Clarksville day #1

It has been a hot, wonderful, amazing, and  exhausting day here in Georgia. 

The day started before six am when these sweeties, Brynnan and Courtney decided to go watch the sunrise. Bless them, they are so precious. Victoria and I are in the bottom of the girls lodge chaperoning Brynnan, Courtney, Olivia, Emily, and Abby. These girls are hilarious and we stayed up way late last night doing our nightly bible study. Rumor has spread in the camp how fun and loud our bible study gets 😜

After a hearty breakfast we left for the work site around 8:30. It is about a 45 minute drive from the retreat center to the site. Here is Kyle in front of the trailer we are working on. 

Pictures are out of order, but here is a beautiful picture of the retreat center after the "sunrise" that the girls were looking for:) 

Our group divided into two groups- construction group and VBS group. The children slowly came to our vbs at an outdoor pavilion in the trailer park. This gorgeous girl was such a treasure- we had coloring stuff, art and crafts, and nail polish to entice the kids to come to vbs. 

The bigger kids that came to vbs wanted our crew to play soccer with them. Let me be clear, these kids are amazing soccer players and this momma felt her age after a few minutes :) soccer is a great way to connect with the bigger kids.  

Sweet Kendall allowed this little girl, Angie, to paint his nails. This girl was a diva who melted our hearts. 

This is totally upside down but we also did some sidewalk chalk with the kids. 

Angie even painted my nails with sparkles. 

Mommas back at home, be so proud of these kids. It was 97 degrees hot and the last job on the work site after lunch was putting sealant tar on the roof of the trailer. It was a hot and messy job and these youth worked likes champs! Here is Kyle on the roof. 

Olivia and Courtney on the roof! These young men and women have been such a joy so far. Victoria and I are loving our girls and having such fun with them. After a few days with these youth I am pretty excited about the next generation ❤️

Here is one of the amazing stories from today. I chose the vbs for my work site and one of the first girls that came to the vbs was a sweet 11 year old girl.  As I got her started in making a beaded necklace, I asked her how many siblings she had. She got quiet and said she had 7 but now only has 6. I told her I was sorry about her sibling and she said that her 7 year old sister died last year of cancer. I was stunned. I then told her I too had had a seven year old that had cancer at one time. She then drew me a picture and put hearts on it. Of the roughly 1,000 people that call this trailer park home only God would send one to me at vbs whose life had also been touched by cancer.  

Closing after chapel tonight in our small group :)