Day 1 was a scorcher for the dry wallers

Hello everyone--greetings from Joplin!
We have had quite a day.  The Rebuild Joplin people gave us an orientation this morning. They described the destruction and it is hard to imagine what was lost in the tornado.  One person said that people walked around like zombies afterward and I imagine they did.  We are working on a small house that has been newly built.  Three years after the tornado there are still families waiting for a home--a place that is their own where friends and families can gather and where there is some sort of permanence.  The house we are building will be home for single woman who has been living in Oklahoma since the tornado.
We have been blessed with amazing people today.  A young woman spends the day with us as our site coordinator.  She is just 24, and will be off to grad school this fall to become a social worker.  She knows all about construction and today she taught us the fine art of mudding sheet rock.  Mud, sand, mud, sand, mud, sand.  A young man who is college senior joined us.  He will be working with us all week.  He is a man of few words, but works hard.  A man stopped at our work site today to say thank you.  His mother was killed in the tornado.  He likes to thank people for their help restoring his community. 
We begin and end our days reading the book of Philippians--an ancient letter from Paul.  (I encourage you all to read it with us--in spirit!)  And it is sort of funny, but it seems like Paul has actually writing to us.  In the first chapter he said he was filled with joy each time he remembers us.  As we talked about it last night, we remembered you--the people of the church we left behind and we were filled with joy.  The prayers you are praying for us are important to us. 
Tomorrow we will be back at it.  A day filled with sheet rock dust, friendship and grace.
Blessings to you--
Pastor Cindy