How to Tear Up A Floor

On the Road! Finally!! 

Myself and two fellow staff members crammed all of our work supplies, luggage and ourselves into one of our trusty LeaderTreks vans and pulled away from the office before the sun came up on February 16th. 15 hours and 6 states later we found ourselves in West Sayville, Long Island, New York.
The following 3 days were full of introductions, delicious New York meals, an NHL game, lots of laughter and of course - TRIP PREP. On Saturday we went to tour a couple of the houses that we would be working on for the week. One family, the Thomas', had plenty of work for us to do, including retiling their kitchen, hallway, bathroom, and upstairs landing - comparatively small spaces, but we knew it would be a project that lasted the whole week for several of our students.

So STEP ONE in putting down new sticky tile is to get rid of the old tile. Monday the students worked with all their hearts and hammers and chisels. The first layer of tile came up quite easily, but SURPRISE, there was another layer of tile and this one came up in two parts. Therefore the next three days my hardworking students endured many a splinter and sore knees as they scraped and pulled up what was stuck to the floor.

About the middle of Day 3 after checking on students in other parts of the work site I returned to the kitchen to find them singing this quaint little tune:

As exhausted and frustrated as they were at the task, they encouraged me with their silly song.

 What a great picture of how to keep spirits high and 

continue working with all your heart as working for the Lord (Col 3:23).

I pray that the Lord teaches students on future trips the importance of a joyful heart while working.

And hopefully He'll allow me to be around with a camera to catch their creative songs as well.

Check back later for pictures and video of the finished project.