the morning spread. “Alright! It’s time to mulch.” The unnamed Team Atlantic blog writer watched students clean up their breakfast trash, moving him to also clean up his own breakfast trash. “Thank you,” he said to the providers of the divine meal.
Walking towards the back door, the unnamed Team Atlantic blog writer saw through a window a hill of mulch being diminished by an army of OB students. “It’s getting leveled!” he thought. As he passed the back door and headed to the bathroom, the unnamed Team Atlantic blog writer made a harrowing discovery. “Shoot” he thought, before repeating it out loud. While students were working away at moving mulch, the Team Atlantic blog writer stressed because his toothbrush was no longer located in his toiletry bag. “I’ll be bad-breath McGee,” he considered.
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Team Hoosier Day 8: Run the Cyborgs are Coming!!!
Today was A LOT of fun with Grace Community in Goshen, Indiana. We started out our day with the middle schoolers with a little bit of worship, and 45 minutes of devotions. It was a great opportunity to have quiet time with God, and see what God wanted to say to each of us. We then headed into our projects for the day.
Our students were split up into 5 different teams. The first group mulched for a local company. The second laid out rocks and painted a chicken coup for a local family. The third helped a local family move. The fourth helped weed at a property owned by Grace Community. And finally the fifth went out into the community to pass out flyers for Grace Community’s “Hi-Five” Kids Camp. Our students did an amazing job serving the community and sharing the love of Christ with everyone they came into contact with. A few students that stood out today were kids like Ryah Delaney who persevered through every task she was given. Another student, that was an encouragement to not only the middle schoolers but his teammates, was Jordan Farabaugh who lead by example in everything that he did.
After finishing each project we headed back to Grace Community to find out what was next. We explained to the students that we were going to do the “$2 Dinner” challenge. The $2 Dinner challenge is when a student receives $2 each and are encouraged to combine their money as a team to buy dinner, and then prepare the dinner back at the church. We split up into 3 teams, and headed to the store! Once the students picked out their groceries, we headed back to the church and they began to cook their meal for the night! In the end, everyone enjoyed a meal together that they had prepared themselves, making the night just a blast.
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