In spite of the heat we had a great day! We started work on the fence early in the morning, and appreciated that so many of the youth from the church were able to join us. We finished the entire fence before lunch! It looks so shiny and new! Mr. Knuckles, the park superintendent told us that now that the fence has been painted, the city will let him resurface the basketball court. The kids and teens in Dolton will soon have a completely redone basketball court to play on. It is remarkable how the entire atmosphere of the park has changed now that the chain link fence is shiny silver rather than rusty and dull! After a delicious lunch of hot roast beef sandwiches at the church, we went on a prayer walk with Pastor Derrick. Today Pastor Derrick wanted us to focus on individual houses as we walked. Although we aren’t able to see the impact of our prayers right now, we know they are powerful all the same. Time will reveal the ways God will work through our prayers to transform the community. It was a bittersweet last evening of VBS. The kids are so loving and cute and we’re all sad to leave them, but we made the most of our time with them. The kids enjoyed eating “dirt” and planting marigolds in decorated flower pots, and at the end of the evening Pastor Derrick talked to the kids about what it means to be friends with Jesus. He encouraged those kids who had never asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior to talk to their crew leaders about what that meant. There was quite a celebration in heaven as several children became part of God’s family! It was also sad to leave the good friends we’ve made at the church. We spent a while after VBS hanging out and saying good bye to all of youth from the church that we’ve spent so much time with the past few days. We’ve really built a solid relationship with New Community Church this week but it hurts a little to leave.