There's a saying, "it takes a village to raise a child." For anyone who grew up in a small town, they know this for a fact. There's the mom down the street who carpools on Wednesday in exchange for Thursdays, the family in town who babysits you and is paid in casseroles, and the weird neighbor you just learn to be nice to. As a kid you don't see these exchanges or realize how much the community loves you and watches out for you.
Today was a full workday for everyone with a small break for our group photo. (The sun was bright and so were the shirts so the picture could possibly be blinding!) There wasn't much discussion in the morning because everyone knew their assignments and wanted to get started.
The Rockstar Paparazzi (Karen, Karen and Tracey) rocked and rolled through a total of 16 buildings for the week! They only have a few residences left and then organizing the information for Vicky. These ladies put miles on their shoes this week trekking through campus, that's for sure!
Also burning shoe rubber was Kyle, the new Computer Installation King. Apparently his mission this week is learning the value of patience as he installed drivers and hunted down software that he hoped would work. You might want to add him to your prayers! :)
The Label Ladies (Carla and Claudia) had multiple duties from photography to helping set up the dorm for new guests (there's a couple from Indiana who drove a donated school bus all the way to McCurdy!), to eventually doing labels. With their new rubber thumb thingies (very technical name), and even less time, they still finished 3000 labels!
Office work was plentiful today as Barb and Sheila completed and mailed the donor letters and Sheila went back over to Vicky's office to continue organizing. Vicky won't know what to do when Sheila leaves! In the afternoon, Nancy and Kris started a new project of cleaning and organizing their millions of trophies. This will definitely not be done by Friday!
In between administrative tasks, organizing the groups, and figuring out shopping lists, Tom ended up being the gopher today. He made so many trips to WalMart and Lowe's that they actually know his name now!
The yard crew baked in the true New Mexican weather today. We were fortunate enough to have gorgeous, cooler than usual weather so far but it caught up to us today. Dan, Dale and Butch went back to work with mowing, weed whacking and edging while Judy, Nancy, Kris, Amy and Meg (with some help from Andy), trimmed bushes, raked and swept everything. The front of McCurdy is finally finished but there was no rest for the weary (or sweaty). With the first home football game on Saturday, they began to tackle (no pun intended) the football field and surrounding area. Apparently they are big into football here. Guess New Mexico isn't that different from Ohio after all! :)
The helper of the day, Andy, became Wheelbarrow Warrior as he and Meg made multiple trips to the dumpster with the wheelbarrow full of weeds and clippings. Unfortunately later in the day there was a slight miscommunication when we asked him if he could bring the yard crew some water. Someone (and we won't name names) said to bring back as many bottles as he could carry. (This sounds bad but he had the wheelbarrow at the time and we actually only asked for a few bottles.) Well he delivered and carried a case and a half of water! To top it off, the wheelbarrow broke and he had to bring it the rest of the way. He gets the gold star for the day!
Brenda and Lori were back to the kitchen bright and early this morning. Even after a little mishap and a few stitches, they still managed to get everyone fed and through the lines with smiles on their faces! And we're happy to report the Raisin Bran behaved today. :)
The bonus of the day was that the first grade teacher, Bernice, had all of us over for dinner. She started this tradition a few years ago and according to her it is her favorite night of the year. For some of us we were introduced to Frito Pie and those who were connoiseurs, showed us how to construct it. It was topped off with homemade chocolate chip cookies and ice cream sundaes. She shared with us the disappointment of having the school's windows broken over the summer and gave us the details of how the vandals burned her classroom. She was still in high spirits and you could feel how much she loves the students and what she does! It did not keep her down. Bernice and her family have become so much of RUMC's family, that we called her daughter, who just moved to college, to wish her a happy birthday (and she cried on the phone). We also sang happy birthday to Nancy tonight (even though she tried to keep it a secret)!
Bernice is just one example of the feeling of community and love at McCurdy. Lucy, the Cafeteria Queen, is 87 with heart problems and works everyday on her feet for hours. Sherry, who is the other cafeteria manager, helps Lucy with all the preparation, cooking, and clean up while also doing all the office work. Robert, the head of maintenance, is only part time and all the extra hours he works are on his own dime. We met a 4th grade teacher who talks to all the work groups while they're here and asks them where they came from. In her classroom she gets on Google Earth to show the students their location. They learn appreciation and geography while having fun!
They do this all for the students and always make a point to talk to us and make us feel welcome. Everyone does what they can to make McCurdy a welcoming, loving and educational place for everyone. You can visibly see it with the smiles on the kids' faces and know it with how polite and respectful they have been to us.
The devotion for today was based on Matt. 25:14-16, the parable on talents. God blesses all of us with talents of all ranges. Not all of us have Tiger Woods' swing or Mother Teresa's patience but maybe you can help at an after school sports program, teach Sunday School, or carpool with a single parent to help out. God wants you to use whatever it is, whether you think it is big or small, to help others in His name. It does indeed take a village to raise a child and if we all work together with our talents, in the end we'll hear God say "well done good and faithful servant."
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