So there's this place in South New Jersey called Pitman. And in this town, there's a Church of Christ that has connections with the church here in Marseille. What that means is that every two years, around 50 members of that congregation fly to Marseille to do manual labor at the camp with us. It's a huge blessing that they come because there is a lot of maintenance that needs to be done there, and by having so many hands all at once, we could really get some serious work done. They got here Saturday night, and we had a big meal at the church for them, and then after church Sunday morning, we hit the road for Ardesche.
For our actual tasks at the camp, we all had different things to do. Of couse, some of the beefier men built walls and fences, some people poured cement, others did some heavy cleaning, and I painted. And when I say that I painted, I mean that I painted nearly 40 hours in 5 days. Yes, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. (with a break for lunch) I painted doors, windows, rocks--you name it. In fact, I got to be pretty handy with a paintbrush, and the camp looks a lot better now that it did before.
Also, a cool thing about painting is that it can be a fairly social event, so while I painted, my painting partner, a guy named Raphael, and I spoke together in French. While I'd love to say that learning French is easy and that I can understand everyone I talk to, I'd actually be lying if I said that. Some people speak far too quickly, mumble, use too many coloquial expressions, and such things. However, that being said, Raphael was just about the most patient person ever and awesome to speak with. He spoke very clearly, and he didn't mind waiting for me to take forever to formulate sentences sometimes. He's just a few years older than me, and we got to know each other quite well while I improved my French--double win!
All in all, incredible week. We young people played card games every night and had a devo every morning at 7--I even led the devo on Friday morning. Really fun (though it was pretty frigid cold), and we got the camp ready for the end of the month when 150 campers are going to be there for 2 weeks. Love my new Pitman friends.
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| We all went for a hike one afternoon. |
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| At the top of a beautiful mountain with my best friend |
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| Painting with Raphael |
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| A yummy lunch with fresh bread...mmmm |
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| Sweeping away. That place is spotless now. |
Painting and sweeping... I can't wait for you to come back home, Cinderella! Ha!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I'm really proud of the volunteer work you and the others out in there--lots of folks don't work nearly that hard for a paycheck!
I believe The Lord is using you and your gifts in many unforeseen and interesting ways this summer, Kate, the fruits of which you may not ever even fully understand this side of heaven. Pretty cool.
Love you, Mom