Rain Rain Go Away

Yesterday was wet, rainy, and cold, but it was probably the best day yet. Yesterday was supposed to be a day full of service, but a lot of what we were going to do involved things you can't do in the rain like scraping and painting houses. So, working with the weather that we had, we threw on some ponchos and headed out to clean up the streets. 

The people at The Refuge believe that, cleaning and caring for the streets in their neighborhood is an important part in bringing hope and restoration to the area.  By showing that you care about an area and taking the time to fix it up, it helps give the residents something to be proud of and continue taking care of. 

So many of the streets down here have such a hopeless feel to them. There is trash, graffiti, overgrown lawns & sidewalks, etc. that goes completely unchecked and unfixed. The people here believe that this invites all kinds of sin and oppression into the area. So we spent several hours yesterday cleaning one block by unclogging drains, uncovering sidewalks, and cleaning curbs. (Did we mention it was very cold and pouring rain while we were at it?)

When we finished up we all came back, grabbed some lunch, showered, and relaxed. The rest of the evening was filled with the events already "scheduled" for the Church 2012 retreat.

We ended the day with an amazing time of group interaction.  We spent a few hours discussing God's Will in our lives, the power of God's Word, and the heart that Jesus has for us and our lives.  

After a fun game of the Bible version of Apples to Apples (yes that does exist and can be extremely entertaining), we all checked out for the night and prepared ourselves for another day of work and learning.

Another post about today coming soon!

Serving Him,

The OKC Team