Courtyard Cleanup & Camraderie

If there's one thing I've learned about this awesome group of Confirmands, it's that they will never say no to a good service project.  This group earned money for purchasing Good Gifts through the ELCA (including farm animals, clean water supplies, and health care volunteers), created and wrote handmade care cards for our members, and assembed Lutheran World Relief kits for victims of natural disaster.  They were thrilled, therefore, to dedicate the most recent youth group meeting on a project a little closer to home:  cleaning up and beautifying the once-lush but long-neglected courtyard just off the fellowship hall steps.

Before pictures:

 During:  (I especially love the snow shovel that N. is using to scoop up debris:  an ingenious new use for an old tool)

 Have you ever noticed that at construction sites, there's always one guy (or gal) standing around with his boot on a shovel, surveying?   R. proved herself a worthy cleanup surveyor:

 After a solid hour of hard work, we took a break for snack and birdfeeder making.  The Rainbow Sherbet floats (made with Sprite) were a taste of heaven, I tell you!  We snacked on fresh fruit and sipped our floats while we made sweet feeders to hang in the newly-cleaned courtyard

 Mixing up the birdseed, flour, corn syrup, gelatin, and water.....

 ...then molding the mix into Pam-sprayed cookie cutters....

The finished product!  We made about a dozen of these cute feeders for our feathered friends....

 After:  Ta-Da!  The Cleaned-up, Beautified Courtyard.  We pruned, trimmed, raked, swept, weeded, and shoveled up 6 huge trash cans of debris, then planted 2 caladium and 6 petunias in the now-beautiful space. 

 Please be sure to stop by and visit the courtyard.  The space is inviting, attractive, peaceful, and a haven for body and soul.  If you like what you see and enjoy your time in the courtyard, consider finding these Confirmands (and helpers, too) to thank them for their good work.

My own experience in the garden (after the kids had left and I was preparing for the senior high group) left me humming the beloved hymn that includes
"For the beauty of the Earth, for the glory of the skies....
...Lord of all to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise!"  

Indeed, I am grateful.  For the beauty found in this space, and for the presence of the curious minds, able bodies, and caring souls of the young people among us.