By Emily M.
Subfloor in, more Blessing Bags made, some arts and crafts for the future residents of Soaring Wings Ministries ranch addition, and a surprise visit from the Deans. What a day!
Today was a busy day at the ranch! We experienced excellent team work flow and as a result we had an incredibly productive day. As always, we started with prayer and breakfast. Today at lunch we also had breakfast - legendary Rennells waffles with all the toppings you can imagine! Savory and sweet, our waffles were our culinary canvas to decorate at will. The Rennells have prepared nearly all of our food this week and have poured their love into it.
When the construction team started their work outside, the "inside" crew (Emily D., Tricia, Emily M., and Meredith) was on cleanup crew then went into Wellington to resupply the stock of Blessing Bags. We used all the bags we made yesterday in our homeless outreach in Fort Collins. The Rennells are wisely in the habit of carrying Blessing Bags in their vehicle and needed to build more to travel with. As an aside, since we got here Ed has passed out Blessing Bags multiple times when going about "everyday" activities. He is *always* on mission here and on alert for people in need of hope, and sees people that we have completely overlooked. That behavior reminds me so much of what Jesus did, and I am so grateful to have witnessed Ed's example this week.
While we were out shopping, we stopped to refill the reusable water jugs at the "H2O4U" water ATM. This is the second part of the Rennells' strategy for bringing fresh water to the ranch. One gallon is $0.25, 5 gallons is $1.25 and we filled four gallon jugs plus a 5 gallon jug twice today after we accidentally left half the jugs at home.
In addition to Blessing Bags and water runs, the inside crew did food prep, chicken care and general cleaning around the house. We also started making blankets for the homeless families who will live in the addition to the Soaring Wings ranch. The intent with the blanket is to provide the families who will stay at the ranch with a "continuity" item that they can have during their whole stay at the ranch and take with them when they go.
The construction crew hit their stride (and lots of nails!) today and got the subfloor completed on Phase 1 the addition. Due to time and budget constraints, we are only working on the half of the poured concreted foundation that is closest to the ranch house, in case you were wondering why only half of the addition has work done on it. That's the plan!
The crew's work today was only possible because of prayer, extraordinarily good communication and the development of some intuition for construction after two days on the site. Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to lift up this team. So far with one exception (cough cough Chris cough) no one has been injured, and even our one exceptional team member will just have a bruise from a fall on the joist. We are so thankful for your prayers!
Today after lunch we had devotions, and we debriefed our time with the homeless yesterday. This was powerful. We had different experiences so it was enlightening to sit together and discuss what happened and what we observed. I encourage you to read my post about it for more information. I tried to take notes on what the team observed and how they reacted, so that you can be a part of what we are experiencing this week. Homelessness is a real problem, and Jesus is the only true, ever-dependable hope we have in this world.
After lunch we got back to work and the Deans showed up for a visit! Pastor Doug, his wife Kim, and their son Nate drove up from Boulder where Nate is starting a PhD program soon. The Deans took time to see the ranch and visit with the Rennells, since the Rennells moved from Colorado from Trinity Bible Church in Sutton, New Hampshire, in 2013. After a tour, they started work on the addition! The Deans stayed through dinner, and it was great to recap the week so far and see friendly faces from home. The Deans' visit was also timely, because we ended up having a team member buy a mitre saw here to assist with the blocking process. The Deans can take it home with them in the truck they drove out to Colorado because the saw would not fit in a checked bag. Praise God for opening doors like this!
The crew's work today was only possible because of prayer, extraordinarily good communication and the development of some intuition for construction after two days on the site. Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to lift up this team. So far with one exception (cough cough Chris cough) no one has been injured, and even our one exceptional team member will just have a bruise from a fall on the joist. We are so thankful for your prayers!
Today after lunch we had devotions, and we debriefed our time with the homeless yesterday. This was powerful. We had different experiences so it was enlightening to sit together and discuss what happened and what we observed. I encourage you to read my post about it for more information. I tried to take notes on what the team observed and how they reacted, so that you can be a part of what we are experiencing this week. Homelessness is a real problem, and Jesus is the only true, ever-dependable hope we have in this world.
After lunch we got back to work and the Deans showed up for a visit! Pastor Doug, his wife Kim, and their son Nate drove up from Boulder where Nate is starting a PhD program soon. The Deans took time to see the ranch and visit with the Rennells, since the Rennells moved from Colorado from Trinity Bible Church in Sutton, New Hampshire, in 2013. After a tour, they started work on the addition! The Deans stayed through dinner, and it was great to recap the week so far and see friendly faces from home. The Deans' visit was also timely, because we ended up having a team member buy a mitre saw here to assist with the blocking process. The Deans can take it home with them in the truck they drove out to Colorado because the saw would not fit in a checked bag. Praise God for opening doors like this!
A silent hero this week has been Dianna. She is a floater thus far, hopping between any project that needs her attention. She pruned gardens, cleaned cisterns and barns, and today she graded the rainwater collection cistern that feeds the garden, so that water flows more easily from the edge of the house to the area where Meredith is growing veggies for the farm. We've eaten zucchini from the garden this week and it's delicious.
Again, thank you for your prayers this week. They are being answered! Please be in prayer for Dan to find a room key that probably fell out as he was shimmying around in the crawl space today. We have a second key but we would like to be good stewards of what has been given to us and ensure we are returning both keys. Please pray for Chris, who took a tumble today, and pray for anyone else who might be sore from the work today to get good rest and recovery tonight.
Tomorrow we will be continuing with construction and will hopefully make more Blessing Bags. We will also be preparing a meal for homeless families who are staying in churches in the Fort Collins area through Faith Family Hospitality. FFH is a ministry of our host church in partnership with nearly 30 other churches in Fort Collins. Please pray that meal prep and cleanup goes smoothly and more importantly, please pray that our meal time with the families who are served by FFH will be fruitful and filled with God's grace. Thank you!
Tomorrow we will be continuing with construction and will hopefully make more Blessing Bags. We will also be preparing a meal for homeless families who are staying in churches in the Fort Collins area through Faith Family Hospitality. FFH is a ministry of our host church in partnership with nearly 30 other churches in Fort Collins. Please pray that meal prep and cleanup goes smoothly and more importantly, please pray that our meal time with the families who are served by FFH will be fruitful and filled with God's grace. Thank you!