Domestic Ministry

So we just finished training camp what is next? Domestic Ministry!!! Domestic Ministry is a week of manual ministry that we do in the states. We went to Black Mountain North Carolina for ours. About a year ago Black mountain had a terrible hurricane hit them and it left them deviated. So we were there to help rebuild.

So we head off to Black mountain! From base in Georgia it is about a three hour drive. I took a good nap and goofed off with my squadmates the whole bus ride. But when we arrived it was interesting. The base was made out of black army tents. One large one in the center full of pallets carrying things such as dry wall, flooring, and so… so much more. We entered through a gate on a gravel drive that led to a parking lot made of gravel. To the right of the entrance was where they had us go first. The Dining Tent!!! This was a good sized army tent full of tables and some games. We spent most of our free time in here. Behind that tent was the men’s sleeping tent. This was used for exactly what you would expect. We had some good quality bunkbeds and got some amazing sleep in here. Behind and to the side of the men’s sleeping tent were the bathrooms and showers and to the side of that was the women’s sleeping tent.

The first day was our sabbath we didn’t do anything this day. But day two we went off to the field. Me along with Nick, Cas, Seth, Isaac, and Eric went to a basement about 25 mins from base. This basement had been completely flooded. Because of that the dry wall and some of the carpet had all been ripped out and left in a pile in the basement. I am not exaggerating when I say this pile took up half of the fairly large basement. We were expected to work on this job all day. So of course we finished it in two and a half hours. It was not a fun two hours. The dry wall had been so destroyed that when it was moved a lot of it turned to dust. Making it somewhat hard to see and breathe. (We had masks) But we got the job done fast and well. Because we had so much time left we had to ask for another job in the basement. Remember how I said “most” of the carpet had been scraped up? Ya we had to finish it… we got our two small carpet scrapers and got to work. While it was nasty out moldy carpet, it was actually incredibly satisfying to scrape it up. But we again finished that in about two and a half hours. Leaving more time but instead of one big job we just did little jobs for the rest of the day.

Day three!

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Day four! I actually became very sick this day to the point where I had to stay back and rest. I SLEPT ALL DAY. Like I genuinely slept for 8 hours during the day.

Day five! I felt better this day. Praise God! We were at a different house again this day. But our job today was to go into a crawl space and take out all of the old trash insulation and clean out all of the trash. (It was really dirty down there) it had also rained the night before so the entire crawl space was a little muddy. But we go under and start working. Turns out I am a bit claustrophobic but I just moved on and kept working. About an hour or two in I am filling a trash bag with a pile of trash and insulation that one of my teammates made. When I come across the face of an angry looking VERY large rodent in the pile. At that moment I kind of excepted that I’m done for I am going to die before I even make it and week into ministry. I probably sat there in shock for about a minute until I grabbed a shovel and uncovered the rest of it. It was a mummified possum! WITH A BITE TAKEN OUT OF ITS SIDE. I of course grabbed a sled and passed it along to the rest of my teammates without telling them what it was. A few men screamed but it was all good in the end. After that we kept working till the end of the day just about finishing.

We spent the rest of time on base talking to the long term missionaries and cleaning the base for the one year anniversary of the hurricane. The base was holding a  time when everyone that was hurt my the hurricane could come together and tell there stories. Sadly we left before we could hear these.

I had a great time in Black mountain! I am so glad I got to help the in ways that I could. I will be praying for them and I hope you will too.