Some of us woke up today quite sore from all the work yesterday. Nevertheless, we met for breakfast again at 7:30am along with all the men in the Teen Challenge program. After cleaning up and having devotions, we were back to work on the rooftop.
We first checked the bee hive, to see if we could actually finish getting rid of the old tiles. It soon became very evident that the bees meant business, and were not leaving without a fight. We again called for the exterminator, and waited for him to come back before we proceeded working around the hive.
After all of the tiles were removed from the roof, our next step was to remove the old tar paper and chicken wire which was stapled and nailed into the rafters across the entire roof. This was very tedious, and made walking across the rafters very difficult. By the end of the day we had cleared all of the wire and tar paper.
Day 3 brought on our first full day of work. After having breakfast and devotions with the team and the members of the Teen Challenge program, we split up into groups and got moving. Some people setup with a pressure washer and began cleaning the outside walls of the buildings on the property, while others began ripping off the existing roof the the building.
We soon had a chain of volunteers, stretching from the rooftop all the way down to a wagon full of rubbish. As each clay roof tile was removed, it was passed (and yes sometimes thrown) to the next person in line. We did our best to keep the old tiles in-tact so that they could be used for crafts, and possibly resold to raise money for the program. By the end of the day, we had about 3/4 of the roof cleared! We ended up having to leave the last bit of tiles because we found a huge bee hive underneath them. We called for an exterminator, and he came out and sprayed the hive. Hopefullyl tomorrow we’ll be able to remove it without any problems…
Our second day in the Netherlands brought on a quick morning breakfast, and then a trip to the local church for Sunday morning service. We were warmly greeted by the congregation, and we got to hear an awesome word delivered by the church’s pastor.
After returning back to the Teen Challenge center we had lunch, prepared by Stephan himself! Afterwards, we decided to get right to work, and began installing the scaffolding which would be needed to gain access to the roof that we would be replacing. As the afternoon grew later, and the scaffolding was completed, a volleyball game was started out in one of the fields on the property. Soon, all of the team members were playing along with the men in the TC program. We played on for a few hours…in the midst of the ongoing rain and cloudy skies. By the end of the night, we were all soaked, but had an awesome experience spending time with group.
Day 1 kicked off with the team leaving NYC late Friday night, excited to get to work at Teen Challenge Netherlands. We arrived Saturday morning in Amsterdam, where we met Stephan Barendse, the director of the Teen Challenge center. We made a quick stop at his father’s church, “Keerpunt”, where a BrickThink team had worked in 2008. While there, we had the chance to see the work that the team had completed, and also hear about the amazing things that God is doing in and through the Church in Amsterdam. After we left Keerpunt, we took a quick drive through Amsterdam, and we were on our way to Teen Challenge Netherlands, located in a town named Veelerveen.
Upon arriving, we were greeted with open arms by the men in the Teen Challenge program. We had dinner with the group, then had a chance to see the grounds of the Center and take our first glimpse of the work in front of us…which involved ripping an entire clay roof, repairing the framing, then reinstalling a brand new roof!
