Mississippi Journal (3.15.2011)

Servitude

Working on the house today was great. My team got so much done and we made Cora and Alice so happy. What we did was we painted the crown molding that we had taken down to restore because it was salvageable. Then we began scraping all of the wallpaper off of the walls because enough of it was coming off already. We had to use a special spray that would help loosen the glue/adhesive in the wallpaper, and even that was at times difficult. But we got all of the walls free of wallpaper, so they are the color of the last paint job, which is pink. The walls are so dirty and even after wiping them down with water, they were still filthy. I saved a piece of the wallpaper to put into my journal because it is a nice reminder of the project.

I also got to help fix their leaky sink. Plumbing is not something that I usually do, but it was fun and I got to do something new. Nick and I unscrewed the drain and PVC pipe, then we cleaned it from the old putty that had been used before. We put the new ring and drain back on but the gap between them where the sink would be was too big. So we had to unscrew it and Zac told us that we needed a gap thingy... I forget what it's called. So when we got that the drain worked and there were no more leaks! Alice was watching us while we did it and it was really funny. She is so sweet. She told us that if we ever go back we would need to go back and visit them. I guess I will just have to come back next year :).

After our projects we went on a tour of Canton, which was good for the team to see the area they were serving in as well as the obvious racial segregation. It still amazes me that it is so blatantly obvious here. People are not shy about being prejudice and to me, that is really sad. After the tour we had our devotional, Led by Kyra and Nick about servitude and it got a lot of great discussion going about the projects we were doing, and how some of it seemed trivial. We can't go into a project with the mindset that it doesn't mean anything because God gave us that project for a reason. Missions is not glamorous and you don't always do what you want, but you do what you do with a smile. It's not about what you want to do, it's about what God has you do. The work of a servant is not what everyone wants to do. If it means something to someone else, then you did a good deed. When you work for the greater good of someone else, you have done God's Will.

:{Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.}: ~ Romans 15:7