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Our good friend Julie, who herself grew up on the mission field and has been to Eleuthera many times, has taken a position coaching women’s soccer at Union University in Tennessee. She bravely led her team to Windermere for service projects here at the school, community fellowship and outreach through soccer, and team building before their season kicks-off (pun).
I have 1 thing to say: (and this isn’t to shame any previous teams or gender) “girls work harder then guys on the mission field.” These almost 30-some soccer ladies simply out worked just about every team we had all summer. First of all they were up for any job, and most of all they never quit. Even with going to the beach occasionally, I had to find extra jobs for them, and we got way more done that I originally anticipated.
The primarily goal for the team’s work schedule was to paint all the rooftops with our white roof sealant paint that was to arrive on the island the same day they did… but it didn’t. This was a little difficult for me, because I work very hard to have all the materials on hand when the team arrives, but sometimes on the island things don’t work the way you planned so you must remain flexible. I decided to buy 6 buckets of the paint at our local hardware store (at a much higher mark-up price), but surprise to me – the paint covered more square footage, and after 4 more buckets, we accomplished all the roofs tops in record time!
The girls were also a huge blessing to our local church (and their still talking about how hard those American girls could work). We took the remainder of the 30 girls who were not roof painting and they went to our church to paint the exterior beige. Again, we had some paint problems, but again the solution was found and the project was a success.
The second biggest task this team achieved was wiring up of all our new classroom projectors. This is a very laborious and tedious, time consuming task. To get each room right takes patience and a keen eye to get all the wire wired up correctly. But they did it!
Job after job, these girls blessed not only our school and settlement but they were a blessing to have here as a team. You can see the willingness of each of them to help each other and serve each other throughout the week. I’m so thankful to have gotten to know their two other leaders, Isaac their head-coach and Katie who coaches too. They were both a huge blessing to me personally and to the school through the work the did.
We’re now rooting for Union University and if their playing on the field is even a fraction of their work on the mission field, they’ll be unstoppable!