St Timothy's Episcopal Church: Youth Mission Trip

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. We had it written and ready to go, and we lost our internet connection! I have breifly slipped away from our worksite to post yesterdays post. I don't want you to miss what was written! For now, I am simply posting what was suppose to be posted yesterday. Check back later today for an update on our day today.

Wednesday:
I have heard from people back home that it is hot in Winston-Salem this week. Well, its hot here too, but at least we have a breeze blowing in off of the gulf every so often. Thank you to Ellen and Tina who commented on our update yesterday. Its always great to hear back from people back at the church and know that we are in their prayers. Today, in keeping with having the youth share their experience, Erin Gerrity and Clay Sexton have asked to write today's post. Before I post what they wrote, I want to brag just a bit about them. The week before we left on this trip both Erin and Clay found found out that they were accepted as members on the Diocesan Youth Committee. This means that they will both take part in planning and leading at least one of the youth conferences that the diocese holds each year. I am very proud of them both as I know the rest of the parish is. Here is what they wrote for today:

Erin:

Hey everybody this is Erin Gerrity! The trip so far has been a blast and we
are having so much fun. Last night we all sat in a circle in the hall before
lights out and laughed for a good hour. Everybody is getting along well and we
have all bonded a lot. We have even begun to bond with the other church in
giving the guys crazy hair styles yesterday. Yesterday has been my favorite work
day so far. At my worksite, we are building a wheel chair ramp for a lady who
has had three strokes and cannot move around well. We started putting the frame
up yesterday and cemented in a couple of the poles. Honestly I felt like I did
more work yesterday than I do in a whole year. It is very hot here but all
of the St. Tim’s kids are continuing to wear jeans for fear of scrapes and bug
bites. We are all excited because we are having a half day of work tomorrow and
going to the beach for the second half. While on Friday we are taking the whole
day off.

Everynight we have a worship service where we congregate with the other
church and sing and then listen to a sermon. We don’t know all the songs but
they are all good songs. The couselors are really nice. Our work leader’s name
is Amy and she is very helpful. Well I have to go get ready for our tedious,
exhausting, sweltering work day ahead of us so bye!

Clay:

…..erm its CLAY!! Ok so here’s the down low on the mission trip. So farthe whole entire youth group has been working extra hard and some of them are
very beat. Being a veteran to going on the youth mission trip it is a wayyyyy
different experience. For instance last year there was about 150 people there.
This year there are only 60. So ya that’s a kinda big difference there…. ANYWAYS
the work we have done is quite amazing. You can’t see that big of a difference
after one days work because there is different kinds of work. Last year the work
was more focused on Hurricane Katrina clean up, and this year its more focused
onto the nearby neighborhood about a half a mile away from the camp (THAT WE HAD TO WALK FROM!!) and it’s a poorer neighborhood. But the people there are very friendly and they all know each other and are just walking up and down the
streets saying HELLO!! So after a while the youth that I was with began to say
hello to them instead. AND…. The roofing was fun.