Our last day at Hosanna

Hard to believe that we just wrapped up our final day at Hosanna. It feels like we just got here!

Today we split into two groups.  The first group went back to the same house we were at yesterday to finish Mrs. Slaughter's roof.  We spent from about 9:30 am to 1 pm up on the roof and it looked amazing after we finished.  Meanwhile, the second group of students went to build a deck and access ramp.  Both groups arrived back on campus by around 2 pm and we joined back together to finish our work day by helping Hosanna with their new garden.  They grow all sorts of vegetables that they use to can and give to their partners as gifts every year during the holidays. 

After our final work day was done, we celebrated our time and week together with Hosanna and even had some of their staff join us for dinner.  We have been blessed to work with the staff members at Hosanna this week and we'll be sad to leave them and head home tomorrow.  However, we've had a full and wonderful week together and will carry our memories of this trip for the rest of our lives.  After dinner, we had worship together in the chapel like we have every night this week. The backdrop tonight was particularly pretty.

After worship and cookies with Ken, it came time for the moment of truth: the cheese danish.  For those of you who don't know, ask your student - but the legend of the danish has been passed down for years (literally, over 20 of them). It typically is passed on to a student that has shown a specific spirit during the course of the week that has been noticed by others in the group.  There's no official qualifications, but the winner must bring the danish back on next year's trip so that they might bestow it upon someone else. This year, our winner was Graham! Next time you see him, congratulate him on an excellent week of service and mission. 

Well, that's all for the blog. Thanks for following along and praying with us during our travels this week. We can't do it without all of your support from afar. We'll be back next week with week two!

Goodbye, old shingles. Hello, new roof!

Today's recap can probably be summed up best with a picture from the aftermath:

That would be Gretchen, with her newfound "tan", brought to you by the aftermath of ripping shingles off of a house.  Mrs. Slaughter lives on the near southeast side of Pittsburgh, and Hosanna and our crew drove down this morning just berfore 8 a.m. so that we could provide her with a brand new leak-free roof that she so desperately needed.

Our crew was joined by about 10 others from a local church, including 7 kids between 9-11 years old. We started the day by removing the old roof to prep the surface for replacement. When a roof needs repair, and there are only one layer of shingles, new shingles can simply be placed over the old ones as a fix for a while.  But Mrs. Slaughter already had two layers of shingles on her roof, which meant we needed to tear off both layers down to the original plywood and start from scratch.  

After removing the old shingles, sweeping the roof clean, applying a new underlayment, and moving an entire pallet of shingles up to the roof, we started our process of laying new shingles.  The students had been trained on Monday in the learning center at Hosanna how to lay shingles, so they were quick pros when the occasion arose this afternoon for the real thing. 

We set up a line where we had our students placing shingles that were fed down to them from the peak of the roof by our young cohorts. We managed to tear off all the shingles and replace an entire half of the house with new roof all in one day today.  

Tomorrow, we will send part of our team back to the house to finish the other half of Mrs. Slaughter's roof.  We will also send a group to rebuild the retaining wall that we demolished yesterday.  Yet ANOTHER group will head to build a small deck and ramp system for a person who needs it. We may only have 14 people in our group this week, but we're doing amazing things. Stay tuned!

Hosanna, round two.

How awesome was today?!  You don't know, because you weren't here, but it was great...that's why we're here to tell you about it. 

This morning we jumped (slowly, for some) out of bed to get on the road at 8 a.m.  We drove about half an hour out to Ted's house.  Ted is a great guy with an awesome house and amazingly gorgeous backyard view, and he was around back when Hosanna started.  Ted used to work for a heating and cooling company, and he was instrumental in helping get some donations to Hosanna when they had poeple in need.  Now, Ted is living with MS, and in the not-too-distant future will be bound to a wheelchair.  So we went out with Hosanna to build a deck at his house that connected both the front and side doors with wheelchair access, so when that time comes, he'll be ready and taken care of. He spent years helping to take care of others, and now it's his turn to be taken care of.  Unreal story of true neighbors.

After spending the morning framing and finishing Ted's deck, we split into two groups for some projects in the afternoon.  One group went to pick up a donation that Hosanna received of a nice kitchen cabinet set that will eventually go to someone who needs it.  The other group went to do demolition on a retaining wall that was crumbling to pieces.  We'll send a group back on Thursday to rebuild the wall now that the demo is done. 

We returned to campus exhuasted (and already a bit slap happy) and emotionally energzied from our day's work.  After a delicious dinner and worship together, we're off to bed to prepare for tomorrow's project: a new roof.  

First Day at Hosanna!

We made it through our first full day together! 

After driving six hours yesterday (with NO STOPS!) to get to Hosanna, we arrived safe and sound last night and got a great night's rest to prep for our week. This morning, we met Emily and Amy - two Hosanna staff members - in the chapel to start our work week.  They did a morning devotion with our group and then Amy gave us a tour of the campus along with some history and background of Hosanna as an organization. 

We then spent much of the day with Amy and Emily in Hosanna's learning center, where they trained our group on how to use many of the tools that we'll be needing in the field this week.  Everyone got a try on the circular saw, and we got to practice hammering nails for our decking project tomorrow.  Then the group was taught how to lay shingles on the simulated roof that Hosanna had in the learning center.  We'll be getting to that roof project later this week!

After our morning and early afternoon training, we helped the staff move some lumber and odds and ends around campus, and then helped unload the truck at the warehouse and re-load it for our work tomorrow. We had a delicious taco dinner followed by small groups and worship together.  It was an awesome day.  We're all looking forward to tomorrow when we can get out in the field and put everything we learned to good use!  

WYSIWYG - 2015 BOS

The BOS (Burger of Service) originated in 2009 in Elkhart, Indiana after an interesting adult grilling experience. Since it has been awarded each year, and subsequently lived in the respective winner's freezer for a year.  Tonight the 2014 BOS, Mary Stafford, awarded the new BOS with this sought after title. The seventh holder of this title takes home the actual original burger to its fifth home...for the second time the BOS has been awarded to the younger sibling of a previous BOS. We congratulate, and celebrate, Tiggins, aka Nathan Higgins, as the 2015 BOS! 

The BOS Family Tree

2009 - Claudia Benz - Elkhart

2010 - Zak Aker - Louisville 

2011 - Ben Higgins - Indiana University

2012 - Olivia Benz - Hanover

2013 - Alex Reese - Indianapolis 

2014 - Mary Stafford - University of Illinois

2015 - Nathan Higgins - Olney 

WYSIWYG Day 3

Today was another amazing, but long day. The group was up and to our worksite at 7AM to prepare for the visitors to The Master's Hands food pantry. Students did a variety of jobs to prepare and then serve the families and individuals who came in for food and other services. After a brief lunch break the group helped to quickly unload a truck load of food items for their pantry. They, once again, worked extremely hard and without question or complaint. 

After getting cleaned up we set out in search of the famous white squirrels! We did have success in finding a couple of the squirrels, everyone was very excited! Following a delicious pizza buffet at a local pizza place we were treated to swimming and boat rides at the home of a congregation member! This was an awesome way to spend our last evening together. Students swam in the pool, say by the bonfire, rode on the pontoon boat, and some even took a twilight swim in the lake! A good time was had by all. 

Our evening drew to a close with our final, and wonderful, student led devotion. While we are sad our trip is coming to an end, we are eager to return home and share our stories with all of you. 

WYSIWYG Day 2 - Paint. Lots of paint!

Today the students began the day with delicious homemade cinnamon rolls from a member of the congregation. (Have we mentioned how they're spoiling us?) Our first project of the day was helping to paint stage sets of the local theater group at the community college. Next we taped, and taped, and taped.  The. Painted, and painted, and painted the child care room at our host church. The students worked extremely hard all day long and no one complained at all! They were truly amazing. 

Each student is recognizing the work of God in our group and those we encounter. It has been a great day. We are eager for what tomorrow brings...even with a VERY early wake up call! We can't wait to share more.