After breakfast and breakfast clean-up, I hooked back up with Jim Gaul’s group and we headed back to Akron. This time, we went to the home of Duane, where South Street Church is based. The weather was supposed to be cooler and rainy on Thursday, so we wanted to help with outside work while the weather was nice. We met Duane’s wife and an office worker, and they got us going on grounds work. This extended to the street in front of the house and in back of the house – they want to be good neighbors. So, we broke into two teams to go pick up trash along the streets. Jim took the front street, which was fairly busy, but shorter, and my group and I took the residential back street, which was about 2/3 mile long.

Once Jim and his group finished picking up trash, they went back to the house to rake leaves and do general grounds work. We never made it that far. Our group used all three hours of the morning to pick up trash along the road. The kids were good sports – they never complained, and they did a pretty thorough job of getting the trash up. Most of the trash was cigar and cigarette butts and alcohol containers. It was a pretty stark reminder that even when people have very little or nothing, they will still find ways to try to make themselves feel better. It made me grateful that I live so comfortably.

After trash detail, we stopped to eat lunch, where we heard from three people who are helping South Street. The office worker told us how she had stage four terminal cancer when she was 13, but she responded “crazy well” to chemo, and she lived. She felt she had been spared and was looking for ways to give back, so she ended up working for South Street. We met Matt, who works full time as a mason, but when he has spare time, he is starting up a housing ministry for South Street. It is similar to Habitat’s way of working things: the person Matt is trying to help puts in time in fixing up the house, and then gets an interest-free loan to pay off the home. Lastly, we got to meet Harold, who just got out of jail in the last few weeks. He is trying to fix up and move into one of Matt’s houses. He was a pretty amazing guy. He loves God, and as he was facing this last jail time, he prayed to God to take over his life since he had messed it up. The same day he was called to court and the judge let him go (the usual jail time for what Harold did is 6-30 months). Harold has a very real feeling of freedom, and he is a pure joy to be around.

After lunch, we all headed over to Harold’s house to help him do yard work. We helped till up future flowerbeds, cut down brush and small trees, take down an old chain-link fence, rake leaves, and more. We got an awful lot done – there was a pretty noticeable difference, especially in the back yard, which had been overgrown. We got to work alongside of Matt and Harold, and they were very kind and encouraging. An ice cream truck came along and Jim treated the kids to an ice cream. We finished a few things up, and then headed back to school  around 3:30.

I went home and showered and took a nap, and then got back to school about 5:45. I played a game (Blokus) with a couple of students, and then we had supper. Supper was excellent – my favorite of the week – we had really good chicken enchiladas. Boy, were those hitting the spot! Once we finished up supper, we headed down to the library to hear from Duane and Lisa; they were visiting us to tell us about how South Side Church came into being. They talked for about an hour, and it was really fascinating. Duane stressed how sometimes we need to take risks for God, and how we are rarely (or never) sure. We need to pray and listen to advice of others and think things through, but God promises to help us with what we do, not for us to be sure about what we do. Duane compared it to walking with a lamp that only lets you see where your feet are, and where the next step is going to be. You can’t see far off, and that helps us rely on God. Duane encouraged us to move – that God can correct us if we are on the wrong path, but we won’t get on the right path if we are not moving. Duane and Lisa impressed me very much.

After the talk, we went around the school to clean it up – things had gotten a bit ragged in the couple of days we had been there. Again, the kids jumped to it without complaining.

Craig spoke briefly in the worship time that evening. He reviewed what he had talked about, and brought in what Duane had spoken on to represent redemption. So, we had topics of adoration and “ought,” confession and “is,” and now redemption and “can.” Craig asked us to consider what difference Jesus makes, and challenged us not to settle for a “safe” Christianity where we try to retain control. Jesus either is or is not your Lord, and we should try to risk obedience to Jesus. We finished the evening by breaking up into our small groups and talking about the difference Jesus has made in our lives. Then I went home and off to bed.