greetings from the jersey shore! our group of 14 from catawissa avenue umc in sunbury drove out here to toms river, nj yesterday, and were warmly welcomed by a wonderful group of methodists here. it is a particularly poignant pleasure for me and shannon, since this is a church where we served for 8 years, and the very first church i served out of college. i was the youth pastor and director of christian ed here, and then an assistant pastor, and then an associate pastor! it's been 8 years since i've been here (other than a 30 minute stop last year), and it is a real blessing to catch up with some dear friends and see how God has been at work in this place. i know our whole group surely appreciates all the hospitality they have afforded us. we are blessed!
today we began work, after a bit of a frustrating delay, on a man's home in little egg harbor township. we are working in a downstairs room where he had about 5 feet of water come into his home during superstorm sandy, 20 months ago. the damage in this part of new jersey is still quite evident, and there is much work to do! we are trying to do our part by helping out with this man's home. we are doing some drywall work, some floor tile, and other jobs as necessary. we had a productive afternoon of work, as you can tell by a few pictures below.
after work we got some quick showers, and headed out to seaside heights for a walk on the boardwalk, and our contribution to the local economy in the form of a good dinner and dessert!
it's a been a full first day, and many of us are pretty tired as we prepare for another productive day tomorrow. thanks for checking in, and check back in tomorrow for more pictures and news from our trip, and please remember to continue to pray for us.
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