As many of you recall, we had a terrible ice storm a few weeks ago that destroyed many of our trees. We do not own a chainsaw and really had no way to clean up the disaster area in our yard. Saturday, unknown to me, one of the guys in our small group asked D how our tree cleanup was going. D explained that it wasn't going. The next thing we knew, we were told that all of the men in our small group would be at our house at 8 a.m. this morning.
Early today, chainsaws were humming and limbs were being hauled off. The men worked from 8 a.m. until around 12:30 p.m. today. D's dad also showed up. 6 men, 4 chainsaws, 2 trailer beds, and 19 trailer-fulls later, the street out by our house was lined with a good part of the rubble. We also saved back some of the better chunks for firewood and there are some damaged branches higher than anyone could reach. It was amazing to see the piles!
Here's our limbs stretching from one side of the picture as far as you can see to the other end of the picture.  Each pile was similar to this: all 19 of them!  Whew! That's a lot of tree limbs! We could never have done all of this work. We did not own a trailer, we did not own a chainsaw. Our small group gave of their time to help us out and we are so grateful. We have no family local enough to see often. Our small group has become each other's family. We know they will continue to be a support to us in the months and years to come as we make our move. We are so thankful to God for putting us with them and building the relationships we have with them. If any of you guys read this blog, we love you! Thanks for being the Chuch in action! (BTW, for those who may not be familiar with what a small group is: A small group, sometimes called cell groups, are several families who meet together on a regular basis to pray, study God's word, and do various community/ministry projects. We have small group meetings every other Sunday evening. We rotate whose house it is at. We are getting ready to do the Nooma DVDs, but have done many other studies. We usually have a meal or snack time together, do our lesson, and then pray. We involve the kids in every project we do and our families have truly become knit together.) |
That is awesome, All I can say is praise God for cell groups. We have been involved in cell groups for 8 years now and what a blessing and a sense of family they are. My sweet husband Got saved because of our cell group and we have led our own for the past 5 years now. God has done incredible things thru this ministry. Please pray for us in 2008 as our church has asked us to be the leaders over this whole ministry for our church. This includes 40 plus groups that we will be getting to know and love on and hopefully inspire to reach our community. This is a out of my comfort zone experience but....
I am so greatful you got your yard cleaned up. and that they continue to bless and support you in the year and years to come.
I love you Kim.