What a great trip this morning! This is the 2nd closest workcamp in our church’s 14 year workcamp history and it was a welcomed relief. We were able to get a full nights sleep last night because we did not have to leave until around 10 A.M. Last year we had a long trip from Indianapolis, IN to Kenosha, WI and a stop at Purdue (where Bret attends college) to pick up Tiffany. today, we arrived early in Marshfield! The sleeping conditions are absolutely fabulous. The school is air conditioned and both the guys and gals do not have to share a room with another church group. Over the year’s, our guys have consistently lucked out with good sleeping conditions (with the exception of the whole sleeping-on-risers incident in Lansing, MI) while the gals have had their share of bad luck… From a technical standpoint, this room could not be any better because I have my own desk with a high speed internet connection which will make completing these updates far less cumbersome.

For the second consecutive year, the evening programs are being held in the auditorium instead of the gymnasium. This is nice because of the air conditioning, but it is also a negative because the group is spread out by being in individual chairs and not sitting in a cluster on the bleachers. As a whole, this camp has a large number of experienced workcampers as most have attend a Group camp in the past.

Today we finally met our crews and found out our job descriptions. We have a van in the parking lot filled with toys like miter saws, cordless drills, post hole diggers, circular saws, and pretty much every other fun power tool you can think of. However, most of us have been charged with the unfortunate task of painting. The only exceptions are Larry and Justin who will be building separate wheel chair ramps. Although the jobs might not be exactly what some of us were hoping for, most of us are very optimistic about our crews. My crew seems like a fabulous group of young adults. One of the youth seems fairly stand offish and lazy so it may be challenging to get him to open up a truly enjoy this opportunity. I am very interested is observing his growth throughout the week.

We had our first evening devotions this evening and I hope many of you did as well. If you do not have a devotion guide, you can download one here and please join us in devotions each evening as you have to opportunity to see exactly what we are discussing in Marshfield, MA. Much of what we discussed was living your life “inside out”. In other words, having a strong christian faith and expressing it to others. As a group we have challenged ourselves to be cognizant of our surroundings and to take advantage of opportunities that can help strengthen our own relationships with Christ. Discussing this and talking about this before camp may make us notice things that are happening around us that would might otherwise miss (i.e. Galatians 5: 22-23 being written on the door at the Taiwanese Christian Church is Framingham, MA). Hopefully we can all improve on keeping in touch with our surrounding not only this week but in the future as well.

John and Hallie Stewart, members at Faith Pres., spend their summers in Marshfield, MA. Not knowing that the workcampers were currently in Marshfield, Ali received a phone call from Hallie inviting her to the beach because she knew Ali had recently moved to the Boston area. When Ali retrieved the message today, she called Hallie and explained the situation and the fact that we were currently in their town. The Stewarts were kind enough to invite all 14 of us to their home during our half day, Wednesday, to spend time on the beach and in their boat. The crew is incredible excited and grateful and is looking forward to Wednesday afternoon. It will be great to see some familiar faces so far from home.

I’m sure there are a ton of things I have failed to mention here, but it is late and I must get some sleep as the “wakey, wakey workcampers” music is only 6 hours away. Tomorrow we will head to the work sites and start repairing homes and spirits. There are no pictures to update the sit with today as Ali has the camera and I’m sure is fast asleep. The good news is that we will have twice as many photos to post tomorrow! Joel, we are all wearing our dog tags and hope you are too. We can’t wait until you have workcamp stories and experiences of you own to share. Good night to all and keep the Faith…