A day to Serve, and Play

It starts with a meeting. A Trustee meeting, right Audrey D?  You set a date to begin the project in Spring.  Then it snows.  Another date. Another snow storm.  A third date and a third storm. Then busy weekends, then end of school stuff.  Then... its Summer.

We arrived here at Stratmoor UMC Saturday evening and attended church Sunday to find that today, Monday, some of the men of the church were meeting to finally get really GOING on putting up their two donated children's play sets behind the already donated and installed metal fence. We don't take the coach for service till Tuesday, and we will be in the area for a while, and these folks are so nice... I rose this morning to join the crew at 9 am.  Well, we are parked only about 60 feet from the playground!

First things first.  Decide what to do first.                                                                                                 Then go get what you need to do it out of the shed.

                                                        Then Pastor Dave brings donuts.

Then we get to work!

Then... LUNCHTIME!!! Pizza's on!!!

 And get going again.  Jim, Jimo, Bill, JB, Pastor Dave, and I got to know each other, joked around, and worked together till I was told it was time to close down for the day at about 2:30 pm

So I took a few pictures to send to Tech Team Leader Bill.

"Say JB.  That hat is ME"

"Don't interrupt us with the instructions. We're busy here!" 



You probably know the routine.  Some of the guys are still at it as I type. Planning next steps or putting finishing touches on and tightening bolts.

And when I stepped away from the church to get a long shot I found Trustee Team 2 hard at work in their own special playground!

 Colorado Red Fire Ants

OK. Not funny. They bite. They swarm. You will hate yourself for pitching your tent over a nest for a week.  And if you don't keep your pets away from them they may be injected with enough stinging venom to get very sick and even die.

But they are everywhere here, and in a few other Great Plains states too.

Just not as cute as prairie dogs, or the Stratmoor UMC Trustees.

Thanks for letting me play with you all today!  It was fun!

-Ken