Reading Team Blog

Dear Reading Mission Supporters,

As Katie, Jonathon, Matthias and I drove up to Reading this morning, we could see storm clouds forming. So when we arrived, we were not surprised when light intermittent sprinkles fell as we parked and unloaded new materials. After our morning prayers, the VBS staff headed for City Park where they found kids already waiting for their arrival despite the threat of rain. A few more intermittent sprinkles fell while the VBS site was configured for today's activities, but the main body of the storm suddenly turned and passed to the north of Reading...... Hallelujah!

VBS turnout was robust and the session enjoyable. The kids listened to Bible stories, sang, did crafts, threw water balloons, and more. When the kids were reminded of the VBS luncheon tomorrow at the church, one little girl said "Great, will we be having pancakes? I love pancakes." Well, no there won't be pancakes. But when he heard the story over lunch, Pastor Mel laughed and said a pancake breakfast sounds like a good idea for sometime in the future.

But, today's session was not without incident. Logan, the third son (11 years old) of CPC member Hannah, slipped while climbing on a fence and suffered a gash on the back of his thigh that earned him first aid from VBS staff, an ambulance ride, eleven stitches, and a story he will share with his kids, over and over, when he tells them to "Stay off that fence".

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Dear Reading Mission Supporters,

It is Wednesday, so today we crossed the halfway point in our mission to Reading.

Let me start with several quick team events that took place today. After our morning devotion, Todd had us go outside for a team picture on the front steps of the church. A copy of the photo will be included in my last SITREP. After we headed back into the church, we paused to recognize Julie's birthday with a special cake and vocal tribute before we launched into VBS and our renovation projects. When we lined up for the picture in the morning, we realized that our two CPC renovation team members, Benji and Bob, didn't have green team t-shirts. So Kathleen made a formal shirt presentation to Bob and Benji at lunch.

What a Tasty Cake It Was, but Did You Ever Notice How a Sliver Always Remains?

Each Day We Fill Our Lunch Plates Courtesy of A Westminster Supporter.....

Oh, How We Appreciate Their Effort and Support

Bob and Benji Sporting Their New Team T-Shirts After Kathleen Presented Them

While much continues to be accomplished on our renovation projects, we are becoming acutely aware that every minute we have left must be as productive as possible if we are to meet closure by Friday.

A church is not simply a building, a church is comprised of the members who worship within it and are served by it. So this SITREP is going to focus primarily on VBS, the team from Westminster Presbyterian Church who are presenting it (green shirts), and those who are being served. Today's VBS session continued to grow and topped 30 kids as the word continues to spread. Wanda, a Christian who lives in the area, rounded up roughly ten kids and brought them. She told our staff that her goal is to introduce as many youngsters in her neighborhood to God's word and the opportunities local churches offer to learned more about the Lord. And, several VBS kids voiced how much they enjoyed singing.

I received some really great photos of today's VBS session from Hannah, a CPC member. Her beautiful photos speak for themselves, so I will not presume to add narratives.

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Dear Reading Mission Supporters,

Our second full day of work began just like our first, but without water because the plumber was installing new pipes in the ladies bathroom. You would think that would not be a big deal since we all knew it had to be done and Tuesday was the scheduled day. But it is amazing how many times you need water and simply take it for granted because its normally always there. It is especially noticeable when doing cleaning and renovation work. Benji and Bob wanted to scrub the storage room floor, oops no water; I was doing drywall finishing work in the upstairs bath and needed to sponge off plaster dust, oops no water; the ladies were cleaning the narthex after we cut out some old steam pipes out, oops no water; the VBS folks came back from the park and wanted to wash up for lunch, oops no water; and so it went. But of course the minor inconvenience we experienced is nothing compared to what those in much of the world live with. Many can only dream of clean fresh water piped into just one place in their home. What a blessing it is to be American; and, how easy it is to take our many blessings for granted.

VBS attendance continued to climb and our staff reports that it is generating interest in CPC beyond VBS. Several adults without children stopped to observe VBS and then asked for information about CPC in general. So, now have VBS and general CPC information on hand at the park to distribute. The grandparents of one child at VBS are from Peru and they stopped by to observe and chat with our staff. One mom told our staff that she and her husband had to depart for New York City tomorrow, but said her son was so interested in VBS that he wanted to attend for at least one day and was so excited he could hardly sleep last night. All of this has us wondering how many will attend the VBS wrap-up that we will be hosting on behalf of CPC in the church community room this Friday.

Todd and Kathleen Facilitate the Daily VBS Lessons Learned Debrief

PROJECT 1 - LADIES ROOM RENOVATION

Our plumber hit the ground running and was able to complete his work and had the water back on by 2:00 PM. The church has copper pipe and several of our teens found it fascinating to assist and observe the plumber as he sweat the pipes with his torch as he soldered them. Andy and Jonathan removed the two old windows and prepared the frames for the glass bricks that will be installe++ d.

Some of the New Plumbing That Was Installed

Andy Begins to Remove the Old Windows That Lead Out Into a Window Well

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CHRIST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - READING, PA
(recently purchased and being rehabbed by volunteers)

Found this inside the church. You can see that in her heyday, she was gorgeous! -Hawton

Dear Reading Mission Supporters,

Today we kicked off the first official day of the Reading Mission and made great progress.

Despite the distribution of 700 flyers and much advertising, the VBS (Bible study for the children) initially drew only a few kids at 10:00 AM when it began at Reading City Park. But, as the day wore on, many more moms and kids saw what was happening and joined in. By the end of our first session we had roughly 15 kids participating. While I was unable to attend and take any pictures due to my church renovation duties, those who ran the VBS had some wonderful stories to share at the end of the session. First, most of the kids were open to our Biblical teachings and one little girl actually came up and said she was new in town and wanted to start attending church. She said her parents were splitting up, but she would tell her mom how much see enjoyed the VBS and would ask if they could start attending CPC. Since we want to connect with each child as an individual, name tags were made and names memorized by the VBS staff. I was quite moved to learn that one young immigrant lad is named "America".

(Oh, that made me cry with joy! You can just imagine what it meant to this mom to call her son "AMERICA"! WOW! - Hawton)

But of course nothing ever goes without a hitch. Just after the VBS ended and the Westminster VBS staff got back to CPC (mostly moms, their kids, and some teens), they realized they were short one of our 6 year old boys. As you can imagine, mom his was understandably in tears, dad was comforting mom, and the rest of us immediate spread out to walk several parallel streets back up the hill to the park which is about 2 1/2 long city blocks away. Happily, our young wayward volunteer had only stayed behind to try out the swing set adjacent to the area where the VBS is being held. So of course, more training on safety and the two person rule promptly followed.

Our renovation efforts began in a flurry of demolition and dust. Since we lack the manpower, not every project is worked concurrently. but I will attempt to update you on those projects that saw the most focus and progress.

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Let me begin by providing my heartfelt personal thanks to you for your prayer and financial support. Thanks to your support, we significantly exceeded our fundraising goal and have been blessed by the unexpected donation of a full day of plumbers time and the contribution of several key materials needed to support our mission. The purpose of my Situation Reports (SITREP) is provide you with a first hand account of our daily progress so you can see how your support impacts the lives of the children being served through the Christ Presbyterian Church (CPC) Vacation Bible School (VBS) and our progress on the rehab projects we have committed to.

This SITREP will feature photos taken last Friday when Hawton-Hill accompanied me to CPC to drop off a car load of small materials and to oversee the delivery and safe storage of lumber, drywall and other large items purchased from a local lumber company.

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