By Andrew Mills
TPC Student Ministry Director

We thought the rain was bad Wednesday; what greeted us Thursday morning was even worse. Some in our group continued to work on the wheelchair ramp. But it didn’t make sense to paint in the rain, so 10 of us took advantage of the unexpected break and visited a nearby state park called The Natural Tunnel.

There is a good reason why this park is rated Virginia’s best. The huge walls of earth surrounding us as we stared into the darken tunnel was an awesome reminder of God’s power and beauty in creation. It reminded me of Psalm 8, which talks about how majestically the Lord’s name is in all the Earth.

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” – Psalm 8:3-4

Unfortunately, our visit to the park was marred when Sundi Bales-Frank slipped and fell, resulting in a possible non-displaced fracture in her shoulder. She was taken to a medical facility nearby for an X-ray and now has a sling. We are doing our best to take good care of her and ask for your prayers for a quick recovery.

Amid the challenges faced in the morning, our team made significant progress on the house. The majority of it is painted and the ramp is looking great. The woman who lives in the home arrived from the hospital and was carefully taken inside on a stretcher. The new ramp will be a huge blessing to her because it is safer and wider than the previous one.

In a lot of ways, this project is very similar to the one we did two years ago for the Duncans. Dawn Reed visited them Thursday morning. Reba and her grandmother were so excited to see her and learn that we were back in Virginia serving another family. She told Dawn all about how we were such a blessing to her. They were Christians who were having a hard time and cried out to the Lord for help – and He sent us. God hears our prayers and often answers in unexpected ways.