Serving, playing and wondering

So Jess was being super kind yesterday when she wrote that I was "getting ready to go out". The truth of the matter is that I managed to completely ignore my alarm and was woken up by Jess and Nicole saying "eerrr...Lorna...it's 7:30" which was met with a giant leap out of bed and sprint to the shower.... I hate those kinds of mornings!!

Yesterday was a good day! We spent the morning on "Knoxville Secret Service" and had the opportunity to split into two teams and travel round to 3 high schools each and pray on their grounds. It was a great opportunity to learn more about serving in unseen ways, with the likelihood of never seeing tangible outcomes to our prayers this side of eternity. What a challenge to think about what it means to serve secretly......

We then went downtown to the Volunteer Ministry Centre where three separate sub teams shopped for, prepared, and served lunch. In our team time yesterday evening, Jack shared how he had been particularly impacted by a guy who just invited him into conversation. It mattered little to him about the circumstances each found themselves in, or indeed what side of the planet they came from, it was just two guys enjoying conversation.

As we finished up serving the meal, one of the homeless guys cranked out some Tennessee songs, and some Beatles on his guitar before playing one of his own songs for us. The line that stood out to most was simply "being homeless isn't fun". It sounds like such a simple line yet to stand and listen to this guy pour out his heart as he sang, but also sing too of Jesus' love for him was really significant. Andreas commented yesterday on the gratefulness of those that we served and how they had so little yet were grateful for what we were offering. I guess we have a lot to learn about our expectations and supposed entitlements!

In the afternoon we headed into the mountains, and enjoyed playing in the river as well as clambering up a trail towards a waterfall. Many of the team; Harry, Nicole and Amber noticed how people's care for each other was very real and very valuable as we clambered about. God is definitely using this time to bind together 29 different people's hearts! It's beautiful.

The evening was spent at Camp Wesley Woods, with their camp evening meeting. It was fun to be in the forest, singing praise to the creator of the mountains, as we enjoyed being in them.

This morning we were supposed to be painting the fence at Camp Wesley Woods but it's pouring with rain. Rain and fence painting don't mix! Welcome to England in Knoxville! It's discouraging, but Damon and his team are making some phonecalls and we're praying that God would use our time this afternoon as an unexpected blessing somewhere to someone....we'll let you know!