Sunday, April 18, 2010

Service Project: What a blessing!!!

I am VERY blessed to be a part of a women's Bible study on Thursday mornings at a Presbyterian church plant in the Garden District of New Orleans. These women have supported me, loved on me, and been such sources of encouragement. I am so grateful that the Lord has allowed me to be be a part of this group.

This past Thursday we took a break from our normal Bible study time and did a service project. Because the church is a church plant, they do not own their own building. Their church offices are not in the building where they meet for worship. The church offices are on Magazine street in Uptown which is not even 3 miles from the building where they meet for worship. The church offices are in an older home which has been changed into office space. The back yard of this home was our assigned project. We had been told that we would be planting some flowers and cleaning up some beds. When we got there, this is what we found.
We could not see that there were actually 2 built up garden spots and one circular flower bed under this over grown mess. To be honest I felt a little overwhelmed and was not sure how much we were going to be able to do to help. But we got started pulling weeds. It was a beautiful day. It was not hot at all, but the sun was shining and we talked and laughed through several hours of work.
After 3 hours, weeds had been cleared; flowers, herbs, and a few veggies had been bought and planted; bricks had been laid around the circular flower bed; and a compost pile had been sectioned off and started. This was the end result.
We had that wonderful feeling of actually accomplishing something on this day. I was exhausted, but it was a good exhausted. Working outside in the beauty that God created for us to enjoy and maintain was such a blessing for me. I have to say that 3 hours away from being a mommy was a nice break too. :-)