82 with a realfeel of 96.. what?

so our first day on site was very hot, as was expected. my phone told me it was 82 outside with a realfeel(tm) of 96. if it feels like 96 degrees, isn't it 96 outside? anyways, i digress. we arrived at the site a little sluggish for the first day, but were able to get a lot of the groundwork laid so that we can get some major work done in the days to come. as usual with my sites, we hit a few obstacles that are going to make it a challenge to get done by friday.. mostly with some spacial restrictions and having to reach some very high points on this house. not to mention all of the cicadas.

i didn't mention this last night, but i somehow got stuck with 4 of our students this week. i've never seen that happen. so i've got danielle, abby, mini pr, and half-hour bauer. so rest assured, they'll be safe with me. and they'll also stay busy!

our house has siding that can't be scraped, and as a result we have to peel off the loose paint by hand. i'll have an interesting picture from that venture below. we scraped the foundation, peeled lots of paint, and did a lot of work caulking and scraping around the porch area. there's a little more to do with that, but hopefully we'll be able to begin painting tomorrow. it's always a good step to be able to get started with that. i'm hoping that our students will get some better rest tonight as well, so that they can be a little more energetic tomorrow. staying at northside has given a few of them a sense of a lock-in, but they definitely regretted that today. lesson learned. i hope. i'll leave you with a few images of workcamp: day 1! enjoy.

                            this is our work site for the week

                                    the workcamp motto!

                                    danielle hard at work

                                         blurry cicada

 half-hour bauer and mini pr peeling some paint away... together

                   this is what happens when teens see a camera

                                     gathered for worship

workcamp: the start of something... warm!

tonight was our first night of nashville workcamp '11. despite the many things that might deter teenagers from coming out for a trip like this, we have about 350 people gathered here this week to go out into nashville and paint some houses for those who aren't able to do this kind of work themselves. looking forward into the week, it looks like we'll have some nice weather.. even though it'll be in the upper 90's at some points.

our theme for the week is "follow you" which is the idea that God is already around us, and it's to us to follow Him wherever he goes. this week He's heading into some uncomfortable territory, but that's exactly where we're called to be. this week we'll certainly get dirty, but my prayer is that our teens are covered in the dirt of Jesus' feet. no matter how uncomfortable and hot and sweaty we get this week, we'll know that this is exactly where we're supposed to follow. please lift up this cause in prayer this week. i'll keep you posted as we go throughout the week. i'll get you started with some images from our worship this evening.