Wednesday in Odessa...

Something a little different for tonight’s blog, Joel Condreay requested the opportunity to write our blog this evening. Joel is thinking about going to school for journalism, I think he has a very bright future.

Good evening from Odessa!

The students awoke Wednesday morning to the smell of bacon and scrambled eggs.

Wednesday’s labor was separated into three separate projects. The first of the three was continuing to work on the church we had scraped on Tuesday. The goal for the group was to prime the entire church today. The goal was achieved with flying colors and Mark “The Animal” Manso continued to demonstrate his deservingness of the newfound title by staying over an hour after words doing final touches on the church. The second project was working with Odessa’s mayor at town hall. A group of four students led by Charlie and Kim Radabaugh, spent the morning and a few hours in the afternoon digging holes, creating mounds, moving boulders, plowing trenches, and shoveling rocks in the garden in front of city hall. The previously bland façade of the main building was transformed into a beautiful and artistic garden. The final project was another job landscaping the garden of a home in the community. Even an experienced gardener like Kim called it one of the worst weeding jobs she had ever seen. Despite the adversity, the handful of young landscapers showed dedication and did an excellent job. An especially encouraging side note was that many members of Odessa’s youth have arrived at work sites early in the mornings and worked all the way through the afternoon tirelessly alongside the youth of First EPC.

The weather has also been encouraging for the volunteers. A cool breeze has continuously turned warm and muggy days into comfortable afternoons in the Eastern Washington sun. The day was finished by youth outreach. Wednesday brought more kids to youth outreach than any other night. 40 kids, including the FEPC youth gathered for a time of games, worship, and tear prying testimonies delivered by Colby Foss and Janice Nehren. Both did an excellent job and gave heartfelt testimonies and displayed great boldness. The night was finished by a game created by the Heritage Church in Odessa titled, “four ten volley.” Four square, tennis, and volleyball were mixed to create an exciting and original game. After family time and watching videos of our week taken by Pastor Jon’s father, the students went outside to discover why the mission trip is entitled “Big Sky.” The night sky adorned by bright stars was a beautiful way to end a fantastic day.

Tomorrow has painting in store for us and a pool party at the Odessa pool that will hopefully draw even a greater crowd of Odessa’s teenagers. On another exciting note, the Odessa newspaper coming out tomorrow will feature our work in the community and hopefully the word of God’s love will be spread more through this article.

So long for now from Odessa, we hope to deliver more good news of God’s work in the lovely community of Odessa.

- Joel