Friday started out with a good-bye to Julie who was driving to Radford to see her daughter graduate, and Martha, Gertrude and I spent the day trying to finish up all the projects we had started plus get ready for a community dinner that evening. 

Gertrude and Martha were busy all day putting a shelf together for the laundry room closet and organizing that plus getting food prepared for the evening.  They prepared baked ziti, cooked cabbage, corn bread and fruit salad - yum!  I am not sure of the exact number of people, but between 30 - 35 would be my guess.  There was not a morsel of food left.  I spent my day in the shed trying to organize things to make it easier for Helms and Gregg to find things when they are working with the kids - play things, camping things, planting things, etc. 

Around 5:30, some kids started arriving at the house for "drumming".  A friend of Helms and Gregg leads this and if the kids display the right attitude, creativity, pay attention, etc., they earn stars and when they have a certain number of stars they earn their own drum.  This was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it.  Around 6:45, everything was ready for dinner, and people started coming from everywhere.  What a wonderful ministry this is.  Everyone held hands on the porch and we had a prayer, and then we served adults, teenagers and children with a wonderful meal. 

Around 9:15 or so, we had things cleaned up from dinner and we were ready to turn in for the evening.  (We had arrived at 8:30 that morning.)  We had decided to drive home the next morning since Gregg had the Aids Walk the next day and Helms was joining him at 9:00.  So we said our good-byes and we dropped off one of the young girls on the way home.  

I hope others from HRBC will take the opportunity to drive to Charlotte and get involved in helping the Hyaets ministry.  They have made great inroads into the community but there is still so much to do.  We were busy all day, but at the end of each day, we all felt that this was worth all that we put in it and more. 

One of the things that stands out in my mind is Thursday night - family night - when we all sat at the dining room table and had devotions.  Jamar and Akeem are a part of the family at Hyaets, and hopefully their lives will be changed by the love that Hyaets shows them.   

Gertrude, Martha, Julie and I had a wonderful few days in Charlotte and hope that some of you will be excited to go some time soon.  Please feel free to contact us - I'm sure I have left out some things.  Pray about it, think about it - I know you would feel as blessed as we feel for having spent time working at Hyaets.

Lee Ann