What I Learned in Mrs. Nash sewing closet for 12 hours

i’m going to start off this story by setting the scene. it’s 6 weeks after hurricane laura and 1 week from hurricane delta. we are in Lake Charles, Louisiana working with samaritan’s purse. it’s thursday (we leave on saturday). we get to the house and most of it is covered in mold. our job is to get the house “contractor ready” for the homeowner, while also spreading the love that is Jesus. we had been doing this kind of thing (a mud out) for the past 3 days and knew some of what we were doing with help from our amazing leadership team (Palmer, Frank, Janet, and  Richard)! my group (me, Jewel, and Hailey) took on the living room. we spent the majority of the day taking out furniture (cleaning, trashing, and storing), and packing/wrapping more fragile items, while also admiring some old books/yearbooks! after lunch time, Hailey and I decided to take on Mrs. Nash’s old sewing closet. Mrs. Nash had passed away about 4 years ago and this closet never really got cleaned out. Hailey and i started out by cleaning up all the sewing supplies, taking out the furniture, and removing shelves and the table. we then began taking out the walls. due to all of the mold we had to wear tyvek suits. if you don’t know what that is, the best way to explain it is a sauna strapped to your body, under a facial mask, hat, and goggles. we take down the dry wall, pry off each individual nail with a crow bar and then carry it all out to the trash. a funny moment is when Hailey and i decided to go hard and kick down the wall. Hailey proceeds to get her foot stuck in the wall and fall over! we all got a good laugh out of that and she’s alright!! after all the walls are out (and we are literally drenched in sweat) it was time to tackle the ceiling. the funny thing about this ceiling is that there are two, a layer of drywall and a layer of wood. The Lord was continually reminding me, step my step. There aren’t opportunities to cut the corner; each job needed to be done to the absolute best of our ability. I was like “Come on God, just one more nail” or “turn this ceiling into butter”. (i actually remember praying that) we cleaned everything up and headed back to the church for dinner and to sleep. 

friday, our last day of work. Hailey and i got there and put on our tyvek suits happily. the weather was so cool that we didn’t feel any heat strokes coming on! praise God! we headed back to our closet, took out the light, and tore out the rest of the ceiling. in the connecting closet was a pile of drywall from the walls, insulation, drywall from the ceiling, wood from the ceiling, and ceiling insulation (which was crumbly and brown from water damage). this pile was so big, so discouraging. so as i’m sweeping up piles into a giant shovel, God reminds me of His fruit: patience. because the Holy Spirit resides in me, i have the opportunity to press into the fruits of His spirit. piece by piece He reminds me that i have the capacity to complete this task patiently and efficiently. after we sweep/pack things into trash bags, we carry them to our trash pile. we spent all of friday cleaning , then vacuuming, then mopping, then mopping again. 

God gives us so much power through the Holy Spirit and it’s our job, as citizens of the kingdom, to press into Him. have you found yourself with a lack of the fruits of the spirit? i encourage you to read them and press into them, put them into action. 

with love, 

kaylin 🙂 

pray for my squad as we head back to Louisiana from the 25th to the 1st!