Lakeshore 2013, Day Two!

Tuesday appears to be another beautiful day with perfect weather, praise the Lord!  

(9.42am) edit: It is looking overcast and there's a possibility of rain this afternoon. Please pray that the Lord would give us good weather to continue with the foundation work. 

I'd have to say that Mondays at Lakeshore are no different from Mondays everywhere else. It was a day of making mistakes, figuring out how things work, determining who does what, and basically trying to find a routine and rhythm for the rest of the week. I would note, however, that unlike most Mondays in a typical workplace environment where people are recovering from their weekend partying and basically hating the day and counting down to another weekend, Monday here was filled with the joy of the Lord, enthusiasm for this project, and a passion for serving with fellow Christians in this mission.  As we have been reminded, the attitude that you have while working makes all the difference, and I can say that the rejoicing attitudes of those here made Monday a far more blessed start to the work week than I usually experience. 

For those of you unable to be here, I'm going to give a sort of recap of how our day goes (or is supposed to go!) at Lakeshore. 

Lights are on at 5.15am. For those of you who have been able to avoid this time of the day, let me inform you: it is early. Okay, honestly it isn't all that bad. Since we have no choice but to wake up (unless you are fortunate enough to be able to sleep through glaring lights) there is no point in contemplating the extreme inconvenience of it. And when I consider that the kitchen team is up at 4am to prepare breakfast, suddenly 5.15am seems doable. 

At 5.45 everyone meets at the church for 30 minutes of devotions and prayer. This is the start to our workday. It is not optional. We are here to work for the Lord, so how can we do that but to begin with contemplating Him, praising & petitioning Him, and focusing our hearts on him? 

From 6.15 to 7.15 we have breakfast which some (like yours truly) try to avoid, but so far it has been unsuccessful. I go into the dining hall to get some coffee, see all that delicious food and despite not being hungry and not being accustomed to breakfast, I succumb to the pressure and have a fantastic breakfast. So this is a great tribute to the breakfast crew as persuading me to eat at 6.30am is a difficult task. 

At 7.15 all the teams meet and make plans for the day. Well, at least that's what they are supposed to do according to the schedule. Since it is physically impossible for me to be everywhere at 7.15am (while heading to our media station to start my blogging), I don't really know what happens at 7.15am. I know that the construction crews definitely did start their work because the sound of the machinery and work is echoing through the entire camp.

At some point during the morning the ministry teams head out. All through yesterday I pondered why the ministry teams did not leave earlier. Being too stubborn (independent? cowardly?) to ask, it finally occurred to me that this was because it would not be very polite to show up on someone's doorstep at 7.30am wanting to talk about the Gospel. So these teams start their work at a more reasonable time!

Everyone works until 11.45 when we all meet for a delicious lunch. Those who are out at the off-site construction area have lunch delivered to them, so no one misses out! After lunch everyone continues to work until about 5pm where we gather again for dinner. 

At 6.45 we meet back at the church. There is a time of worship, devotions and prayer, and different team members recount what has happened during the day, with a focus on praising God for answering prayers and blessing the day. The ministry teams reported on some of their unexpected experiences yesterday as they encountered situations that were outside their preconceived plans and yet God used these things as a blessing and opportunity to witness. 

After the service the different teams meet if needed, and then the young people gather again at the church at 8pm. Sunday night I was too exhausted to attend, but as the blogger I felt I should experience this so I could report on it. We started off by singing some songs together and then split up into 4 groups, with some highschoolers and college/adults in each group. Pastor John from Clarksville led the meeting, and he had 2 different questions, so 2 groups had one question and the other 2 groups were assigned the other question. The point was that these are questions non-Christians frequently ask Christians, and each group had 15 minutes to discuss the question and come up with how we would respond. One of the questions was something like, "why am I supposed to believe the validity of the Bible when there are so many other world religions? Christianity seems so exclusive and intolerant." The other two groups got to answer that one...but my group had the question, "how can God allow tragedies to occur? Either He isn't good or He isn't sovereign." We had a fantastic time throwing this question around and coming up with a response. Being the writer I am, I had to start taking notes so that I could organize all the different points we came up with. And somehow, I guess since I had the notes, I was nominated as the spokesperson for our group, so at the end when each group was sharing the answers they had come up with, I gave the response for my group. Well, most of it, and then I allowed someone else to pontificate upon one of our points. 

We had strict instructions that the curfew time of 10pm was not an option. Most people were more than happy to crash by 10pm, but I sympathized with the night owls who weren't ready for sleep at 10, haha. This brings us back to 5.15am, which I already explained is an early time. Very early. So despite my alertness at 10pm, I realized it was a smart idea to try to get a decent amount of sleep, and I think everyone else came to that conclusion as well. 

Thus goes a "normal" day at Lakeshore. But as our motto (Semper Gumby) reminds us, it is important to stay flexible and be open to whatever God might give us, even if it doesn't fit into our schedule. :)