We began our Tuesday with a terrific batch of pancakes made my Amy, Andrew, and, sadly, Jeremy.  Fueled with righteous energy and the gallons of vegetable oil Jeremy doused our pancakes with, we headed to the ABCCM (Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry).

Kelly, the director of volunteers at the ministry, welcomed us and told us a bit about the organisation and the campus.  The ABCCM is a non-profit which supports veterans by providing a place to live, and a 2 year program which helps them get clean and attain educational and career goals, attempting to reacclimate them to society.  The campus is a 10-acre remodeled motel filled with about 250 male veterans.  The ABCCM is a national model for this type of organisation, and has been successful in its goals.

Our project for the day was to help recreate a section of the campus into an outdoor hang-out for non-smokers. We accomplished this by wildly swinging at things with sledgehammers and breaking shovels.  We put in a good 2 hours of this until lunch, where we got a chance to sit down with some of the veterans and chat.  We spread ourselves around the lunch room, patiently awaiting their table choice.  Needless to say the girls were much more popular than Jeremy and Andrew.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, Brooke had quite the secret admirer and was handed a magnificent pair of earrings by a bashful, love-struck veteran.  In all honesty, the veterans seemed delighted at our presence and conversation, and we all enjoyed hearing a little about about their experiences.  It was right back to work after lunch, and the rain came in perfectly with our scheduled departure.  (Sidenote: Jeremy slurped up a particularly juicy and pooping worm on a bet.)

After a much-needed shower at the Y, we came back and reflected on our service and shared some highlights from the veteran lunch.  We had some free time and then it was time for taco Tuesday created by Megan, Melissa, and Manpreet. So good.  For dessert we drove for what seemed like an eternity in poring rain for free Rita's ("fritas") which poor Andrew could not even eat.  In fact, the generous giving soul that he is, he stood in line for someone else.  Anyway, people were excited because it was an in-door Rita's which apparently is novel.  

Now we're preparing for a night in, which is much more fun than it sounds with this group.  Peace.