FW: Mission Trip Update - Wednesday evening 3/16
Charlotte Lees
Charlotte Lees
Parish Administrator
Saint Joseph's Episcopal Church
3300A S Seacrest Blvd.
Boynton Beach, FL 33435
From: Father Marty
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011
5:49 PM
To: Charlotte Lees
Subject: Mission
Trip Update - Wednesday evening 3/16
We have been SO blessed to have Amy Dorvick, Albino Betancourt, and Stephen Henry as a part of our team. Their parishes and their families should be so proud. Today, Amy & Albino wanted to get a taste of the concrete work, so they jumped right in up to their boots and started helping with the concrete. Stephen has been an incredible steady, calming, and spiritual presence throughout. The concrete team completed 24 more feet, which leaves a 31-foot section that we should complete tomorrow with 2 more concrete trucks.
(What has made a huge positive impact for the rapidity of our progress is the fact that the concrete truck has been able to back into the area for a direct pour of concrete into the forms. Had we not been able to do this, the job would have taken a lot more time and energy to haul wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the concrete truck, we have worked from both ends towards the middle, with the concrete truck positioned in-between. Tomorrow's last pour of concrete will be done with the truck filling in that last section from the far side.)
Fr. Guelmy took the group on the tour of his new school wing at San Gabriel, which specializes in a 9th grade curriculum. There is a shortage of space for enrollment in this geographical area for this grade level, so the church has started it as an outreach. The teens receive a technical specialty so that they will be able to get a job while they attend university in the future. There is a lot of enthusiasm in those classrooms (and a lot of noise). The students were shy at first, but then wanted to ask questions about where we were from and what we liked to do, etc...
The nursing/DOK team arrived home more excited than ever. "Miracles happened today," they said. They worked hand-in-hand with the newly formed DOK chapter at St. Joseph, and the team is doing a train-the-trainer which them to continue a ministry to the residents of the home. The team remarked how the non-responsive residents have opened up tremendously in a short three days, and the local DOK members have been genuinely excited about their participation in this ministry.
We will have stories to share a dinnner and reflection tonight, and we will reveal our secret prayer partners that we picked out randomly this morning.
Thanks to all for your continued support in prayer. We feel it.