I’m sitting in a dry office right now, but the storm is raging so hard outside it beats on all of our buildings and tents for attention. I hope we’ll be able to sleep tonight.

Thankfully, most of the day was dry. We finished Melvin’s room addition flooring and even did baseboard and trim around the door. My team finished so quickly, we came back to ULM and spent most of the afternoon organizing the supply tent and tool shed. The tool shed, especially, looks completely different.

The team led by Randy managed finish the tub surround in spite of several construction challenges. Another team led by Michelle went to an elderly woman’s house that we had painted earlier and put down sheet linoleum in her kitchen. That was also a major challenge, since none of us had worked with that material before. We had intended to finish by 5 so we could go to dinner by 6, but we didn’t get back till after 6. The rain waited until we were done, but not until we had returned the tools to their newly organized storage areas, so some of us got pretty wet putting stuff away. Ironically, I wanted to take a shower after a long day, but our showers have no roof. So I took a shower in the rain. Then we went to dinner.

We went to a restaurant that was a little closer than Aunt Jenny’s, site of last year's memorable celebration dinner. Homestead Restaurant was recommended by site-Mark for its buffet and price: $8.25 including tax and unlimited drinks! The down-home food included catfish, shrimp and chicken just like Aunt Jenny’s, but also included baked chicken, collard greens, and stuffed crab. To make up for the lack of fried green tomatoes and fried dill pickle chips, Homestead threw in lemonade pie and sweet tea. I think there was a salad bar…

We returned to share what we appreciated about each others’ words, actions and attitudes during the trip. It was a fun time of blessing each other… and then the Speed Uno started. It’s probably still going on, since the rain is so noisy and heavy it’s hard to think of leaving the dining tent and going to sleep.

We’re looking forward to returning to worship at St. Paul United Methodist. Eule dropped by one of the houses we were working on to invite us to worship and told us the men’s choir is singing. Should be some good music.

Pray for Traci. In May she was ULM personified to us. This time we’ve hardly seen her and when we do she's looking pretty frazzled. She’s had to hit the ground running hard after her Christmas break. And serving all of the teams that come through here must be wearing.

Pray for our safe return home tomorrow. The weather should subside by morning. Meanwhile, we’ll try to get some sleep… or just keep playing Speed Uno.

Steve and the M2M2 gang