Thursday did turn out to be lightly raining during much of the morning, so (after breakfast) I joined up with Jim’s and Craig’s groups, and we headed over to The Front Porch again, to do more demolition work and to help with cleanup inside the building. That put us at a pretty impressive 21 people to work around the building.

I was joined up with three students and given the task of removing a very large bar from the main room where the church meets. Since this bar was behind another bar, it was unlikely or impossible that we would be able to just carry it out past or over the front bar. Also, to get it outside, we would have to got down a narrow corridor and make a corner. Since no one wanted to save the bar (we were just sending it to the dump), I decided the best way to get rid of it was to cut it in half. Enter the magic of the sawzall. Since the bar was made of wood, we tipped the bar up and cut it right in half. That was very satisfying. We then carted out the two halves, and set them next to the (now very full) dumpster. Nate was on his way with his one-ton dump truck, and he was to haul off a lot of construction debris using it.

While I was doing that, other students were cleaning the church room, because the church was having a wedding there on Saturday. Other students worked on the cabinets that were still hanging in the kitchen (and took hours to get down), and still others started to dismantle a very large bar from a back room next to the kitchen. It was quite a busy little place on Thursday!

We broke for lunch, and Rachel had brought along the remaining chicken enchiladas, which were still yummy. With a group that large, we had a lively time eating and chatting during lunch. Once lunch was over, Craig took his group back to CVCA to wash windows, and Jim’s group, Rachel, Nate, and I stayed to keep cleaning.

I spent much of the afternoon mopping the back rooms. There is no telling how long it had been since the floors back there were last mopped, and the water was often brown after mopping just a few feet. In fact, we had to mop the back room five times to get it to come out pretty clean; they were going to use the back room for children during the wedding, so it had to be fairly clean. In the meantime, students kept at it in tearing out the cabinets and the bar, and they washed down the walls in the back room as well. By the end of the day, we had gotten quite a bit done.

On the way home, I swung by a store to pick up a few things. Once I got home and showered, I made a pan of chocolate-peanut-butter bars, as a dessert for the kids later that night. They take about 30 minutes to make, and then just need to chill in the refrigerator. That worked out well, because I needed to be back at CVCA by 4:30 to have another run-though of the play the entertainment committee was putting on, plus we needed to assemble the props we needed. One key part of the play was that teams got written clues twice during the play. Craig’s brainstorm was to hide the clues in plastic Easter eggs and have the kids find them (after all, the detective was the Easter Bunny). That required us to stuff about 100 eggs with clues. We were able to supplement those eggs with other eggs as well – a student’s mom dropped off a bag of eggs filled with candy and loose change; the eggs were left over from her own Easter egg hunt. She had no idea we were having an Easter egg hunt that night, and so that added to the fun. God works in mysterious ways indeed.

After the prep work and practice, I went back to the common room and played backgammon again. After that was a great supper of lasagna and homemade rolls. We really did eat very well on this trip.

Then it was show time. Everyone went to the common room, and all of the characters came in, in character and in costume. There was much merriment at that. We went through the first act, and then had the first Easter egg hunt. I took advantage of the PA system again, and told the kids to distribute themselves around the school, and then they would be told what room the eggs were in. That was how it went for the second Easter egg hunt as well. It was very amusing to see students sprinting down hallways to get to the rooms once they were announced. Anyway, the play was a great success.

For worship time, after we sang some songs, Craig spoke again. He asked us if we had seen the new life of Jesus breaking into this world during our trip. Some of the students shared what they had witnessed, and then Craig reminded us of the arch of what he had been teaching during the week: Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration. After Jesus came, God works through and in us to begin the restoration of the “ought” – the better world of the creation. This work does not get finished until God completes it himself, but we can begin to spread the kingdom now. Craig pointed out that every day is Easter for the Christian – we always have access to a risen savior, we always are offered life over death and joy over sorrow. Our response to that varies – sometimes we are Thomas and we doubt. Sometimes we are Mary and are joyful. Sometimes we are Peter and we deny. But, in all of these states, Jesus can and does meet us and satisfies us.

Craig talked about “the return of the king” where we can expect the king (Jesus) to return. He compared it both to Tolkien’s The Return of the King and to Lewis’ Narnia, where we are excited about the return of the rightful ruler. We live with the reality of “will” – these things will happen. We also live with the “already” (what Jesus has done) and with the “not yet” (things still are far from perfect and just).

Our response to this king is given in the Bible – go and make and baptize disciples (followers of Jesus who grow in community), and we are to love God, and to love our neighbors (others). That is the mission of the church in a nutshell. God entrusts this work to us, even though he could do it much better. He does this because he loves us and wants us to grow in faith. Craig illustrated this by comparing it to when his children “help” him unload the dishwasher – it takes much longer than if Craig did it himself, but he loves them, so he lets them help. Also, God does not leave us alone to do this work – he gives us the Holy Spirit to dwell inside us and to help us.

We come to know that the Lord is right when we take the next step and trust in him. We are on a journey together as a community, and when we bring hope to the hopeless and help to those in need, evangelism is easy and natural because you know where your strength comes from. In the end (and in the beginning), we must have the gospel, the good news of Jesus, infuse all of our lives. That is the life-long process of restoration.

We ended the evening in small groups, and then I went home to bed about 11:00.