Summer Recap

Summer is so much fun at St. Luke’s! You may have noticed we were not around much. We were off on our adventures through the world.

It started with Mt. TOP in central Tennessee where we helped the people of Grundy County with home repair, yard work, and gave the kids of the county a day camp for the week. We joined about 130 other people from around the country. After Mt. TOP we headed to Mexico for two weeks where St. Luke’s built three houses for families who lived in shacks. After Mexico we headed to the mountains of Virginia for a middle school conference at Massanetta Springs Conference Center. This was a great three days of fun, study, and service with about 200 other people from around the south east. After Massanetta Springs it was time for 5000 high school students to descend upon Purdue University for the Presbyterian Youth Triennium. Four St. Luke’s youth ventured into this Presbyterian celebration. They had a wonderful time and can’t wait to bring even more people in the next three years. Our own Meredith Loftis led a small group for the conference too.

Whew, who’s tired? We are, but it is a great tired. We had a blast. We could not have done it all without the great support from our adult advisors and drivers, St. Luke’s prayers and support, and funding from the Tartan Trot. Across all the trips, 51 youth and young adults traveled with ten adults around North America. Relationships with Christ and each other were made, deepened, and are now growing into lives of faith. For more information, pictures, and stories please visit www.slpres.org.

St. Luke's (plus one)

The tri-wizard-tournament

This place is AWESOME! This week we are learning the story of Esther. If you haven't read it lately, it's a story filled with intrigue, plot twists, character transition, heroic action, and clearly the work of God. The them: "For Such A Time As This" stems from the verses in chapter 4. God has put us here for this time to take action to make the world a better place.

We are having a great time. Everyone is safe and meeting lots of new friends from around the world. We'll see y'all tomorrow night. Late. Triennium really is a special place. We can't wait to tell you all about it!

Phil Brown

Dear 5000 of my closest friends

I'm sooooo excited to have finally made it to purdue. What an exciting place it is. Here's a picture of us at opening worship. Can you believe we waited outside worship just to get a good seat? It's really great here. I am having a blast in my small group too. This whole Esther person sounds pretty cool. I can't wait to talk more about her. Well gotta go. Talk to you later. Phil

Triennium

The Presbyterian youth triennium starts today. Our youth loaded a bus early this morning headed for purdue university. Where over 5000 high school students from around the world will gather to experience God in new and exciting ways. We'll keep you updated as we go along.

Also our own Meredith loftis and phil brown are serving as small group leaders this week.

Keep everyone in your prayers.

Grace, peace, and love,
Filepe

Running a bit behind

We've hit some traffic. Looks like we will be back sometime around 9:45 or so. Hopefully, not too much more. We will call when we are getting close. Happy travels.

Phil Brown

one more picture for ya

The St. Luke's crew after last night food frenzy, dressed in our always fashionable hair nets.

Peace Love and Netta!

we're a little over half way through our time in Virginia and everyone is having a great time! The sun is out, things are heating up, and smiles are gleaming.

Last night we packed food for an organization called "STOP Hunger Now!" In a little over 35 minutes we packed enough food for 66,000 meals. 11,000 bags of rice, protein, vitamins, and vegetables were packed, weighed, sealed, and packed to ship.

We have and great worship, encounter groups (small groups), fun outside, and back home devotions.

This afternoon we are getting geared up for some crazy "Hair Don'ts" and a giant slip n' slide.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
Phil

When I say "massa..."

you say "netta"

we are having a great time on our first two days at the Massanetta Spring's middle school conference in Virginia. The drive was easy and uneventful (the kind we like). our 11 girls are always excited and have jumped in with both feet. Tonight we packed 11,000 meals. (pictures to come). This is an amazing feat!

More thanks to Mary Guerrant and Kay Leorch. They have done a fantastic job. They have already gone well above and beyond the call of duty. We are blessed to have them along for the ride.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon. we don't have great internet access here, so it might not bee soon.

ta ta for now (TTFN)
Phil

una casa mas!!

Today was a day of great celebration. One more family in piedras negras has a house to sleep in tonight. They will not have to worry about the rain showers anymore, the freezing cold, or the theft of stuff. They have a durable and safe house in wich to live.

It doesn't seem that long ago that we were staring at a concrete pad with the outline of some walls on it. Now it is a house that quickly is becoming a home. During the dedication, the father, Jaime, read a note saying thank you to us all for our smiles, tirless work and love we showed him. He also added that if we are ever back in Piedras his new house is open to us.

More than just a house was built this week. Firendships were made, despite the languages, cultures, and economic differences between us. Deep connections happen when we help each other with simple things like putting a roof over our heads. As the rain poured down today (see picture), it was a not-so-subtle reinforcement of just how important this house is to this family. They now really do have a dry place to be.

Also, it was a great week to see some of St. Luke's own working in their elements. Alex Whictomb (daughter of Marty and Brad spent summers coming with St. Luke's to build and this week she told us how to build. She did a fantastic job! Everyone should be proud of her. Jon Martin, our other St. Luke's grown is the construction director for CPC. He also did a great job. It is really awesome to hear their stories of growing up doing mission work and how much it changed their lives. Watching them work reminds me of just how important the work the church does to help others is. This is why tartan trot is so crucial to supporting the mission goals of St. Luke's.

St. Luke's should be proud of all their youth. They put in a great week of work not ever complaining and always eager to serve. God was with us.

Tomorrow we will travel back to GA and try to readjust our lives, and will hold CPC and the family we worked with in our hearts forever.

adios,
filepe

"The roof, the roof, the roof is on...

...the house!"

This morning's adventure was to put the 240 pound roof panels on the house...by hand... in the sun... up cinder block steps...down the width of the house. And we did it. it took all of us, but the roof came into place with precision and no injuries. The roof was secured. The holes filled in with block pieces and concrete.

The mother/wife of the family said, with tears down her face, "Now I don't have to worry about my family being cold, or about the rain getting in our house." It's amazing how much a simple roof can mean to a family.

During our daily siesta, a deluge hit the city. The sky opened up and let the water flow. We were a little late getting back to the house. By the grace of God, the storms continued to go around us and we were able to SBC (see other post) the entire outside of the house. Tomorrow we have a little touch up and clean up around the house. We will dedicate the house as well.

A great week so far and we are looking to end strong.

thanks for all your prayers, please keep them coming.

filepe

Wednesday

Instructiones para uno 'bond beam'
"put your outer course on the seat then tie it to said seat so that your inner course will not touch the outer course. then you need to place the connecting rods together in your u-blocks, that you have set accordingly to your block line. be sure to pour the E-Wall first. into your u-blocks.

Safety notes: 1. block caps go on connecting block stacks to tie the two together. 2. buckets of mescla are really heavy, be sure to lift them high above your heads. 3. stay on the scaffolding. 4. Drink your quick fix!

alright everyone got it? understand completely? Let's start putting the most important part of the house together. Ready set go."

"ummmmm???????"---they said with blank stares.

Today was the day we poured a concrete beam around the entire house. This beam ties the whole house together and gives it the most structural integrity. its a long morning with lots of concrete buckets being poured.

This afternoon, we went to the market, where all our fine Mexican goods (including one large purple sombrero) were purchased. The ice cream was tasty too!

tomorrow we put the roof on the house and the last full day of construction.

Please keep the town of Piedras in your prayers. While the water is flowing again, they are mourning the loss of their mayor. He, along with some staff, were flying above the rio grande river surveying the flooding and the plane crashed killing all aboard. The mayor was a friend to CPC. Please keep especially the staff at CPC in your prayers.

We are all safe, have plenty of water, and all are healthy. We are thankful for it all.

¡hasta mañana

felipe y ben

Martes

Ah another day in paradise. Seriously, a cool 90-95 degree partly cloudy day in Piedras Negras.

It's a great week to be here, as are all of them, right? Today we continued to spread the SBC on our final courses of full blocks all the way around the house. Hmmm, the blocks seem heavier today.

While the blocks were setting and SBC was being frosted onto the walls, windows and doors were set into place. Each member of the building family helped secure the windows and doors, a nice touch.

It's really been a great two days of building. Lots of learning about the process from everyone. the "veterans" are great teachers of us all and then empowered us as we moved along. Everyone is working hard and continually asking how they can help! Pray for the energy to continue to flow.

Aside from the house we are building, Piedras Negras, because of some localized flooding has lost some of its water sources. The community will be fine, but today was a challenging day for some as they figured out how to get safe water to their homes. We are fine at the hotel and have plenty of water on the job site, but please pray for the people in community.

hasta mañana

filepe

Monday

"hey I thought it was supposed to be hot here? What give's?"
"well, this isn't normal."
"you see this hurricane came through a few weeks ago and now we still have a ton of rain coming through"
"oh, I thought we were in the desert."
"We are, there is still plenty of sand around."
"don't worry we'll bake ourselves a little bit more tomorrow. Now, put more sun screen on."

so, it rained today. yes it rained. but it was just enough to keep us cool and enough cloud cover to keep the scorching sun off our backs. After slinging a few blocks in the block line. We made it to the 8th course of blocks on the house and but SBC (surface bonding cement) all the way up.

everyone is doing a great job and the group is working very well together. Everyone is learning from everyone else and the job is getting done. Perhaps more awesome is working side by side with the family of 5 who will live in the house we are building.

all is well and keep the prayers coming.

We're here

We made it! we have all arrived safely and are ready for a great week in Piedras Negras. A little more humid today than normal, but still the same old good heat. Tonight we have orientations and get ready for our week. We are looking forward to some great food this evening. Piedras is as welcoming as ever. All the usual smiles and greeting hugs.

Mt. Top 2010

we had a great week at Mountain TOP, in the Cumberland mountains of Tennessee. Traveling outside of Monteagle in Grundy county, we sent 22 people to meet 130 others from all over the country for a week of service camp. Our youth and adults helped with day camp or did service projects around the county. We explored what it meant to have, bring, share, and experience God's hope in all of it.