Garbage Be Gone!

    Even though things are opening back up more and more after the lockdown, we still have restrictions on what we can do and how we can meet up with people.  Large gatherings are still prohibited, and we try to meet with anyone outdoors (instead of indoors) as much as possible (and usually with masks).  This causes us to have to be very creative in ways to meet new people!  Nettie had the great idea to pick up garbage around our neighborhood playground and to invite people to join us.  We posted the above picture in our neighborhood Viber group as we were starting, to let people know they could join us. 

     I snapped a few pictures along the way, but we were all spread out so I didn't get the full perspective.  But lots of kids grabbed garbage bags and helped!  

You could tell they felt a sense of pride in making their neighborhood look nicer. 

      It's cute how all of the kids call Leif and Sasha "Dya-Dya" (uncle).  It's valuable for them to have good male role models.

People just throw garbage out the windows of their cars as they are driving!

     We prayed we would meet new people, and we did!  One lady (not pictured) stood around, directing everyone where to go and what to do.  She and I got into a conversation and she said she comes out every evening and would love to talk more.  I love how God answered that simple prayer.

Cleaning out garbage in the playhouse.

     One lady got came home from work when we were about halfway through.  She asked if we could help nail some boards back onto the ice skating rink.  Sasha worked on that while we picked up more trash.  It was amazing to see the huge difference in such a short amount of time!

We collected this much garbage in just a little over an hour (from 8:00 to 9:15ish)

     Some of the helpers had already gone home at the end, but we took this picture to put in the neighborhood Viber group.  People were very positive and said they would like to join us next time.  I'm sure we'll be doing it again soon!