Anything Is Possible

At the moment a child is born, anything is possible. Children are born every day, all the time, everywhere. That's the thing, everyone is born in a different place. People ask, "Where were you born?" "Where did you grow up?" "Where were you raised?" and the answers are different for everyone. If you stop and think about it for a moment, think about where you live right now. Then, think about where you were born, where you grew up, and where you were raised and who raised you. Did you have any idea way back then that you would someday end up where you are now? Just think about how things could have been if you had been born in a different state, in a different neighborhood, or by different parents, or a different family altogether. I'm not asking anyone to go back and look at their life and get depressed and full of regrets, but just think about it for a second. When you pass a baby in a stroller think about this next time. How is the baby in the high-dollar stroller rolling through the Baby Gap store any different from the half-clothed baby being yelled at by the poor, tired, hungry mother? They're both babies right? They both have a mom and dad somewhere, right, or else they wouldn't be there. So, what's the difference? The difference is one was born into a wealthy family and one was born into a poor family. One will live in a rich neighborhood and never know what it's like to live on the other side of the tracks. One will never have to go without food, shelter, or clothing, and one will grow up listening to mommy and daddy fight about how they're going to make it through another month. One will receive a good education and be well-developed and successful, and one will have to develop street-smarts and have to fight to make it in the world.

I often think, "What if I would have been raised by the ocean, or by the beach? Would I have learned how to swim and not be so afraid of water?" "What if my family went camping all the time and on vacations? Would I not be so scared to travel and afraid of adventure and the outdoors, and heights?" Don't get me wrong, I don't look at my parents and say, "I hate you! Why didn't you teach me how to swim? Why didn't you ever take us anywhere?" I just wonder sometimes, that's all. I also wonder if the people who live "in the rich part of town" know what it's like to grow up where I did. How would I have acted or how would I have been had I grown up in a safe neighborhood where everybody jogs in the mornings and walks their dogs at night. Do places like that really exist?

I guess all I'm asking for is a little bit of understanding. For a little less picking on people. You don't know what it's like. Quit picking on the poor kid who wears the same clothes all the time and smells, and doesn't speak right. Quit picking on the rich prep who seems to have all the money in the world, but her parents are never home to talk to her 'cause they're too busy going golfing and to country club parties. Maybe you just don't understand. Maybe no one knows what it's like to be me, and maybe I don't know what it's like for anybody else. This one thing holds true for us all: Everyone is living to have a better day than the one they just had.

Mission Trip to Nashville

Hello my dear friends!

Justin and I returned from Nashville on Saturday evening at 8:15pm. We left early on Saturday morning about 7am. Let me tell you a little about our trip.

First of all, this is what we were doing. We went to Nashville on a mission trip with 7 youth and 4 adults including Justin and me. We packed a 15 passenger van with all 11 of us and our luggage. Basically, the back seat was taken out and used for luggage space and every other seat was filled. So, we were jammed in there. Justin was adamant about packing EVERYTHING in ONE van so we wouldn't have to take two and worry about traffic and getting separated and all that. That is great because that means I would have had to drive, and we really didn't want anyone to die, so it's great that we fit it all in. :)

We went to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN to work with a group called Vision Builders: Volunteers in Mission. They are a group of individuals who go from state to state building churches. They had a tour planned out and Vanderbilt was one of their stops to work on the Disciples Divinity House. Basically, it is like a residence hall for Disciples of Christ students on campus. It is basically like the Baptist Student Union (BCM) on a college campus except it is for the Disciples of Christ denomination. They have not touched the building since it was built, so we came in to totally renovate it and remodel it.

We left at 9am on Sunday morning, the 3rd. When Justin and I went for our honeymoon, it took about 11-12 hours to get there. With our entire group and all the stops including restrooms and meals, it took about 14 hours to get there and we got there around 10:45 or 11:00pm. We stayed at a Disciples of Christ church called Vine Street Christian Church. There were about 4 other groups there. There was a group from Indiana, a group from Tennessee, a group from Alabama, and a group from Kentucky. We slept on the floor of the fellowship hall. Justin and I and several others had air mattresses, so it was pretty comfortable.

We got up around 7:30 every morning and had breakfast at 8am. Then we would have a short devotional time and then receive our day's instructions from Carl. Carl Zerwick was the leader, coordinator, and head of the project. He laid out the different areas that needed to be done and I picked single unit apartments on the top floor. I was given 5 or 6 youth to work with and lead and we had a list of items that needed to be accomplished for each room. Every team in each area had an adult leader and a list of "chores" to accomplish in each area.

Our duties ranged from removing all furniture and carrying it down the hall, this included beds, frames, dressers, desks, and tables and chairs. Then we took the blinds and brackets down and I learned that it's a lot easier to take the blinds down if you've already pulled the string and raised them up. :) Then we sanded the air conditioning units and spray painted them with Rustoleum spray to prevent further rusting in the future. Whoa! Can we say, "GET OUT THE AIR MASKS!" I think I was high on that stuff all week! Then we tore off the black, plastic trim paneling around the bottom of the room. I never learned the fancy name for it, but I think you know what I'm talking about. We had to use pry bars and peel it all of and then use scrapers to get the excess sticky stuff and shavings off. Then we had to sand all the doors so they could regloss them. Then we had to take out any nails or mountings in the walls and re-spackle all the holes and fill them in. Then we washed the walls and windows and removed all excess tape with sandpaper. Then we taped the room, laid plastic down and prepared to paint! Then we painted, and what paint got on the floor or in the halls, we spent the rest of the time scrubbing and cleaning up with steel wool and soap and water. We had to do all of this in three separate rooms and we couldn't move on to the next room until we were finished with one room.

That is what I did, Justin on the other hand was a plumber. He took out and disassembled every toilet in the whole place. Well, I'm not sure how many he did, but his job was to take out the toilets and put new ones back in. He'd have to tell you more about what he did, but I do know that he did plumbing at the beginning of the week and towards the end, he hung cabinets above the kitchen areas.

There were so many different projects going on all the time and it was just like a huge construction site. The people on the second floor did demolition and had to wear hard hats. They had to tear down ceiling tiles and respray the ceilings and drill up wood frames. Others had to take out the light fixtures and install new ones. Others had to do bathroom sinks and shower fixtures and things. So, a LOT was done to this place and we did not get it all finished. Another group was coming in this week to finish up what we started. Justin and I are going to go back in November when we go to the National Youth Workers Convention and check out how it looks!

We worked from 8am-4pm Monday through Friday with a water/snack break in the morning and afternoon and lunch at 12:30, and at the end of our work day we took showers at the Green Hills YMCA in Nashville. Their YMCA was VERY nice and very accomodating as far as showers go and such. Then we went back for dinner around 6 or 6:30 every evening with a short devotional/worship time each evening afterwards.

On Monday night, we watched the fireworks from downtown Nashville. We didn't go all the way downtown because apparently there's a mob down there during the 4th of July and we wanted to stay safe so we watched them from a parking lot near downtown where a lot of people were. They shot them off at this place called The River across from the Colesium where the Tennessee Titans play. There was an orchestra and everything so it was a spectacular show! Diamond Rio and Charlie Daniels were in concert.

On Tuesday night, our group was in charge of worship. That was also the night that Justin and I got to catch up with our friends Matt and Alis. When we went on our honeymoon two years ago, Matt and Alis were getting married and we attended their wedding. Matt was in our wedding and he lead praise and worship before it. They took us to Starbucks near their home in Cool Springs and we looked at wedding photos and met some cool people. We got to meet some members of the bands Across the Sky and By the Tree. You guys might know who they are. Anyways, Matt gave us some cool CD's, some of which have yet to be released! So, it was fun to catch up with them!

Wednesday was the day that our group was scheduled to go out to Bethany Hills camp and work on some projects out there. It was about 45 minutes away from Nashville in a little town called Kingston Springs. It was a outdoors camp like Falls Creek and let me tell ya, there were bugs, spiders, snakes, deer, and poison ivy out there! I didn't see any snakes, but I saw plenty of the rest! So, that was the day we really "roughed it" I guess you could say. They moved an old wooden bridge that had sort of fallen next to this creek and they weren't using it any more, so the coordinator had to chain it up and haul it off with a tractor. We had to carry it part of the way and I was on one end with three girls. We lifted it, walked aways, and then sat it down. Then we did it again. The second time we did it, they sat the bridge down on my foot! I yelled, "It's on my foot! It's on my foot! It's on my foot!" then I yelled, "Get it up! Get it up! Get it up!" and they finally got it off. At first, I couldn't feel my toes and wasn't quite sure if I was going to be able to walk, but I did even though it was a little sore. I didn't break anything, it just got slightly bruised. Thank goodness I was wearing shoes and socks!

Friday was our free day and we took the day off to tour downtown Nashville and go back to Opryland. We walked downtown and then ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. We saw the CMT building which was the headquarters for the Country Music television station, which was right across the street from Ryman Auditorium, the original Grand Ole Opry house where Hank Williams played. Then we went back to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel where Justin and I went for our honeymoon and spent the afternoon at the mall. That evening we checked into our hotel at the Days Inn and went to a pizza place called Perfect Pizza. It was good. Then the girls went for a walk, got their room toiletpapered while they were away (I was in a separate room) and then everybody went swimming. Then the next day we left to come back home!
So, that is our trip in a nutshell. Be on the lookout on my Shutterfly site for pictures of the whole thing! :) Talk to you later! Love to you all!

In HIS Service~
Wendy Jones

Out

Farewell everyone! My husband and I are leaving this Sunday morning to go on a mission trip with our youth group. We are going to Tennessee. We'll be gone the 3rd-9th and I'll have lots to tell you when we get back! Pray for safe travel. Love to you all!