a retrospective look: workcamp

throughout the course of the summer, i had a hope that i could bottle up some of what i and the teens experience to share with you all to give you a better understanding of what it is we do, and maybe in some way you could get a taste of that experience. i remember being at northside church of Christ for the evening while at workcamp and typing out some information to share with you, and felt a bit of a conflict. while i wanted to bring this home for you, i was missing out on my own experience of hanging out with the teens. with wanting to hang out with them each night and having only 4 days in between workcamp and impact, it was quite easy to fall behind and become overwhelmed. you get the idea.. with that being said, i'll be bringing you a retrospective look at some of our trips, which excites me since we're not so far from the start of summer. so we'll start with workcamp.

i shared some images with you in earlier posts, and will share a few more so you can see our finished project. as i mentioned, we were put behind early on by another crew working on winterizing the house. we had to wash the siding, and couldn't do that since they had drilled large holes all around the house to put in insulation. we did what we could, but it wasn't much. they were supposed to be gone the next day, but that didn't work out either. so we were now 2 days behind, had an entire house to wash, scrape, and paint, and only 3 more days in which to do it.

i don't know if you remember that particular week, but it was HOT. mid to upper 90s each day, and did i mention that we didn't have any shade? there were a few spots where we could get out of the sun, but not many. so i was tasked with motivating a group of teens to stay active, taking breaks when needed, and to keep ourselves focused on finishing this house despite the heat. there has been only 1 house i was unable to finish (due to rain) in all of my years at workcamp, and it's a terrible feeling. there's just something about completing your project that week that lifts you up, and i wanted this group to feel that. we made it through days 3 & 4 having done some great work, but there was still much to be done.

on the last day we roll up to the house. it's been 4 days of intense heat, hard work, and little sleep. this is always the day where we have to dig deep down and find energy and strength we didn't know we had and forge ahead. turns out some of the group didn't have that energy and strength deep down, so that puts more work on everyone else, and more of a challenge for crew leaders to keep everyone active. that day we had 3 other crews come in to help us after lunch, so it was a mad rush. i believe that i became the man to ask when it came to looking for jobs, and really wore myself out more in those 2 hours than i had the whole week.

there was something so awe inspiring about seeing 40+ teens come together with a common goal, to bless this homeowner and glorify God. but that's what it took. it seemed an impossible task starting the day, but with the hard work poured out it became a great moment. our group got that feeling of accomplishment, our homeowner loved looking at her "new" house.. suddenly all of the heat and sweat and exhaustion made sense.

we wrapped up our week with a banquet for the homeowners, and, to me, that alone is worth it all. you get to hear some pretty awesome stories, and see the joy in their faces. that night can't last long enough it seems, but we wrapped it up on a great note and said our goodbyes. i always leave with that same feeling: i'm hating the week about midway through (sometimes as early as tuesday morning), but in the end there's nowhere else i would've rather been.

hopefully this gives you some insight into this trip as we near summer. this is one of those trips where you just have to close your eyes and jump in if you've never been, but this is what it's all about. you will be blessed, but more importantly, you will be used to bless someone else. i'll leave you with some images of a finished product...