It's not the heat ...

Well, maybe it is a little bit. The thermometer topped 100 degrees, or so we heard. Many prayers of thanks for a decent breeze that kept us at least a little cool.
Our team is split into four work crews, each of which are paired with students from another church. Our ministry partners are from Fairmount, ND, Alexandria, MN, and Muskego, WI. Two of our crews spend the day on work projects. Two were helping run the Kids' Club for local kids.

From Maggie W:

Today was the first day of serving in Martin, South Dakota. In my group, The Blizzards, were Ayoka, Andrew, Christian, James, Ella, and Isabella. And from the other church was Allie and Sarah. Our group assignment was to start painting a house for one of the community members. It started off okay. The first layer of paint was iffy, but it got better as we went along. After awhile these kids came out and was riding their bikes and asking to us to ride with them. So, our day was pretty eventful. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for me.

 

Ella S. and Isabella S. rockin' the ladders.

From Julianne O:

Our group, the Boom-Dockers, got to work at Kids' Club. Basically Kids' Club is VBS in the park. We had to come up with games to play with the kids before we started and songs to sing. The kids ranged from 3 years old to 12, but most of the kids were around 5. At first I thought it was going to be pretty easy but then I stepped outside, I then realized that this might be a lot harder than I thought. The temperature outside reached over 100 degrees. Most of the day in the park consisted of staying in the shaded, spray bottles, pushing swings and trips to get ice for our boiling water that was too hot to drink. I met this really cute 5-year-old girl who loved to go on the swings. She later got scared when the swings went crooked and starting crying. I was the only one who could calm her down and she clung to me the rest on the day. Also today we went did a scavenger hunt on Main Street for an evening event. After our group got second place we went to Dairy Queen and all got shakes (I got chocolate). I can’t imagine what the rest of the week will bring, hopefully cooler weather.

Mia S. and Mary W. were part of the Kids' Club crew that led worship in the park.

Catherine W. and Ayoka L. agreed that a trip to DQ was the perfect antidote for the day's hot weather.