Life Group Trip

               This past weekend, our Life Group took a short, eventful and very hilarious work trip to Gary, West Virginia. Gary is located at the bottom of the steepest mountain (or so it seems) in one of the poorest counties in the United States. We had several work projects lined up through an organization called School for Life. A few of our projects included, re-schingling a porch roof, gutting a bathroom, tearing off 2 porches, power washing the exterior of a house and repainting it. Now I'm a list maker, get'er done kind of person and get great satisfaction to cross things off the list when completed. Let me just say, God had other plans.
                Marv and I tore into a bathroom on Friday, tearing out a pedestal sink, a toilet that sat on bricks and a couple severed 2x4's, and a full tub/shower combo. Now let me paint you a picture, minus the putrid smell (which is forever etched in my senses). Marv, is by no means, a plumber by trade. He knows that hot is on the left, cold is on the right, and that everything else flows downhill. Water gushing out of a pipe means there's a problem. The floor in the bathroom gave the Alps a run of their money, hence the reason the commode sat on bricks. I should also say that we had to move these people's 'things' out of the bathroom before we could do our work. I am very funny about hair and products that are not mine or my family's. So I could have almost started gagging moving hair pieces, sanitary napkins, and everything else under the rainbow. (I still shudder)
                After removing the tub, sink and toilet, mostly in pieces, there were 4 layers of crusted on vinyl flooring we had tear out. Marv had given the last layer of vinyl a good yank and popped off the sink pipe at floor level. Insert Old Faithful here! We had to leave to grab a few more supplies. When we returned, I immediately smelled something when we climbed the stairs to get to the house. The grandma was home babysitting and decided to dump turpentine all over the floor and down the open pipes. (Who has turpentine laying around their house?!!!) My eyes burned and I had a cough already and this was just the icing on the cake. Moving on, as Marv was trying to cut apart the shower his foot went through part of the floor. The rest of our group joined us Saturday morning to help finish what we could. Our supposedly 1 day bathroom took us 2. Saturday it was raining and so the outside projects that didn't get accomplished, will wait until someone else arrives to get finished.
                It didn't matter that we didn't get the 5+ projects done. We gave a mom a safe floor so she can give her 4 year old son a bath without having to worry about falling through the floor. Also a  toilet that won't fall over spilling it's contents. My take away: Be happy with what you have. The Jones, Smiths, Millers, Yoders, Troyers, whoever will always seem to have bigger and better. The truth is, who cares!!! If you have a roof over your head that doesnt leak, food on the table that isn't moldy and clothes on your back that aren't dirty, then you, my friend, are BLESSED! What more does one want except happiness and contentment. I find myself very happy with everything the Lord has blessed Marv and I with. I hope you are too!