A Mountain, a Mission, and a Toad.
Today our Mission covered a variety of tasks and events on top of this beautiful mountain. The day started with options for a typical Italian “breakfast” of warm cream with a shot of coffee in it, not everyone opted up for this. Thankfully, for some of us meat-eating Canadian’s, Raney brought out some bread, cheese, and meat. No one chose to test out the Italian practice of putting Nutella on bread and dipping in their coffee.
After breakfast the troops were rallied outside for a tailgate meeting to learn of our plan and mission for the day. As the meeting began, we were blessed with beautiful weather. We were all smiles and jokes as Gary presented the plan in his soft-spoken tone with plenty of positivity and humor mixed in. After confirmation that I was on the inside team for the day, I was even more thankful as only minutes later the skies opened up and all the prayers for rain this year were fulfilled throughout the rest of the day. The poor outside team were wallowing in the mud, rain jackets and garbage bag attire. But there were still plenty of smiles as they removed bricks and stones that were once used in historic Castles. These historic blocks will be used later on in the renovation. The outside teams didn’t physically move mountains but they did move thousands a pounds of stones in difficult conditions.
While leaving no stone unturned, there was another small humanitarian act accomplished. A rather large toad was safely relocated to a new home after being discovered under one rock. The princess says she did not kiss the toad. However, with the rain in the picture, it is hard to confirm.
Indoor work crews did not have the weather challenges that the outdoor crew did. But they did learn that installing concrete plaster on a ceiling is not as easy as one would think (okay no one thought it would be easy and turns out we were absolutely correct – it’s extremely difficult).
The one thing, that was confirmed beyond all certainty, is Gary and Raney’s commitment to their mission. They are both truly amazing people. The youth, that are currently serving alongside us, have demonstrated with their Christlike behavior with all of us. They are what this all about. And it’s simply inspirational.
Tom Braun – The dryest guy of the day!
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