I’m having to miss a very rowdy game of Speed Uno because I’m writing this blog post, but I’ll sacrifice so you can know how hard we’re working :)

The weather’s been very warm and windy. It’s gone from the dead of winter to cheery spring in just a couple days. But it’s very blustery. The large tent at the Salvation Army center that feeds volunteer relief workers was suffering from the wind, so Seaton, Matt and Paul helped to put the tent in order. Meanwhile, Randy, Michelle, and Dean went to Connie’s to finish some painting and found that site-Mark (as opposed to construction-Mark) had assigned a group to help there. However, they also found that the shed several of us built back in May had withstood the winds that blew down tents a week ago.

The other team at Connie's wasn't an official ULM team. They'd signed up with another relief organization that had run out of things for them to do. So they came to ULM. We're impressed with how well-run ULM is and how they can find tasks for even non-ULM teams to do. Site-Mark says that this happens 4-5 times a month.

The rest of us were at Melvin’s finishing up popcorning the ceiling, putting in the tub surround, and installing flooring in the room addition. Paul is now known as Orville, since he’s the popcorn expert.

This evening Dean had us put on the armor of God on each other. As I was receiving the shield of faith it reminded me that I need to trust God that he has given me the role of team leader. I spent a lot of time making sure that people had things to do and were resourced and in the right places. My title is “pastor” which literally means shepherd, but I felt more like a sheep dog! Sometimes it seems like the sheep don't always go where I want, but it's the Good Shepherd who's giving the ultimate orders and it's my job to keep nudging people in the direction God wants them to go.

Cecily had an upset stomach at lunch. We laid hands on her and prayed for her, and Deb from Northern Michigan gave me some hyacinth-scented olive oil for anointing Cecily. She feels better now, but please pray that she’ll be well and can enjoy the day tomorrow.

Thanks for praying for Justin. He joined our group after dinner when we went back to Melvin’s to work on the tub surround and the room addition flooring. Dean Hu, Michelle and I all got a chance to talk with him about spiritually-related issues. He seems open and willing to discuss. Pray that he’ll find the Truth.

We’re looking forward to finishing the bathroom and room addition at Melvin’s tomorrow. It’s looking like it’ll be a trip on which we accomplished quite a bit for our fairly unskilled group.

With joy,

Steve and the M2M2 team