Endicott First Baptist

Tonight we arrived at our host church, New Colony Baptist Church, in Billerica Massachusetts. We are excited to start our week and meet the community tomorrow at our church service. Part of our trip preparations included making a team covenant that we have signed and posted in the hallway to be a constant reminder of our goals. 

Today before and after church we had great fellowship with the New Colony Baptist Church community. We shared breakfast and lunch with them, getting to know many members. After this time we headed to Lexington to learn about the historic landmarks and grounds of the town. 

Today as the kids had down time, they created a way to pass time. They decided to “play church.” This included choreographed worship songs, a hymn, a Bible reading, a message, and a Bible study afterwards.

It seems to be their new favorite game and they love inviting us adults to watch!

Lots of hard work today was done on the ceilings in our partner church's house for their new pastor. This includes adding patches and screwing up fallen-out sections, and lots of plaster on holes and cracks. Tomorrow will bring new paint to the ceilings. 

To access the ceilings for repair in the new house, first, we had to haul out the old furniture. The girls decided to arrange an assembly line to efficiently get items down the stairs. They showed great teamwork.

With a few unexpected delays, we finally got a new panel of drywall on the ceiling. We have begun the process of plastering and sanding the section. Tomorrow we will prime and paint this room. 

The kids were in charge of finishing painting the fire escape. They did a great job of touching up missed spots and making sure the job was done. 

This afternoon we headed to St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church in Jamaica Plains to help with food distribution. Each member of our team took over a section to help hand out food. We met many people today and had the pleasure of hearing Pastor Fernando’s powerful testimony. 

Before food distribution today, we finished up our projects in the mission house at New Colony Baptist Church. This included ripping up all the old carpets upstairs. The church is planning to refinish these hardwood floors for the new pastor and his family. 

For our free day, we enjoyed seeing many sights in Boston. Many of these included great historical landmarks such as the Harbor where the Boston Tea party occurred.  Overall we had a great day seeing many things in Boston. 

Throughout the week, the girls had adopted the name of the little ducklings. With this, the ducklings worked great as a team at our service sights. One of our Praying Pelican trip leaders, Emma, was given the title of Mother Duckling and often lead the younger ones. Yesterday at Boston Public Garden, we found it very fitting that they all take pictures with the little duckling statues.

Today we said goodbye to our friends at New Colony Baptist Church in Billerica, Mass. After a great and productive week, it was time to say goodbye and give thanks for the wonderful week we had.