*swoons*
So, here we are in the back lot of Mt. Hope Church in Joplin. You remember, right? We were here, working, unloading boxes and organizing diapers. And I told you I would show you some pictures. Here we are!
One side of the distribution center where we did most of our work.
Wil, some of the other girls and I were working in the distribution center sorting out baby clothes. Granted, not the most excitng job in the world, unless you're a bunch of teenage girls who freak out every time they find a baby shirt that says something cute on it. And one teenage guy who finds the girls' freaking out hilarious.
We couldn't really help laughing over this one. I don't think the parents thought this one through. I mean... Their child had a baseball attached to his rear. And, while I love baby bum as much as the next squealing and cooing babysitter, this was just... Strange.
I also have a feeling that my mom did not have such scruples about decorating her child's posterior. I'm scared to ask.
SO true. Although I love Christmas.
Oh. My. Gah. We died.
So then Wesley comes in from working in the field all day (that's volunteer-speak for "knocking over houses") looking like this...
... and asking for hugs. Needless to say, we pointed him in the direction of the showers. "You've heard of 'em, right, Wesley? They're wonderful things, these showers. Perfect for cleaning up dirty, sweaty, stinky, lovable boys."
So he went. But not before I got a picture. *evil grin*
Wil kept leaving his hat all over the building. We took turns wearing it. It broke.
Well, he shouldn't have been leaving it everywhere!
After a while we had some lunch BACON.
Ahem. I mean lunch.
And Wil was so incredibly hot (despit the fact that the building had the air conditioner on full blast and the rest of us were all wearing sweaters) that he...
Dunked his head...
In a cooler of freezing water...
And while everyone else was ranting about how he could "get hypothermia and then what would they do", like the good friend I am...
I took pictures.
YAY for friendship and stuff.
That's the end of our pictures, but the day wasn't even half over yet.
After lunch, Willard Philmore up there (not his real name) went and got out his guitar, and we all sort of instinctively gathered around the table where he was sitting. He started playing "Revelation Song", one of our favorites, and we all sang along, harmonizing and worshipping. It's always amazing worshipping with these kids. Everyone gets into it, everybody just sings to Jesus, and if you cry, nobody thinks you're strange. I know, because I've cried during one or two of our worship/prayer sessions before.
We kept on worshipping for about another half hour -- the whole building (which is made up of one room) could hear us, including Miss Eve, our director, and she told me later that when we worship together it makes her cry, too.
Then back to business! This time we all head outside into the humidity and sprinkling rain (it was wonderful) to sort boxes of donations into their respective storage sheds. I worked in the toiletries shed, helping to organize the toothpaste from the deodorant and sending back all the baby food, which for some reason kept wanting to be brought to my shed.
It was hard work. The boxes were heavy, the shed was crowded, the air heavy and hot and hard to breathe, but I somehow had a great time doing it. One of our amazing guys (Zach, otherwise known as "Ezakiel" or "Zackson") came in to help me move boxes from one to the other, and between the two of us we got 'er done!
Then we did some more organization work inside, and, finally thinking we were done, I grabbed my book ("Jane Eyre") and sat down in the cafeteria section for some much-needed non-movement. But then over sidled Wesley, looking like a man on a mission. "Hey, Lauren, I know you don't want to move, but we're going back outside to re-organize one of the sheds so that the church knows where everything is, because right now it's a mess. We need as many people as we can get -- do you wanna help?"
I looked at him. He's got big eyes, and tends to unitentionally puppify them. And I unfortunately can't say no to puppy eyes on anybody, let alone my best guy-friend. I sighed. At least it was for a good cause. "Sure, I'll help."
He gave me a huge grin. That settled it. I couldn't change my mind now! "Just let me go and grab some softer shoes." The cement was eating my calves alive.
In a few minutes everyone except Julie and Maddie (who were kind of left to run the distribution center by themselves...) was outside, forming a sort of assembly line. Jameson stood inside the shed, handing out boxes to whoever was standing outside the door. That person ran and placed it in its designated pile (mens, womens, little girls, little boys, infants, or miscellaneous, like shoes or scarves or hats), then came back and got in line. Within minutes, the shed was practically empty, and we were placing the boxes back inside by section.
Julie and Maddie came out looking for us, and Julie, who had been trying to get everyone to do exactly this earlier today but had been unable, nearly started crying. "I love you guys!"
Finally we finished! And still an hour till dinner; I had time for a nap! I headed back to our dorm, plopped down on my mattress, and was asleep within fifteen minutes.
Unfortunately, it only seemed like seconds before Julie was shaking my mattress saying, "Lauren! It's dinnertime!" I sat up, shook myself, and followed her to the cafeteria.
We had an excellent dinner, during which Maddie, Rebecca, Morgan and I were left OUT OF THE GROUP and had to SIT AT OUR OWN TABLE because there wasn't any room with the others. We made it very clear to them that they were not going to be forgiven; nor were they allowed to sit at our table. Then we sat and moped and ate grapes while everyone else played Apples to Apples. *sniff*
I did eventually tire of grapes and went to join the game. (So I have a weak will when it comes to sitting at the "lonely" table. Sue me!) They happily added me in next deal, and we played for about another hour. Then Miss Eve called us over to hop into the cars, we were going to see a movie!
My ears pricked, my tail wagged. What's that you say? A movie?
I ran to grab my camera, we piled into cars, and headed off!
As it turned out, we weren't going to see "Captain America" or anything. What we did was way cooler. One of the members of the Stained Glass Theater owned a huge old-fashioned movie projector, and we had been invited to go watch cartoons on it. Here, twist my arm. Twist it. Okay, I'll go.
On the way we stopped to pick up Joanna, and when we got there we got to meet some members of the theater we hadn't had the chance to meet before. It was awesome! Me, Robert, Wesley and Joanna all sat in a little clump as the cartoons started. Believe me, they were hilarious, and what made it even better was that the four of us all share a sense of humour, and we kept cracking up, making snarky side comments and cracking up even harder. Then "The Aristocats" came on -- Wesley and I freaked; we love that movie!
We laughed, whispered, and giggled all the way through, and then when it was over we dashed outside (it was freezing in there) singing "Everybody! Everybody! Everybody wants to be a cat!" at the top of our lungs. Then everyone stood in a huddle, cracking each other up on purpose.
Let me tell you. Wil's and Anna's laughs would make your day.
We were teasing them about it all week.
Ezakiel being a ham.
The moon was beautiful, but when it's dark outside and I turn off the flash setting, the picture always comes out blurry.
I hate flash.
Finally we all got back into our cars and headed home. My car sang worship songs all the way home; it was awesome. :)
We pulled up to the church, said a quick prayer together, and slipped into our dorms to get ready for bed and get some much-needed sleep.
Part 3 should be up on Thursday at the latest. :)
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