Finishing Well....

Wow, it is hard to believe it is September 18th already.  Sorry it has taken me so long to finish this post of our last two days in New Jersey.  We were busy and did not have much free time as we were completing work on the two homes, a final meeting on Thursday night and clean up for the new team on Friday.

My devotional was from Anne Graham Lotz book "Fixing My Eyes on Jesus", for August 1st.  The title is "All to Jesus".  Her scripture is from Malachi 3:10, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. 'Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'

What Anne asked later in her devotional is this, "What is it you have to offer? A little bit of your time? A little bit of your love? A little bit of your money? A little bit of your faith? Don't concentrate on what you don't have.  Concentrate on what you do have.  Give it all to Jesus.  He will make it enough.'

So many times when I have read this passage I have thought about the money aspect of the tithe but what a better interpretation Anne has given me. 

In coming to New Jersey, to serve with World Renew, our team and our families have been giving of what we can offer through our talents and our time.  We have been sharing our love with the families we are serving and by encouraging our team members.  We have been giving of our money and sharing a bit of our faith to those God has placed in our path.  We are not concentrating on what we don't have because we see as we serve the families we have been so blessed.  God has opened the floodgates for us. He has made it more than enough.

My prayer is that in the places that God sends you that you recognize how much He has opened the floodgates for you.  That He is blessing you each day...He has given you enough!

Lorna was an amazing helper.  She is helping to clean up our mess.  Remember I talked about finishing well and that the home needed to pass an inspection we thought was completed.  See the insulation hanging.  We had to open up the insulation so the building inspector could make sure the studs were in compliance.  All part of finishing well.

Paul, our team leader was such a great teacher.  He helped me learn how to take out and install this folding staircase.  We couldn't finish off the cutting of the last section because we did not know what type of flooring they were going to put down.  This set will be much safer than what was there before.

Part of finishing well is to clean up the mess we have made and with installing insulation I have found we can really make a mess. 

We were hoping that the dumpster would come before we were finished but it was not meant to be but at least we left the mess in one place, close to the door for the next team to put in the dumpster.

Securing the home so the air flow will go above the trays we put inside to the attack and so furry friends won't enter the house.

Lorna is sealing the T-111 with paint to keep the house dry and secure.

Jenn is securing more T-111 to give the house a final finish.

Installing the last piece of T-111 before we had to clean up and pack up our supplies.

Thanks to our fearless leader, Paul the three of us were caught in action while we were working.  Sorry you only got to see Paul working a few times during the two weeks.  He kept us so busy we didn't get many pictures of him.

Thanks for taking this journey to serve with World Renew Disaster Response Service with us.  Hope you can join me sometime????