Saturday, April 01, 2017

The Wood Ministry Day

Posted by: Madison delBosque, Jack Oden, Emma Vallely and Mr. Hood

On Saturday morning, we all had to wake up early in order to get to devotions at 7 o'clock. After an inspiring devotion time of looking at Ephesians 3, we sat down and had a yummy breakfast of personal biscuits and hash browns. Then we quickly headed back to our cabins to get ready for a challenging day of logging.

Once we arrived at Disciple's Pointe Church, Ron Wood, the director of Greene County Firewood Ministries, led us to a local nursing home which had donated their wood from their property for the people of the community. We were divided into two groups to load wood which had been cut into logs into the back of trucks that would deliver it to a large warehouse where it would be stored until the winter. One group accidentally "stole" a cooler full of soda and water thinking it was our's before they realized it actually belonged to other volunteers working at the wood ministry! The First Presbyterian Church provided some delicious baked ziti, salad, lemonade, sweet iced tea, bread, and brownies. After lunch, we continued to help load more firewood onto readily waiting trucks for two hours. Mr. Nava, Pedro, Sena and Jordan had the privilege of actually delivering one load of firewood to a needy Vietnam Veteran - the first time we've ever been a part of the actual delivery process.

On the drive back to Long View after a long day of hard work, Mr. Hood gave the class a pretty good April Fool joke when he pulled into a random estate and told us that we were going to volunteer at another group for an hour. We were so tired that we were shocked he was going to make us work more, most of us didn't realize he was joking until he said, "April Fools!" We arrived back at Long View Ranch to enjoy two hours of free time. Some of us hiked, some of as played basketball, and some of us pranked Mr. Weil with Silly String!

After a delicious fried chicken dinner, we had another tremendous devotional time where we sensed the Spirit of God moving in our discussions. Some tears were shed as deep thoughts were shared during the study of Ephesians Ch. 3. The transparency continued during prayer request time and the night ended with a precious time of popcorn prayer as classmates prayed for one another. It has been a sweet day of hard work, fun play and spiritual growth.
This is the Sophomore Class signing off for tonight.