I just wanted you to know how great the students did today!!! We left the church shortly after 9:00am and headed across the bay to FBC Valparaiso which is where the Emerald Coast Fellowship of Baptist Churches Medical Clinic is located. A few weeks back they took down a few walls and there was a HUGE mess of carpet, ceiling tile, ceiling tile tracking, boards full of nails, and about a GILLION pounds of concrete block! Our job was to make this mess look clean. We used Colossians 3:23 (Whatever you do, do it as if working for the Lord and not for man. -Jared’s Paraphrase Version), and the kids TOOK OFF!!! We set up a plan and they went to it! In just a little over an hour the room had been half cleared and we had completely filled the provided dumpster. This was actually not good news. Dr Adams, the local Director of Missions, was excited about how much we had done, but with no dumpster to continue the work, he would have to wait until another group volunteers to come back to finish the job. He made a few calls and couldn’t get the dumpster emptied and back until 3:00pm. I could tell he was grateful that we worked hard for the hour and a half, but he was also disappointed that the task could not be completed.
But now for the good news...while we were done for the moment, we weren’t done for the day. We told Dr. Adams to get that dumpster emptied because we were coming back to finish the job. We altered our plans a bit, and left early for our afternoon activities. After a couple hours of eating, skating, and enjoying some good friends and fellowship, we headed back to the clinic to complete the task. In just over an hour we had the room completely cleared and even decently swept out. The finished product was amazing as you can see in the attached photos.
We had to stay focused down the stretch, but I am so proud of how they hung in there and got the job done. And let me tell you...IT WAS A JOB!!!
From now on, every time we hear or see anything about the Dental Clinic, we can know that we played a small part in that ministry and not only does should that make us happy, more importantly, it pleases God.
Thanks to all that went, and I look forward to future opportunities!
