Leawood UMC Mission Trip 2017: The Lesson of the Bucket

We start off with Molly and John making and serving us eggs, yogurt, and cereal along with drinks. We make our lunch and then we head off to the church to paint. We painted a whitish color to paint over a dark brown. The pastor wanted the walls to look invited rather than dark colors. We start to paint the walls while Howard comes up with a new invention where he connects a stick to a brush to get high corners that the roller can't get. He wants to sell it for money for "modern technology". Our job was to paint 2 floors in white paint with high walls which took longer than expected. We finished about half and decide to take a lunch break, (which lasted about 45 minutes, got too involved in conversations). When we head back to work I (Connor) head to the paint bucket for more paint when I decide to dunk the paint bucket in the paint instead of pouring it. Well, it didn't go as well as I though it would. It was to messy so it becomes "The Bucket Dunker". After I told everyone we all call it "The Lesson of the Bucket" (title).We finish painting around 3:00 but didn't leave till 4:00 because of cleaning up. We head home and shower so we can have an early dinner. But the time that Molly and John took to shower, we had dinner at normal time. We all were starving so we finish dinner in under 30 minutes. We then have free time where Connor and Howard play competitive foosball. Connor lost again right as we begin Devotion, which Kate and Linda lead. As we finish devotion, it then comes to the gaming time till bed time. Connor beats Molly, Kate, and Barb in cards while Connor and Molly get mad 2 times after Howard and Kate beat them at foosball. We then go to bed early since we leave early for gleaning tomorrow morning. That is a wrap for a the "gang" for today.
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And now...finally...as we prepare for bed...after much "waiting" for the computer to do its 'updating' (sigh...) and a certain young man to complete his blog with pictures...don't want to mention any names... I get to add my brief thoughts...

So why does a pastor go on these crazy mission trips, anyway? "Isn't it a lot of work?" Well...yeah, but it's a lot more than that. It's fun getting to know one another through work, play, eating, singing, praying, playing, worshiping, riding, talking and just being with one another as community.
We've talked about many things, singing about any tune that comes to our head while working, and zeroing in on scripture and thoughts during our devotion time.

As physically tired as we all feel by the end of the day, the spiritual energy flowing through us is amazing. Each of us brings a special gift as a beloved child of God. It's a great reminder! Next time, maybe your gift could be part of this experience!! Think about it!