Not Quite the Next Betty Crocker

Well, I have some fun things to report. I attend the singles small group/Bible study on Monday nights.  We are right now reading Max Lucado's book Cast of Characters.  We also eat and watch Syracuse basketball, so we aren't paricularly serious.

Aren't we cute? Left to Right: Back row Duane, Angela Shoney, Tim.   Front row Terri, Linda, me :)

Our last escapade and first adventure I was party to was a progressive dinner.  It landed squarely on Valentines Day, which made me laugh.  The Volunteer Quarters were saddled with appetizers.  So  Duane and I prepared a yummy/easy course.  We made a veggie tray with ranch dip, stuffed cherry tomatoes, and spiced tea.  Yes, I felt rather accomplished.  I'm not great at it but love to play hostess.  Take a look at our lovely table.

The rest of the dinner was even more fabulous.  We sauntered the short walk down the sidewalk to Tim's apartment for crab bisque (Tim is our usual host).  Then we walked off our soup as we crossed the housing complex to Terri's for spinach-citrus salad.  Danielle, her daughter, kindly served as event photographer.   After, salad we headed to the other side of the volunteer quarters for the main course and a little Syracuse basketball.  Sryacuse won (Duane and Linda are from New York) so we celebrated as we feasted on turkey and ham, cinnamon-baked sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, and yeast rolls.  Mmmm.  Finally, a bit stuffed and reduced to more or less waddling back across campus.  We ended at Angela's for dessert and coffee.  I paired dark chocolate hot chocolate with chocolate pie, delicious!

So, I had quite a Valentines evening tons of food and much laughter.  It is an incredible crew: two school teachers, a former missionary to Africa turned Development Director, a Certified Public Accountant, Craft Market Associate, and me.  Sometimes, Tim will even speak Portuguese with me!  Score! 

One is the loneliest, nope, coldest number

Read on assured that this is not a whining post about my love-life.  No, this is a serious discussion of my survival yesterday.  It was a single digit day, temperature wise, this morning.  Single digit!!!!  That, my friends, is COLD.  However, I live to testify that even thin-blooded/cold-natured/cold-weather-wimps can survive in single digit weather.  I can't say that I enjoyed it, though.

Let's recap.  So, I get up and dress for work, the usual many, many layers.  (I must have had a premonition about the frigid nature of the great outdoors because I had a nightmare in which I went camping without my sleeping bag and shivered all night while my friends slept toasty-warm in their teal and brown mummy bags...)  Anyway, stepping outside was like getting slapped in the face by cold air.  The sunshine and sparkly snow were rather deceptive.  (Did you know powdery snow that melts just a little and then re-freezes becomes really sparkly snow?  It's pretty.)  Shoulders up to my ears, I practically run to the truck to ride for work.  I tell Blair the blatantly obvious, "It's COLD!"   He says yep only 9 degrees.  Nine!  Well, we drive the half-mile to work and the temperature drops: 9, 8, 7, 6.  I practically bolt out of the truck making a beeline for the chair nearest the heater for morning meeting.  "Blair, I had to get out of the truck before the temperature drops anymore," I said, "I came to Kentucky not the north pole!"  Of course Blair just laughs.  He's from Michigan, which is kind of like the north pole; it's a place where people think temperatures are even allowed to sport negative sings instead of a digit in the tens place, which is clearly madness.

See the snow :) Note: This is not the sparkly snow, but freshly fallen snow.

Now, I willingly admit that the day before was a snow day and super exciting.  It was a nearly legitimate snow storm.  All the snow came at once more or less so that you couldn't see 100yds away.  It was so neat.  I got to marvel at the snow a little bit longer than usual because I was accidentally left at work by my carpool (not a big deal, as it is less than a mile walk and it gave me plenty of ammunition to tease the two older fellows.) So, during the height of the snow 'storm', I walked back.  Everything was so quiet and white.  It was like Narnia during the reign of the white witch, for any C.S. Lewis nerds.  Nor was I the only one lost in wonder.  There is a man from AL that works up here too.  He was out walking his dog.  I think snow still fascinates most of us southerners :)  

The campfire on campus.

Never fear though.  It's not always snow covered here.  And the area is gorgeous, blue skies, tall trees, mountain ridges surrounding it all.  To quote Mary Bennett, "What are men compared to rocks and trees?"

Please ignore my mullet.  I'm going to get a haircut today.

Hope

Emily Dickinson wrote, "Hope is the thing with feathers, That perches in the soul, And sings in tune, Without  the words.  And never stops at all."

An Italian priest on the frontlines of the anti-human trafficking movement said two things about hope, "Hope is a precursor to a miracle for people of faith." and "I am a man of hope; I do not accept the suffering of others."

Paraphrasing Hebrews 11:1 Jim Wallis says, "Hope is believing in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change."

Well, I don't have much insightful to say.  I will say that I think hope is what keeps people going.  I think it might be when people lose hope that situations get really crappy, that might be part of the oppression of the slums or of poverty in general...I don't really know.  I do know I like working with organizations that bring hope.  Because of the hope in a better world through JC (you know, Jesus Christ) people can work together in places and situations where pain and tough stuff are easy to spot but where you have to take a few steps back, cock your head to one side and squint hard to see hope, future, possibility.  It's in these places where miracles happen.  I've been blessed to pass through many places that bring holy hope.  I'm in one now and it's pretty cool.  :)

Oh, and, that the King's Speech is an AWESOME movie!  And that cleaning ladies are probably very strong women.  I have scrubbed a few showers today and my arms are bushed.  So, I advise the general populace to avoid angering cleaning ladies.  You will probably lose that fight.

Now, I really think that I'm done...

Living in a Classroom

After gentle chastising from my mama, I am finally updating the blog.  I apologize for being a little neglectful of it.

Well, friends.  In the past couple of days I've tiled, mudded, sanded, painted, visited potential worksites, crawled under a few houses, hung cabinets, uninstalled cabinets, caulked, prioritized jobsites, and eaten lots of chili. :)  There is no need to worry about me being bored.  I don't think that it'll happen around here.

I am very grateful and very blessed.  The staff here at Red Bird have been wonderfully welcoming.  I explained that I'm very interested in missions and the type of ministry they do here.  They told me great and said however they can help they will.  The director of economic opportunity shares his knowledge quite freely (he's a bit of a talker) but it is fabulous.  This guy tells fabulous stories and is a fabulous manager.   Listening to him is a first rate course in management if you pay attention.  And the work camp director has also embraced the idea of teaching me about missions and all aspects of a workcamp ministry.  

So, I've been made a crew leader/ part of work camp team.  This means I get to join the mix of workcamp preparation projects.  The big project has been to repair the camp kitchen.  This is where much of the handywoman work has come into play.  Joining the crew of two guys, one elderly gentleman, one female cook/self-proclaimed overseer, we've done quite a bit: new cabinets hung - check, wall built - check, kitchen appliances moved - check (By the way, commercial size ovens are HEAVY.  I mean like, 6 people needed to move kind of heavy), tile set - check, wall mudded - check.  I think you get the idea.  

Then, I got to participate in the prioritization meeting.  This is where a committee examines all of the potential projects that have been visited and assigns them a priority rating.  Projects with a 1 rating will be worked on this season, 2s if they finish all of the 1s (which means probably not), and 3s will not be completed.  Folks, let me tell you, this meeting lasted all day and it was a doozy.  I am so glad the meeting was begun with prayer for discernment and God's direction.  There is quite a bit of need and many factors to consider.  Some stories had me fighting mad (slumlords = not cool. period.)  And some stories just broke my heart, which I expected going in.  I mean with service work I kind of expect the a continual cycle of heart break and repair with extra added in again, then repeat.  But, I learned so much from the meeting.  For sure, if you get a chance pray for the people who work for God's kingdom and be proud of the workcampers/ASPers/youth missioners that you know.  They do some incredible work that I am blessed to witness.

Anyway, today, I had a ride-along :)  The two guys who visit the applicants took me with them.  First off, today was COLD!  The temperature dropped all day and it snowed off and on all day, just flurries no sticking.  Thus it was a two-fold bummer: not enough snow to be pretty and magical and I froze!  Never fear, the rest of the day was totally worth it.  Especially, because we visited one home and as the womangirl (she's my age and I just don't feel particularly grown enough for the "woman" label.  I imagine this is partially due to the fact I'm the youngest person by ten years around except for kids on the mission...) showed us around the inside her baby girl saw me, walked straight over with her arms open.  She was adorable!  I carried her all around the house, the sweet little thing was happy as can be.   Also, I feel quite certain we'll work on the home, and you better believe that I'll be pushing for it to be one I crewlead!

So, I'm sitting in my blue armchair with a nice cup of tea.  I still smell like ash from the partially burned crawlspace but my hands are unfrozen and my feet have almost thawed.  And mostly, I'm thanking God for living in a missions classroom, for good heat (my room can get to sauna level in no time) and for hope.