Day one.

We arrived safely, and after brief orientation were

put immediately to work. Father Mike McCue, the director of DSW, told us a little bit about Camden and what we would be doing over the next three days.

Most of our group went over to paint the home of a Camden resident who is close to the volunteers at DSW. Apparently their painting was aided by their wonderful singing. The owner of the home was so grateful she bought pizza for everyone for dinner. 

The rest of the group went to the Holy Name school playground to clean and prep the playground for painting. Afterward we went to the afterschool program to play with the kids. The students there were so excited to see our kids, and you would've been proud to see our young people reaching out to these kids in Camden.

After dinner we had an evening of reflection and discussion. We closed our time today with prayer in the chapel, and after a few minutes of hanging out and talking in the common room, everyone went to bed. The kids are pretty wiped out from the long day, and we have a lot still ahead of us.

Please know you were all in our prayers, and we thank you for supporting us in our work here.