My Worthless Pebbles for His Amazing Grace: Ellerslie, Estes, and Denver: Part III

Estes Park: Days 1 & 2

Time to head out on a mission to Estes Park! Our team of fifteen people packed up the van and other vehicles, leaving Ellerslie very early. Since the flooding washed out all but one road into Estes Park, we had to drive south to Denver, then up into the mountains, looping back towards Windsor to Estes Park, taking a total of 3ish hours. Our adventure got started right away as the van (affectionately known as the Earl Gray) broke down right outside of Denver. We pulled off onto the side of the freeway exit, so the guys could diagnose the problem.

After quite some time under the hood, they decided the alternator wasn't working, so our battery was dead. Using Ryan's truck, we charged the battery enough to get off the freeway and into the parking lot of a breakfast diner. I know that our prayers played a HUGE part in the efforts of our team, the peaceful calm that prevaded the entire experience, and in to simple fix to the car trouble. Thank you, Jesus! :)

We stayed at The Red Rooster (the diner) to eat breakfast, which was delicious. Our waitress, Cindy, was a doll! She was very experienced waitress and used terms of endearment quite liberally in her speech. It was fun to watch her serve us! It felt like we were at grandma's house in a way.

It was a beautiful drive from there to Estes Park, since it was now light enough to see. The breathtaking mountains, trees, and rocks were such a reflection of God's majesty!

When we arrived in Estes we were immediately split into groups and put to work, after meeting the staff and ministry leaders at the Rocky Mountain church (where we based our work out of). Nelson, Gene, and Jesse were part of the Reach Global/Crisis Response ministry, and were simply a joy to work with. They were some of the most authentic Christian people I have ever met. It was an absolute blessing to have solid Christ-loving leaders through this experience.

I, along with five others of our team, were sent to a home belonging to an older couple, Larry and Jeannie. We were put to work clearing out their basement. The basement had flooded only about two inches, but the water climbed the drywall several feet and caused lots of mold in the corners, so everything had to come out. The difficulty was that this couple saved everything! So the rooms were full to the ceiling with stuff!

Getting rid of everything was difficult for Larry, I could tell, because of sentimental attachment, but I was so proud of him when Nelson sat him down and told him to simply direct us and let us do the work. It was such an a blessing to see Larry change through the day. When we arrived he was very downcast, negative, and overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done. By the end of the day, he was almost happy, joking, and very thankful. Seeing the work of the joy of Christ was amazing! Simply serving this man and his wife with joy and gladness made a huge difference in their attitude! The life of Christ is so completely life changing!

At the end of the day we met the rest of our team at the church for a debrief, and then went to find our cabin. When we were first told about the trip, we expected to 'rough it'. Meaning, tents, perhaps sleeping under the stars, or whatever kind of accommodations God provided. Well, turns out he provided this huge cabin for us! It was wonderful! It had a full kitchen, living room, three bathrooms, three bedrooms, pull out couches, a loft of twin sized beds, and a huge rock fireplace. The fireplace was beautiful and very fun to have. Everything in the cabin was perfect for a group our size, and an obvious blessing from God.

We had quite a good time making it our home for four days! And very quickly it felt like our home, and the people in the group our family. It was incredible to see how God brought each of us together and gave us that familial joy and fellowship.
Day two was spent at the same location as Day one. Only this time we added two more people to our team at Larry and Jeannie's. When we arrived at their house, Larry was already outside, with gloves on, throwing things away! He greeted us cheerfully, and looked far happier than the day before. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

   The gigantic dumpster we had filled the day before was still there, so we had to wait for the truck to come take it away and bring an empty one. While we waited, we asked Larry if there was anything we could do for him. His answer was, "Pray!" And so we did! We prayed, spoke words of Scripture and just encouraged him with the Good News. It was so amazing and he was open to all we were saying.
   Once the new dumpster arrived, we set to work filling it with carpet, foam, cardboard, etc. that had been pulled out of the basement previous to our work the day before, that was sitting on the front lawn. We also started emptying out the covered porch that was filled to the ceiling with junk. Out of that porch came 125 trash bags of aluminium pop cans, cat food cans, and foil. 125 bags! By the end of our time there we had filled three gigantic dumpsters with trash, junk, and stuff from their home.
   This whole process gave us an excellent opportunity to tell them about the parallel work of God in our lives, when God comes in and cleans the junk out of our hearts to make room for Himself. Right before we left their house, Larry just started tossing things into the dumpster! I think he got our point... :)

Jeannie was one of sweetest people, and just moved to tears by our service to them. She even told us that she had prayed her basement would be cleaned out. Now it is! Perhaps not quite in the manner she expected, but nonetheless, it is indeed clean. Meeting Larry and Jeannie and seeing the effect the joy and life of Christ in us had on them was one of my favourite parts of the whole trip. It was absolutely precious.
We even introduced Larry to the leap for joy! :) Also, one of the guys found a box of hats, and when we did a photo shoot of the guys on our team on the dumpster, they each wore one as a joke. Afterwards, they decided we should all get a hat and surprise the rest of our team at the end of the day with our cool hats. When we got back to the Rocky Mountain church, they were instantly noticed! This resulted in a quick photo shoot. :)

I learned so much in those two days. God opened my eyes to several parallels between situations around me, and the condition of my soul. He also taught me lessons in patience, diligence, keeping my eyes fixed upon Him, serving with joy, and living in expectation of God's goodness. The truth that each new day of our lives has the potential to be the best new day of our lives, simply because we have Jesus, causes such an expectancy in the life of a Christian! It truly makes life sweeter!