BLOWN AWAY BY 32 STRANGERS!!

2 weeks ago 32 hard-working Jesus-loving singles from CS3040 (Christian Singles in their 30's & 40's) BLEW US AWAY with their volunteer efforts at GTD Central Command (aka: my house). And the most astounding part is that we didn't know a single one of them, and almost all of them had never heard of GTD! 32 "STRANGERS" blessed GTD beyond measure and 14 days later we are still savoring and cherishing the heart and efforts of this astonishing group of people. They had simply read some of our posts on Facebook a few months ago and contacted me to start coordinating the efforts. We planned & prepared, but I never anticipated the level of highly-motivated, hard-working, enthusiastic, loving, capable workers that would show up that day to work nonstop in 95 degree oppressively humid heat that day. It's such an amazing thing to see the Body of Christ in selfless service for a ministry for whom they did not know. And yet, it felt more like a family reunion than anything else. I love that the power of God and our shared bond in Christ makes for an instant Family of God. We are so so so soooooooo touched. We have organized mission trips to help total strangers and we've had plenty of volunteers help in this ministry that we've already known, but I've never been on the receiving end of the level of volunteer efforts from people I've never met before. I can't tell you how beautiful it was and how profoundly powerful it was to experience as the recipient. A friend recently told me that, "When it works right, there no more powerful force for good on this planet that God has ever invented that can compare to the Body of Christ." All I can say is that is exactly what I feel like I experienced!! And to top it off, Chris Wade from People Helping People of Pinellas Park trimmed 6 oak trees!!! He was a one man powerhouse of relentless selfless effort! Aaaaaand, if that wasn't enough, my Dad cooked up pulled pork and made homemade ice cream for everyone!! And my awesome neighbors made delicious egg roles that we all happily devoured! Thank you so much to this amazing group of selfless servants that abundantly blessed this ministry and those who coordinated their efforts!! They got so much done! We are forever grateful and humbled.

   

Projects included: prepping the top of the storage container for a future silicone cool-sealant, starting to set up the vinyl fencing for the front of the house, pressure washing the back-of-the-property wood fencing for staining, restructuring the inside of the trailer, painting the trailer doors, repairing the dog / storage box, tree trimming, and several other tasks. 

 

 

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FUNNY STORY:

Yesterday I was sitting on the front porch with my parents. We were all rocking away in rocking chairs in a "pleasant" 94 degrees. My Mom is 90 and I'm 50 (going on 23). One of the neighborhood boys who is 9 years old stopped by to say hi to my parents. He was bored. So I asked him if he had a kickball or something similar. He went home and got a soccer ball. So, just a few feet away from my parents, he and I played a fun little playground game called "Bottle Cap" that I learned a few months ago from ZEAL youth group. Eventually he had to go home (after I soundly defeated him of course - haha). Today I was just inside the glass / screen door watching my Mom rocking away in her rocking chair while I returned some phone calls. The neighborhood boy rode up on his bike and went over to my Mom and asked, "Can your son come out to play?" Baahahahahaha!! My Mom started laughing... she hasn't heard that question in about 40 years!! What a precious kid! That made my day! I don't think I'll ever stop being a kid at heart - hahaha!

 

 

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JUST A BRIEF PERSONAL UPDATE...

We are finishing up our 7th month of 24/7 Caregiving with our parents. I was able to run 4 weeks of extraordinary GTD events (glory to God!) in June in NC. Now I'm back in FL and living at my parents' house for at least the month of July so that I can help them with their needs. I've got a fulltime house and dog sitter staying at my house while I'm at my folks so don't even think about trying to steal my Christmas wrapping paper wallpaper! I'm weeks & months behind on things like thank you notes, phone calls, emails, text messages, Facebook Messenger, mail, mailouts, office work, work projects, social media updates, etc, etc. I'm fortunate if I can get 1 personal/work task done each day. This isn't a complaint... just an update about my current limitations. Last week we started phasing in a day each week away from my parents' house to take care of personal/work responsibilities. I hope to slowly get caught up over the next few months. My sincerest apologies to those I haven't been able to respond back to yet... or personally thank... I have so many people to thank for so many things and I'm especially looking forward to expressing my appreciation, love, and gratefulness =) 

 

 

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THE FAMILIES THAT PADDLE TOGETHER MAKE FUN MEMORIES TOGETHER!

 

About 10 days ago we were blessed and honored to supply an afternoon of kayaking for my next door neighbor's family reunion. They are a wonderful Vietnamese family from all over the United States. We took 20 family members (which was about half of the family that was in town) kayaking on Long Bayou. They were so much fun! We had a dodgeball style squishy ball war, a kayaking race, and a short tour of the bayou. If you've ever volunteered to work at the current GTD office (aka: my house) then you may have indulged in some delicious egg rolls or lemongrass steak that they've made for us. They are amazing cooks and wonderful people! We had so much fun paddling with them!!

 

 

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I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO ARTICULATE MY OVERWHELMING GRATITUDE!!!

Just before we left to run four weeks of Adventure Trips in North Carolina we had a series of Volunteer Work Days throughout the month of May. The response was astounding! I can't even begin to articulate my overwhelming gratitude for the selfless servant-hearted people (some of whom I had never met before) who showed up to help GTD and me to get ready to host some of the best summer camps in our 25 years of ministry! Many of you know that my sister and I are in a season of Caregiving for our parents that is requiring 80+ hours per week from each of us. We are so tired... soooooo exhausted. We needed help from our volunteers in order to pull off an amazing month of camps, but what we received was beyond anything we could have imagined. Selfless servants of God who simply wanted to use their abilities & availability to help the cause. They turned our MAYday of MAYhem in the month of MAY into 4 weeks of aMAYzing grace and accomplishment!! They reorganized our storage container, installed a security gate, inventoried our mobile pantry, repacked our trailer, fortified our trailer door, built a shelf to hold kayak paddles, built 4 new portable showers, relocated and installed a new mailbox, painted countless boards, and helped us pack up everything we needed to be ready to host some of our largest groups ever!! They not only helped us on our way, they launched us into an unprecedented 3 perfect trips in a row (it's rare to have one perfect trip in 5 years!) followed by our most attended and one of our best SLAMMED events ever! Their help lightened our load and filled our hearts. I can't accurately put into words how much their help caused us to succeed. It was a game changer! From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of a grateful ministry, thank you so much selfless servants of God for all that you did to bless us and to be a blessing through us to all the people we served at camp. You impacted a lot of lives for the glory of God!! Thank you so much and God bless you dear friends!!