Service Trip Day 2: Blue vs. Orange

My service started today with the dividing of teams... Girls were blue and Boys were orange. You might be asking why these colors or why did we have to divide so quickly into a service trip designed to bring unity to the group. Truth is at Fredonia First United Methodist Church where we are living for the week, the youth room is now painted blue and orange. Since all three girls were wearing blue (and painting the teal) and the boys were wearing warm colors (painting the orange), we applied our warpaint and attacked. Most of the paint ended up on the walls although some remained on our clothing and bodies as reminders of the job we had done. That was the first 1.5 hours of the day. A later peek at the room showed that the gray trim was almost all finished and a second coat of paint was on. Job almost done! The rest of the groups were divided between other service locations: cleaning pews, folding clothes, and visiting with the elderly. They braved the storm to get to their location and we've been thankful to have had safety in the 10ºF weather (with windchill as well). After a day of service, sloppy joes for lunch, and some free time designed for shower/internet/etc, we returned to the church for the evening. Dinner was provided by Christ Community Church and this story came from a student: "Life outside of IV collided with IV in the grandest of fashion today. As I walked into the kitchen for dinner tonight, I took a bit of a double take when I saw the familiar face of an usher who I house manage back at school. My mind practically exploded when I realized that it was her! We were both shocked to see each other here, so, of course, we began catching up only to find that we know a lot of the same people and our paths have crossed many times in the past. This reinforces how God uses people in unfathomable ways to connect us all (as the body of Christ)." Dinner and conversations was replaced by the nightly worship time. Afterward, I got to introduce the Urbana Onward series of testimonies by everyone who attended Urbana. Each of us is sharing how God moved in us at Urbana and practical ways to apply that to our lives. After sharing some ways we can impact the campus this semester, our main speaker began to share what she's learned through life recently and the impact of Urbana on her life. While there were many places that we could relate to her story, we ended the time writing a letter to God, following the ACTS prayer guideline: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. It can help refocus our prayer life into remembering how wonderful God is instead of just bringing him a list of our requests. Finally, before I head off for less than seven hours of sleep, I was again reminded of the joys of staying at a church as a group. The ability to wander around and quickly start a conversation with someone else, learning about them, and having a meaningful conversation larks around every corner. The sounds of graceful music come down from upstairs, even though it's after quiet hours and half of the group is asleep. It's time to prepare ourselves through sleep for what God has planned for us tomorrow.