Breakfast - Breakfast was held at the dorm this morning, so we got to sleep in an extra hour since we didn't need to travel to the church where the ladies served us in past days. Everyone was thrilled for the extra time.
VBS - Jill's VBS team finished their VBS leadership yesterday, so they joined the work-site teams today. They were a great addition.
Fail Nails - Andrew's team took over the wheelchair ramp project from Casey's team yesterday. They quickly found out why Casey's team took 12 nails to get one in a few days ago (see past blog story). The nails we were given to use for decking boards are 12-penny ring-shank nails (so
they won't back out). These nails are thinner than other 12-penny nails and bend very easily. Once they bend, they should be removed and replaced with a new nail or you'll end up with a broken nail.
Luke and Chris developed a marketing strategy for these nails and gave them the name: "Fail Nails. You'll fail every time! Buy them, they stink! Guaranteed 2 of 20 work!"
The 16-penny ring-shank nails we used for attaching 2x6es were more stout. Luke and Chris called them the Chuck Norris nails.
Food Pantry - More students rotated through helping organize the Food Pantry. During his stint, Nicholas found a box of Cracker Jacks that had expired in 1986.
Concrete Man - Cary's team spent much of their time building a deck extension behind the camp director's home. This extension involved 20 posts and Cary personally mixed and poured the concrete for all 20 holes.
Green Lattice - Stephen's team finished the job of replacing the solid siding over the crawl space of the camp director's home with lattice to provide cooling air flow. The lattices were primed and painted hunter green and look great under the tan house.
Storage Building Painting - Ryan's and Casey's teams united into a single large team to focus on painting the storage buildings that the other teams had primed. Since they were combined from Teams D and F, they called themselves Team DF (pronounced "df"). After many of Team VBS joined them today, they changed their name to Team DFVBS (pronounced "dfvbs").
Shade Structure - Matthew's Team was so intent on finishing the new roof on the shade structure that neither Matthew nor Stephen would come down from the roof when lunch was served.
Lunch - The Good Shepherd Mission cooked and served us a great lunch today of Arroz con pollo, frijoles ala charra, green bean and asparagus veggies, and shredded chicken. Many said it was the best meal of the week.
Bus Ride to the Beach - In multi-bus situations like ours, the senior driver has the prerogative of being the lead driver. Both of our drivers are senior drivers, but Gracie is more senior than Sterling, and she decided that she would be the lead driver. We learned early on and have seen repeated confirmation that Gracie has trouble with directions. Strange turns and paths have evoked strange reactions from Sterling, but he obediently followed even though he knew the route was incorrect.
We thought we had seen confused directions earlier this week and even moreso on our trip to the park last night, but today's trip to the beach set a completely new standard. We ended up getting a tour of downtown Clearwater (and a few other places) as the 30 mile trip from Eckerd College (in St Petersburg) to Palm Pavilion (on Clearwater beach) took nearly 90 minutes.
Sterling eventually had enough when Gracie turned off the straight route onto a side street at a furniture store on the way back this evening. He continued on the correct route and got Bus 2 ("Left Shoe") back to the dorms much sooner.
We've already mapped out the route for tomorrow's trip to Busch Gardens (only two roads) so we can guide Gracie.
Clearwater Beach - The beach we went to today was a Gulf beach on Clearwater Beach island. Its long and wide white sand was very similar to what we're used to in South Padre. The waves were not as strong (too weak for body surfing) since the wind is more of a cross-breeze here. We were told that today's wave action was some of the strongest they see. Overall, the beach was beautiful, the water was warm but much cooler than the bay beach we went to on Monday, and everyone enjoyed the hour we were there.
We then ate at the Palm Pavilion restaurant where we shared a pasta buffet that Cindy had arranged in advance. Another great meal that all enjoyed. After dinner we walked down to a beach shop to give some a chance to burn some more money.
Friendship Club Cards - On the bus ride home we distributed cards to each student giving them thanks and well-wishes from the Friendship Club. They were pleased to see that the cards also included $5 for them to use as they please tomorrow at Busch Gardens. Everyone appreciates the Friendship Club's support and prayers.
Closing Worship - Tonight's worship service was the closing ceremony for the week. We watched a video, sang praise songs, heard a message and watched a drama about how Jesus taught us to serve others as He did. Afterwards we were escorted by torches outside where we divided into our worksite teams and washed each others' feet. The teams prayed together and talked a bit about the week.
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