Last day on site

Today we wrapped up our last day of working with Habitat for Humanity. And what an awesome last day that it was. While we did not see any of the homes that we were working on get completed this week we did have another great opportunity. We were invited to attend a Habitat home dedication. There were 22 families that received keys to their new homes today, it was a memorable experience for all of us. It was an absolutely awesome way to end our week.

When we reflected on our week tonight and realized the amount of work that was accomplished and the materials that were used it is quite impressive. We saw one home get the roofing nearly complete, another home had two decks built and a third went from just a floor to completely framed out with walls. Power tools are typically thought of as a man’s tool but not to the women of our Biloxi team. Our ladies were seen operating rotors, chop saws, circular saws, air nailers and even Jean Miller was seen operating a Bobcat (see picture). I don’t think we’ll ever remove that smile from her face.

There are many purposes of our Daybreak short term missions trips. Probably the one that most people think of is the impact that our team has on the community that we are going to serve, but one that should not be overlooked is the impact that God has on the people on the short term missions team. Our team made a decision to not take along many of the luxuries that we’ve come to accept in life, such as cell phones, ipods, laptops and TV. Initially we tend to struggle with such commitments it was very obvious to everyone on the team how much more focused we were on each other and on God without those simple things. When we take away the distractions sometimes we hear God’s voice a little more clearly. The growth that we have seen in our team, in each and every individual has been incredible. We heard it time and time again during our testimony time each night.

After returning to Camp Victor from the home dedications we enjoyed a time of fellowship, testimony and affirmation followed by celebrating Marc Snavely’s birthday with some ice cream sandwiches. Happy birthday Marc!

It’s late here in Mississippi and we’ll be calling it a night now as we prepare to turn in and pack it up early in the morning. We’re looking forward to seeing all of you upon our return, until then, sho nuff!