We're home

Just a brief message to let everyone know who's following this that we have safely arrived home. The students will share from this trip, and all their summer adventures at Sunday night worship on August 2.

Aaron's thoughts on today

As I sit, lashed to this chair, Kyle leering over my shoulder, I would just like to say that he is the greatest minister of all time and that he deserves all of your love and respect for all time. I would like to go on to say, em pleh esaelp, that if you ever have any doubts about his competence, they are so very, very, very off base...

I say that to say, of my own accord, that I really don't have much to say and I really don't know why I even volunteered to do this. And I think that that's been the point of this trip to me. The great revelation that God gave to me is that it doesn't have to be anything great. The things we really need to know about Him, we don't have to go to school until the twenty fifth grade to find out--any fourth grader can tell you that Jesus loves everyone and because of that so should we, even when they destroy the bathrooms and leave huge piles of spaghetti sauce all over the floor. I spend too much time focusing on 'deep subtleties' and not on what God wants out of me. All of this nothing that I feel like is going on is to almost offset how off-track I've gotten in a search for complete and total truth of some sort of super-high level. It's God's way of telling me, "Stop thinking so much and start listening and doing. You should have done the latter without neglecting the former."

And plus we worked in the sun and it rained.

One more thing....

I almost forgot! Today we also got to meet one of the owners of the house we're building! She was a really nice and appreciative lady, and was very glad to have us!
-Zack

Zack's post

So today was a little bit different than the previous ones.. Today was the first day in a LONG time that rain was in the forecast for the area I think. We started out the day as usual at 6:30. It's early I know. When we got to the work site, the sky was looking a little bit dark. The first thing we did was fix some of the structure of the walls we've already built. Shortly after starting, we saw the first of 4 waterspouts! (tornadoes over water). They were really fascinating!! I remember 2 years ago in New Orleans a waterspout was seen near our work site, and I missed it! But this year, not only did I get to see one, but 4! :-) One was a really good one; touching all the way to the water. The waterspouts came in twos. There were two storms, and two waterspouts in each. Because of the storms we had to halt all construction and go underneath the house. (In Crystal Beach, all the houses are on at least 10 foot stilts.)Surprisingly when they said everybody go downstairs, according to Kyle, it was almost an instant stop and go. In between the storms and lunch/breaks we got the structure fixed and 4 interior walls I think. We ended the work day a little early however due to the lack of a certain kind of wood. This afternoon was pretty low-key. A few people walked to the beach, but most of us just took our showers and relaxed. Lyle made some awesome keish (sp) for dinner. Lyle's been awesome this trip! At about 7 we went to the local store to get, well whatever..ice cream, chips, mt. dew, gummies, etc.. Probably one of the best parts of the day just happened! So Lyle and a few of us helped clean and repair FBC Crystal Beach's cotton candy maker. With this he thought it would be great to make some and completely cover Michael with it. That's exactly what we did! With Kacy and Lyle's help, he soon became a white and pink cotton candy monster! Lol. We then took turns peeling or eating the cotton candy off of him. It tasted really good! We then asked the other church staying here to have some Michael cotton candy, and they loved it! It was a great time of joy and fun! You should be seeing pictures/videos on Facebook! Guaranteed! Well, buenos noches!
-Zack

kyle is making me do this... kacy

Hey! Ok so Kyle isnt making me do this i decided to do it all on my own. The trip so far has been amazing even thought we got off on a rough road. I dont sit well so it was hard to not have anything to do the first few days but once the work came in i was a happy camper :). Just a little bit about what we are doing here: we are working on a house that when we got here it only had a floor... now if you dont know the houses here, well the are not on the ground. this house is about 14 feet above the ground. We use ladders or if your one of the Decker kids (and a couple others) you just act like a monkey and get up there. We have an awsome supervisor named Mike. Hes a little crazy but they kinda have to be to work with a group like ours:). We are having a very fun time but its still very tiring. God will provide and give us the energy to get this job finished thought which is amazing. We have done very good at staying injury-free and hydrated... well most of us! Michael thinks its a good idea to hit his head once a day. Yesterday he hit his head on one of the floor beams under the floor and today he hit himself in the head with a hammer... no worries though he has a hard head. He has to to live with me:)! Pray for strenght as we finish this week and that we can go a way with something not just the people who we are building a house for.

I love you mom, dad, tiff, hannah, and megan!
kacy

Brandon's Random Thoughts of the Day.

It's too early... 5 more minutes Micheal... zzzz...
Yumm... Breakfast is AMAZING Lyle! oh look, COFFEE!!!
It's too early to work. Oh well. It'll be fun.
stupid sunscreen... (grumble grumble grumble)
gotta refill water container.
job's done. gimme something more to do.
ouch! hit my thumb. stupid hammer.
gotta refill my water again.
YAY TEXAS!!!
neighbors need help. I wanna help! yay!
I hope my tanlines aren't too bad after today.
nother refill...
Break for lunch!
Back to work! where's my hammer?
Who here's allowed to run a nailgun?
This is fun!
second wall up. this is finally starting to look like a house now.
time to go to the beach and cool off!
ahhh... refreshing...
hey, there's that guy that stopped us the other day and talked to us about Eugene. He's nice. Apparently Eugene helped them with something and left quite an impression both for god and christians.
oh! supper time! gotta go! love ya!

Kyle again

Yesterday/today was great...

Yesterday we went to church with an old friend of Nancy. It was youth Sunday so our students got to worship with other students leading them. And the youth pastor preached. We were all amazed by how God has given the youth pastor the gift of preaching. He did a great job.

Then we went to the Johnson Space Center in the afternoon. My inner (some would argue outer) nerd was going crazy. I think space exploration is really cool. To see what God has made from the unique perspective of being 200 miles above the earth is something that I would like to do. And the science of how NASA does all this stuff is fascinating. And rockets are cool.

My observation was that NASA claims their doing all this stuff in the name of science, exploration, knowledge, good of mankind, etc. But the next space missions to the moon that NASA is developing is codenamed Ares. So we are going to go back to the moon in the name of the mythological god of war. Doesn't really communicate "in the quest for knowledge." More like, "Hey moon, we're here to conquer and enslave."

The other cool thing about yesterday was how many of the astronauts were men of faith. I guess when you see the earth from the perspective of outer space, you can't help but believe in God.

Today was great. We got a lot of work started on a house which was essentially destroyed to the slab by Ike. The piers were set and the floor was already partially in place, but that was it. Nothing but a slab of wood twelve feet in the air. Today we tore out all the scaffolding and recycled all the lumber (which is the nail removing that Ashton referred to). Then we built and entire wall and raised it old fashioned Amish style. Tomorrow will will finished the floor and the other three walls.

Continue to pray for us that we would have good spirits and will follow Christ when it is easy to be selfish. Another church arrived today and we are now in very cramped quarters, so patience from the Holy Spirit would be much appreciated.