Domestic Ministry: Wednesday

We got to sleep in a little today, which was so nice, because I was not sleeping well on the beds! I was so used to my sleeping mat, my body didn’t know what to do now that it was in a bed😆

All of us were sent to the same place, Black Mountain Home for Children, Youth, and Families, a really cool organization that helps kids without a home to be successful in life! They provide job opportunities once the kids graduate, have several fields trips a year, and give the kids plenty of options for things to do!

Our job was to help the few people who work full time to maintain the grounds and building. We were split into 2 groups, gardeners and trash organizers. I was with the second group, but then I got split up again to be in the “tent setter upper and taker downer” group.

I loved setting up the big festival tents, and then taking them down. I was in a group with 4 other people, and I think it’s safe to say we’re pretty much pros at it now!

When we finished with the tents, we joined the rest of the trash sorters, who were breaking wood into manageable pieces, then loading it up in the truck bed, to be taken to the dump.

It shouldn’t have been fun, but our group has a way of making even the most mundane tasks full of laughter and joy! While we waited for the truck to come back, a few people in our group pretended to sword fight or take silly videos.

We did this until it was lunch, when we headed back to the main building and hung out in the gym for about 2 hours. We played dodgeball and basketball, ate popcorn and sandwiches, and talked with one another!

Then we headed back out to the wood splitting area. The whole time we’d been working, I was thinking, “This seems kind of dangerous. But as long as we’re careful everything should be fine.” And then 2 people tried to split wood in half a new way, and the board scraped down the shin of one of them.

I won’t post a picture, because it was pretty nasty looking, but basically, it was a bunch of long, shallow cuts, on an artwork of bruises. Needless to say, the girl who was injured got the rest of the day off.

We finished up shortly afterwards, but there wasn’t really much for us to do. We half heartedly tried to organize wood by shape and size, but gave up when we weren’t quite sure how to organize stacks and stacks of unique wood pieces.

We headed back to the base, where our original plans for going out into town to explore were canceled by incoming rain. Instead, we got McDonalds and had a cozy night of movies! It ended up being so much fun!!