Wednesday: today was a day of relaxation. We hiked in the Smokey Mountains 2 miles up to the Natural Bridge State Park, then went back down and had a team picnic. The afternoon was spent at the pool for some r and r! Tonight we will have a cookout at one of the families homes that we are working with.
Last night we visited with families that we helped last year. Because some are going through very difficult situations, we will reconnect with them again later this week.
We are rested and ready to head back to our tasks first thing tommorrow morning! Thanks for your prayers. Today we saw God's amazing creation and got to know each other better. We have a great team!

Another beautiful day for working! We have continued getting to know the families whose homes we are working on. One of the painting sites has a family with a young boy and they also provide care for several other kids so our JHYG kids have enjoyed spending some of their time playing games and loving on those kids. The students have been pleasantly surprised at how much the families open up and share about their lives and we have been blessed by hearing from them.

We appreciate your prayers and feel God's presence and working in our team. I have been personally blessed to see the unity among our students and to see the new friendships being built.

Please pray for our students as they are challenged in their spiritual walks this week that it will be lasting and that their hearts will be molded to be more like Christ.

Please pray for the weather the remainder of the week, there has been forecasts of scattered thunderstorms for Thursday and Friday.

Pray for opportunities for our team to be a blessing in the lives of our families.

Pray for continued flexibility from our team students and leaders as it is a necessity in this sort of a setting.

This morning (Tuesday) the team is getting ready to return to their worksites. One group is roofing and the 2 others are busy painting. The weather has been warm during mid day, but pleasant in the evenings. Please pray that our students will build meaningful relationships with each other and the families they are serving. Thanks for your prayers!

The team arrived safely in Kentucky on Sunday evening. Today they are excited to meet the families they will be serving as well as some other people they will work with for the week. Please continue to pray for them. Pray that God will open their eyes to His world and how He sees people.

 

 

Praying together before the vans leave 

The team ready to travel to Kentucky bright and early on Sunday morning!

Please pray for our JHYG Hazel Green, KY team. We will be gone July 23-30. This is an amazing opportunity for our 6th-8th graders and our leaders to go down and serve God in tangible ways. Some of us look forward to seeing old friends and all of us look forward to meeting the new people God brings us into contact with.

"So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God".
Philippians 1:9-11 [the message]