TPP - Monday

Today was our first day at our worksite and our students poured their hearts out into the work that they were doing today.  The first thing that we did today was meet our homeowner Ms. Linda Thompson who lives with her sister who has cerebral palsy and her two sons Larry and Deshaun.   I will get to the different projects that we are working on this week but first I want to share one way that God has already been working on our students hearts.  On Sunday night Ray’s message to the students was about being right with God and before we can truly love ourselves and others we have to be right God.  It doesn’t matter if we put a mask on to make it look like everything is going good what matters in our life in what is happening inside.  When we pulled up to Ms. Linda’s house it looked great from the outside, there was some nice flours, mulch, and other plants but when you walked inside you saw how desperately Ms. Linda need the help from the Philadelphia Project.  Thankfully Ms. Linda was willing to humble herself and call out to the Project and ask for their assistance to help repair her home.  That is exactly what we have to do in our spiritual lives when we are not right with God.  God already knows when things are not right but we have to be willing to humble ourselves and call out for his help and that might mean talking with someone else to support us in the journey to restoration. It was such a God moment to see our students make this connection during our huddle time after being on the work site.

So what are we working on this week? 

Caleb and William trimmed an evergreen tree outside the front of the house.

I think at some point throughout the day everyone was outback helping to re-landscape the backyard but Joe was out back all day going hard doing whatever needed to be done; pulling weeds, digging up bricks, raking debris, spraying insects, you name it he was doing it alongside everyone else!

Inside the house Madalyn and Willow alongside the occasionally William when he was not helping Caleb were in charge of priming the ceiling in the living room.  They taped the room, covered everything with plastic, and painted the entire ceiling except for maybe a one square foot area where I got them started.  It was awesome to see them get so much work done.

Upstairs, Vincent, Andy  and Steven were scraping paint and sanding a wall like there was no tomorrow but thankfully there is a tomorrow because there is still more scraping and painting to do and then there will be plenty of painting for them to do as well.

I think that was all of the projects that we worked on today but there will be some new ones tomorrow.

Thanks for all prayers and please leave comments for the students I will pass them on to them!

The Philadelphia Project - Sunday Night

Tonight has been an incredible night and a great start to our mission trip!  When we arrived in the city we got our bags unpacked in the ridiculously cold sleeping room (what a glorious thing), and then set out on a prayer tour around parts of the city that we will be serving in this week and we ended the prayer tour at a beautiful overlook of the city in Fairmount Park.  This was a great way to get our students in the right mindset for week and I so thankful that at each of the stops our students were so willing to volunteer and pray out loud for the different parts of the city and the people living  in the city. 

One of the highlight of the week I believe is going to be club, what is club that is such a great question.  every night at 7:15 we gather in the Sanctuary for some games, worship, testimonies, and a message.  nothing like a bunch of middle school and high school students jumping up and down and praising Jesus!

I am so excited to see how God is going to be working in the lives of our students this week!  thank you for all of the prayers!

You may not know a couple of faces in these pictures that is because a couple of other students had to ride with us for the prayer tour for logistical reason.   

HS Mission Trip Day 5 - LOVE

This has been an incredible week!  Thank you all so much for your prayers and support while were serving this week.  I am thankful that God blessed us with his protection this week and that everyone made it through the week with only a couple of cuts and bruises.  Today we were actually able to finish all of the projects that we set out to do.  We put on a new metal roof, installed a new bedroom window, hung new drywall in the ceiling of the kitchen (a job we were not planning on doing), installed a new bedroom floor, replaced the skirting around the side and back of the house, but I truly believe the most important thing that we did this week was share our lives and the love of Jesus Christ with Ernie and Linda and they also shared their lives with us.  It brings me joy to see God working in the lives of our students and He was at work this entire week!  When our work day was coming to close today we had an emotional goodbye with Ernie and Linda, it was one of those moments that our students will hold close to their hearts for years to come.

I am excited to see what God has planned for our all of our students when we return home and continue to share God’s love with our families, friends, and even people that we have not even meet yet.  We have an incredible group of students at Grace and I know that God is going to be using them in some incredible ways over the next couple of years and I feel blessed to be a part of it all.

Here are some pictures of our last day.  Please be sure to ask everyone who came on the trip to share their experiences with you!

HS Mission Trip Day 4 - LOVE

Thanks for all the comments so far!  The students love to hear from you!

Where has this week gone?  I cannot believe that when I wake up in the morning (about 5 hours from now because I have to run to the grocery store and buy some more cereal before breakfast because all we have left is some raisin bran crunch and cheerios) it will be Friday and our last day working on Ernie and Linda’s home.  My prayer for us tonight is that God will give us the strength and stamina tomorrow to push through and keep our energy up to either finish our projects or leave them at a spot for the group coming in next week to pick up where we left off. 

I was very proud of our students today when Ernie and Linda told me that this was the nicest group of teenagers that they have ever met.  Ernie and Linda still can’t get over the idea that they would give up a week of the summer and work for free, but they are so thankful for the work that God is doing in their lives and that they were in fact willing to come and be in service this week.  When we were packing up for the day today Ernie and Linda made us promise that if we ever came back up to Camden that we would stop in and say hello.  It has been such a blessing to get to know Ernie and Linda so personally because that is not the experience we had two years ago when we were up here.

After working today we went back to the church and got our swim suits and supplies to go and have a cookout at Lake Oneida.  It was such a beautiful night and Mary took a great group picture for us but I forgot to have her put her pictures on my computer before she went to bed so you will have to wait until tomorrow to see more pictures, I know I am sooo sorry.  (all of the pictures that I have posted have been from Mary’s camera so be sure to thank her the next time that you see her)

Thank you all for your love and prayers, they have all been felt this week!

HS Mission Trip Day 3 - LOVE

Today was another great day up here in Camden.  Tonight’s post is probably going to be a little shorter because we are all exhausted form the work that we are putting in each day.  There are so many projects that need to get done and Ernie and Linda’s house that we didn’t end up leaving their house this evening until about 5:30.  During the extra time that we spent there nobody complained or asked once how come we haven’t left yet until I joked with them that since we work a little late that we weren’t going to be able to get back to the high school to shower.  Other days missing the shower might not have been a problem but since today we ended up tearing down two sections of the kitchen ceiling (something that was not on our to do list but then somebody’s foot went through the roof again… so what’s another project).  Ernie and Linda we actually thankful that it happened because that section of the roof so bad and had been leaking for so long that the sections of ceiling that we took out really needed to be replaced anyway. 

This week the students have been reading through the book of 1 John during their devotion time in the morning and then we have been discussing the passages of scripture at night before bed.  It is great to see everyone working so hard during the day, I enjoy cooking dinner with the students, I have laughed so hard countless of time, but I love the time that we get to spend in the evening and dive into the Scriptures and be in dialogue with the students about how God is working in their lives and what He might be asking them to do when we come home from this mission trip.  My prayer for these students is that they will come home with a new understanding of God’s love and how that love is going to transfer to how they are going to love other people. 

Before I log off and get some sleep I want to share with you a passage from 1 John that we talked about tonight and I ask that you would spend some and meditate on the passage and ask God how he might be asking you to show love towards others.


This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

1 John 3:19-24

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT!!

HS Mission Trip Day 2 - LOVE

Another great day at the work site today!  We were blessed to have no rain and that is very helpful when you are trying to put on a new roof.  As you will see from some of the pictures this roof is bad shape but hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow there will be a new roof on the entire house.  On Sunday night Curt and I had the opportunity to look through some projects that Cluster 13 has for the summer and since this is the first week they are in operation this summer none of the projects had been started.  As we were looking through them Ernie and Linda’s house was not on the top of our list for a couple of reasons but on Monday morning when Tom (the head construction guy for Cluster 13) showed up he told us that he thought that we should take a look at this house and so here we are.  There are a number of projects that need to be done on this house but one of the best things that has happened is that our students have had the opportunity to get to know Ernie and Linda and engage in some meaningful conversation with them and that is what this week is all about and I am so thankful that God had this all planned out for us before we even got to Camden and God didn’t let Curt and I mess up his plans as we were looking through the list of projects; GOD IS GOOD!

I know that we will come home with more stories about Ernie and Linda but the some of the students wanted to share some of their experiences with you so that you could get to know them as well.

We often presume that those who are less fortunate are not as content or jovial; nevertheless, this is simply not true. Ernie and Linda DelaRoche exemplify generosity, kindness, and love, and it is a pleasure to dedicate our work to their wellbeing.  It is even harder to imagine that they will have to choose between medical care, food, and heating- items that the more fortunate often take for granted.    To persevere through these hardships is truly valiant, and we are grateful to be serving such people in God’s name. 

Ernie and Linda are always happy to hold a conversation with anyone willing. Today, I talked with Linda and we ended up discussing our previous night’s sleep. We both had good nights of sleep; however, the more enjoyable part was seeing how happy she was to hold a discussion on a matter as simple as sleep. Later in the day, Ernie asked my permission to climb the ladder and watch the action taking place on the roof. He told me how he is probably too old and is afraid of heights, but he was itching to watch and help in any way possible.

Through working at Ernie and Linda’s house today I realized that people who don’t have a lot are often very generous. Linda is so grateful for us fixing her house and she wants to give something in return but the only she can offer up is coffee. Even though that was all, we saw how much she cared and it meant a lot that all the hard work we were doing for them was appreciated and recognized. A little act of kindness goes a long way. Ernie always wanted to help, for instance when we needed nails he immediately went and found just the right ones. Ernie and Linda both show their thanks and it makes the work much easier to do. 

Please leave comments because i will pass your messages on to the students!

HS Mission Trip Day 1 - LOVE

Hello Everyone!  Sorry that it took us longer then we had planned to get our first post up, but we got up to Camden safely had a first great day!  Some of students wanted to share their thoughts with you about the first day.  The best news that we got today (Monday) is that we are all going to be able to be at the same house because there are so many projects that need to be completed this week!  Put that also means the home owners Ernie and Linda could really use all of prayers not just for the condition of their home but their health and other life challenges they are facing.  It has been a blessing to have the opportunity to be in conversation with them and we believe they are excited to have us there to talk with them and all of the construction that we are going to get completed is going to be a bonus!  Thank you for all of your prayers and support.  I will now pass it on to the students.

*Disclaimer -  Despite what you are about to read no students were harmed in the making of our first work day! 

Today was an interesting day in the life of the Camden Mission trip. Through rain, abrasions, lacerations, and a few contusions, we showed the kind of grit and determination that scrappy gym rats could provide to perform this kind of manual labor. The roof was an interesting task: legs dangling through the ceiling, blood spewing from the knuckles of one the greatest crew members ever associated with Grace Presbyterian (no stiches need just a small Band-Aid and Neosporin ), and nails flinging through the air in a beautiful and sweaty motion. But it wasn’t this intense all day. After a grueling wake-up song, arky-arky, a.k.a Rise and Shine, sung by Curt, we hit the streets en route to the work site. We met the five cute kittens, along with Scout and the other dog. We got to work knocking down a wall inside, stripping the skirting off the side of the house, and pulling nails and tin roofing off of the roof. It all seemed to be going smoothly. But then, disaster struck. Aidan, in his first trip to the roof, was elated! He even got out a nail in his first try! Excitement quickly turned into tears (from laughter) as his leg fell through the roof like a thin sheet of ice. But Aidan chalked the abrasion, patching up and getting right back to work. And then the next thing you know, it’s raining cats and dogs. We took a break to play ninja in the rain, and eventually got back to work. And then the next thing you know blood is spewing left and right. We had to cut new tin roofing which left some sharp edges resulting in deep lacerations to the thumb for Calvin and to the hand for Liam, adding two more to the injured reserve – but they are now day-to-day game-time decisions for the rest of the week.

-Liam “the laceration” Mulvaney

Enter Calvin, Ned, Mary, Aidan and Curt.

The day was warm as the sunshine flooded through the tall green trees. All the others were on the roof or on the single wide interior.

What shall we do Curt the siding has been removed but the foul insulation material still remains? exclaimed Mary

Now that thou hast excavated the siding thou must banish the insulation material to the black bag of the void this is the wisdom I bestow onto thee answered Curt.

Ah, thou hast shown us the light

Exit Curt.

Then me and Ned and Aidan and Mary tore out the siding and the insulation and it was gross. Then we helped with other stuff. Ned and Aidan did most of it.

We then had pulled pork for dinner and played ladder ball and Frisbee games or whatever and climbed a tree yeah. So now were writing this blog.

-Calvin Stonecarver