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Get woken up by a group of girls singing a hymn, not a bad start except pleasant female vocals are followed by a fierce barrage of water balloons. A wet pillow and a room full of damp bad-tempers encourages me to rise and get ready. Have spent the last 5 nights in a cramped room sleeping closer to my fellow team members than I normally would next to my wife. A hot shower would sort everything out, except there are none. A quick "dicht" (ask your granny) and I'm ready for the day.

Breakfast is a treat. Craig Watt our resident Chef, has done us proud again. Leaders retire, bacon rolls in hand, to the other half of the hall for a meeting to plan the day. Solving the daily migraine-inducing puzzle of delivering 5 teams of 8 people to 5 separate locations in one 17 seater bus and one 8 seater van takes up most of the meeting. Leaders, bless them, are incredibly cheery at this late stage of the project and their teams seem to be having a ball. An added problem arises when we realise we have worked so hard that we have run out of tasks. A series of phone calls produces a new set of gardens to be cleared and more walls to be painted; at this rate we should have world peace and an end to hunger sorted by tea time.

Nursing a cup of coffee and aching shoulders from near constant driving for the last 5 days, Claire Marshall and I arrange to call each other once we have delivered the morning teams to tackle a whole new delivery puzzle at lunchtime changeover. Time for morning worship. Nicola Davidson has found yet another talented Scottish American combination of musicians in the team and, as the harmonies begin, the hairs on my neck rise and the Holy Spirit wanders in.

Each journey to and fro in the bus brings more tales of characters met, small miracles performed or witnessed, revelations about the dark side of our city rarely sensed in comfy Banchory, and stories of rays of light being let in by such wonderful organisations as the Foyer, Cyrenians, Aberdeen City Mission, Somebody Cares, YMCA, Instant Neighbour and Easter Anguston Farm. Opinions, perceptions, prejudices and assumptions are changed before my eyes. Hearts are broken and resolutions are made to live differently from this moment on. I ache to get back to my wife and baby girl, and yet at the same time I never want this experience to end. God is at work right here, right now. I love my job.

Tony