Manor Community Church

Today was a good day. We woke up around 8:30am, ate breakfast, did our devotions and then headed out to Manor Community Church. We had planned on working at the church for a while and then doing a kids club, but those plans changed. After we met Mrs. Betty Little, we realized how awesome and generous this 90 year old lady is. She made us coffee cakes and brought us drinks. Pastor Bill was telling us stories about her doing work around her house recently. He told us that one time she even went on to her 3rd story roof, slid down it, cleaned the gutters, and then climbed back up. She is in great shape for a 90 year old woman, but has great trouble cleaning and maintaining the huge church she lives in. Her apartment is upstairs and the church is downstairs. The church is actually very old. It has been there since the 1800's. You can only imaging how beautiful it will be when it's fully restored. There is a main, puritan, traditional looking auditorium, a balcony, kitchen, fellowship hall and about 20 other rooms including a gym downstairs with tons of antiques from the war. This church actually housed soldiers from WWII. There are so many interesting antiques there like: ping pong tables/paddles, boxing gloves, work out equipment etc. We spent all day cleaning, mopping, dusting the place and me and Randy put tar in cracks on the roof. Tomorrow we plan to wake up around 8am. The girls will stay here and clean the mission and the guys will go back to Manor Community Church and clear out the bottom level gym area. Then after lunch, whoever wants to can shop, then we will go see fireworks. We plan to go to bed as soon as we get back from fireworks and then we will wake up and drive back to you all. This trip has been a blessing. We had a great devotion time, and the students want to come back and help make our youth group a more God-centered place. They are also broken for lost people and want to do something about it at home. We warned one another of the danger of spiritual highs and want to help the students develop a consistent discipline of study, outreach, worship etc. in their lives, if they have not already.I am excited to come home and see how these teenagers impact the rest of the youth group. Please pray that their hearts will stay broken and that they will have the strength to keep up discipline. Thank you for praying for us, as I'm sure you have. The Jones' are incredible and we can't wait to share stories with you all ni person. God is good, and the students have the right attitude for service to the Lord for the rest of the summer.

Soli deo Gloria!

Zach