Today a group of 6 will be heading off to Central Asia. We’re five guys and a girl getting ready to do some tiling work for a transition home for special needs orphans. I’ve packed my knee pads, work gloves, back strap, sponges and some other tools. Do I know how to tile? Well absolutely not, but I hope to learn since I’m traveling with 5 guys who have experience tiling.
We have a very long lay over in Moscow…which will be interesting i’m sure.
East Harlem Fellowship, a ministry of Times Square Church was in need of some remodeling due to their growing number of attendees. Pastor Hector who pastors this church asked BrickThink volunteers if we could come help reorganize their small space. So we went to check it out and thought “wow this would make a great free missions trip”. Key word being “free” so anyone who ever wanted to go on a BrickThink trip but can’t cause of the cost could go on this trip. All you need is a metrocard and a set of hands ready to work.
So that’s how it started!
Yesterday completed day 3 and the focus has been demo and clean up. It’s amazing how much fun it can actually be when you rip things apart. We ended up having so much fun that we took apart a wall that wasn’t suppose to come down and had to build it up again. We’ve been cleaning overhead pipes and the walls of the entire space. Once that’s done we’ll paint the walls and ceiling with primer. Some of us have been patching up holes in the main sanctuary area and getting that ready for primer and paint.
Andrew and David our two professionals are concentrating on the back wall of the building because…well it requires a lot of work!
We’ll post pictures up soon, so come along with us and let’s see how it turns out.
This past sunday (May 18th) one of the BrickThink team members, Reni, had the opportunity to share his thoughts on our trip with the congregation here at Times Square Church. Here’s a short video of his trip testimony:
Reni shares his BrickThink experience with the congregation at Times Square Church from the Texas 2010 trip.
Just wanted to do a quick ‘from-the-office’ update for you guys! We’re back from both Mexico and Texas and I’m putting together the Trip Reports (blogs to come soon!) and editing through all of the photos and the footage from the trips. At the moment I’m working on the Mexico stuff and loving it! Here’s a quick sneak peek of what TSC’s been up to and what’s to come…stay tuned for more updates and more trips!
Today was a great day here in Texas. We started the day off with a few hours of work here helping prepare the new church site for Easter Sunday by moving all of the chairs over from the old church and setting them up. After working all day yesterday and getting the chairs in today the room has transformed from a wood shop to a beautiful sanctuary and we couldn’t be more excited to worship there tomorrow with them for the first time.
After finishing up work here we got the grand tour of Galveston. We were able to visit a Texas Long Horn ranch and see some amazing long horns up close. After that they took us out for a true Texas Barbecue lunch and then we headed to the island. We got to see some of the areas that previous Times Square Church teams have worked in and even got a guided tour showing us where the damage was from the hurricanes.
While in Galveston we took a little while to visit the ocean and then headed back to the Rodeo site to help prepare for the sunrise service tomorrow. One of our team members will be sharing his testimony tomorrow morning at the service and we’re so exited! After some quick set up we were back to the camp and everyone is headed to bed in preparation for our early early rise tomorrow (me included!). So on that note…thanks for checking in on us, enjoy the photos and know that God is moving in amazing ways here in Texas! Hope you all have a blessed Easter and remember what it’s all about!
Our 4th day here in Texas doing relief work for our Times Square Church BrickThink trip
Song: “Come to Jesus” by Steve Grace
Today was our second day of construction here in Texas and it was an eventful one. Yesterday, as you may have heard in the video, we finished about 3 houses (minus the beds!). Today we picked up where we left off and ended up finishing a total of 6 complete houses plus several parts for other ones to come. It was a busy day, full of hammering, sawing and carrying heavy walls around, and in the end we were so excited to see Tom (our instructor at the construction site) lift the finished walls with the forklift and stack them together to be shipped to Haiti!
We ended our day by praying over the houses before they’re sent to become homes for many people in Haiti. It was so great to be a part of helping in the relief efforts from here in Galveston Texas.
Tomorrow we’ll be here at the camp where we’re staying helping to move the church into their new home and prepare for their first service on Easter Sunday! Stay tuned for more updates soon and thanks for checking in on us!
