Kentucky Mission Trip - Day 3

Tonight, I was telling some of our youth about my early morning run. I told them no one was awake except for the dog who chased me. They were quite alarmed until I told them that the dog only chased me as far as his leash would let him! To the edge of the yard. They then asked if it was a scary dog, to which I responded, "Not really. It was just a beagle." One of the girls remarked, " Kim, you made it sound like it was a really big, viscous event, and then we find out it was a little dog on a leash.". My response..."It was more interesting that way, wasn't it?"

This made me think of how sometimes we really do exaggerate our enemies. However, our team had one enemy against us today that needs no exaggeration. While he was a mighty foe, he was NOT undefeatable. The day started out great. Our construction team finished two projects they had started the day before. The other members of the group headed to the Freedom Center, a local outreach ministry led by our missionaries! George and Robin Lewis. We split up once we arrived, with some leading a Bible Study for a group of women and others heading to their warehouse to sort donations. We all gathered back at the Freedom Center after meeting us with a team from Illinois and helped as the thrift store opened for business. It was packed. I was so proud of the youth and children in our group. They jumped right into help. Some assisted shoppers. Blaine Dempsey was an excellent greeter and cashier. Ashley Ramey and I had a fun time changing out the display window from a summer theme to a back to school theme. Although it took us awhile, we finally learned that the best way to dress a mannequin is to takeoff her arms first. Another group of our children and youth found a group of local kids just down the street setting up a lemonade stand. They quickly became the marketing team for this lemonade stand. They wanted to make sure these kids were successful. They even spent about $10 of their own money on $0.25/cup lemonade. They were buying cups and giving it away to shoppers in the thrift store, attentive to the needs of both audiences. Chrystal Sheppard cut hair. You should have seen how happy her "customers" were with the finished project. One gentleman named Rooster had a magnificent transformation with just a simple haircut. I promise to post before and after pictures tomorrow.

Around lunch, the enemy came out to fight. Due to the unexpected and things out of our control, lunch was ready later than we anticipated. This seemed to put us further behind than it really should have. We even considered not going to play with the kids at the apartment complex in Lynch as we had promised because of the time crunch, however that group forged on and was able to continue to minister to those children and their families. Many members of our group were riddled with headaches and struggled to keep going, but the rest of us started loading up supplies for our family fun night in the park. We were showing an outdoor movie, and we thought we had everything we needed. Just before we walked out the door ( around 4:45 or so), it hit me that I had not seen us load a projector on the truck. A projector is pretty vital to showing an outdoor movie. I was in charge of the technical stuff so knew we had everything else. As soon as I voiced my concern, a small wave of panic spread throughout the group. I made a call to the church to confirm whether or not a projector was sent with us. It was not. I had seen one small baptist church in the town. I suggested that someone call them to see if they had one we could borrow. It was then that a picture flashed across my mind, a snapshot of something I has seen earlier in the day while driving down a street I didn't know existed. I had seen and made note of the Cumberland Public Library. To be honest, I was a little astonished that the town even had a public library. I knew they would have a projector. Only one problem...it was almost 5 pm. We knew it was probable that the library closed at 5. Greg Sheppard quickly looked up the number and was greeted by Pat the librarian. Pat had her keys in her hand and was ready to walk out the door when she decided to answer our call. She was our angel. Not only did she allow us to borrow the projector, but she also waited the 15 minutes it took for us to get to the library and stayed on the phone with us, giving us directions on how to get to her. Enemy's arrow avoided!

We arrived at Russell Drive and began setting up. The housing authority manager had left the power on in a utility building, allowing us to access the outlets on the outside of the building. we quickly tripped a breaker. The enemy was sending another arrow our way. There was no one on duty in the office after 5. But one of the residents across the street and another vocational missionary helped us get in touch with Henry, the maintenance supervisor for the complex. Henry left the comfort of his own home and family and came to our rescue. He flipped the breaker, showed us where another outlet was, loaned us more extension cords and a much needed power strip, and even left the door to the utility building open in case we tripped a breaker again. As having access to power was vital to our showing of the movie, another arrow of the enemy was avoided. People ate, played corn hole, had their nails painted and their hair wrapped, wrestled, raced, and enjoyed a good movie.

The devil was out in full force today. He wanted to keep us from reaching out to people, from talking with people, from sharing with people. But he FAILED miserably! It was not of our own doing. In fact, everything we tried on our own was falling apart. God, however, held it together. He met our needs. We were able to serve Him by serving others. Our God is stronger!!!!!!

Pictures coming tomorrow!