Dripping Springs Presbyterian Church

Our team is from Dripping Springs Presbyterian Church in Dripping Springs, Texas. Looking forward to a great week full of service, team bonding, and spiritual growth!

For our first day of service, we worked on campus at University United Methodist Church (UUMC) which also happens to be the church we are staying at this week. We split into three separate teams to efficiently conquer our tasks for the day. Team 1 worked on painting the shower house. The shower house is a freestanding building on UUMC’s campus that will be used to help optimize the efficiency of future teams that UUMC will host.

With our group split into three teams, we were able to accomplish completion of more projects. Team two was tasked with the assembly of a desk. Once completed, it will be delivered to a member of UUMC’s congregation.

Team 3 had the assignment of installing trim in the 408 Mission House. The 408 house is a separate building from the church itself, it is used to lodge and feed mission teams (including ours!) that come to serve in the Lake Charles region. We measured and cut the trim to ensure it fit, painted it, and then installed it. We also hung some artwork and mirrors in the 408 house after the trim job was finished.

Our first stop on our second day of service this week was at a ministry called Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP). SHP is an all volunteer organization with the goal of no child sleeping on the floor in their community. They receive donations for the bed materials, and teams of volunteers come in and help to prepare and assemble the materials before delivering at the recipients’ homes. SHP built, donated, and delivered over 700 beds to the Lake Charles community in 2025. Our mission today was to help sand the wood that the beds will be made out of.

Our second stop for the day was back at UUMC to work on the shower house. We were able to start painting the siding, and we delivered the desk that we had built to a member of the congregation here at UUMC.

For our final service day, we had the opportunity to work with a ministry called Friend Ships. It is an all-volunteer international relief organization. While their main hub is here at a port in Lake Charles, they frequently send mission teams focused on humanitarian and disaster relief in many areas of the Middle East. They are solely funded by donations and have been working with volunteer groups to provide the support for projects that help keep this organization going.

Our project at Friend Ships was to revitalize their greenhouse in preparation for the spring growing season. We pulled weeds in and around the greenhouse to start off. The bulk of the project was to empty the old fertilizer in the planters, clean them out, and place them back in the greenhouse. This will give them a clean slate to start planting!