Time, what a funny thing.

"Time (as is well known) sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a worm.  But a man feels particularly happy when he does not even notice whether it is passing quickly or quietly." from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev.

Well folks, I've been in KY a couple days short of seven months.  Sometimes I thought time had stopped.  With the empty campus, still woods, and frozen roads, I was pretty sure that the earth had simply quit rotating too.

And there have been times where I was very sure that Red Bird Mission campus had fallen into a black hole which sped up to at least 5x the normal speed.  For example, that one time when Bob was sick and Craig was gone and Dennis was gone and I get back to campus late from the job site.  Walking up to the dining hall I meet Susanne who lets me know we're tag-teaming closing ceremony as the pastor in charge of Communion tells me she has to leave because of a death in the church family...what? Oh yeah and you should probably start dinner too. Craziness, and yet despite the chaos and rookie leaders.  Closing happened: work campers shared, we all worshipped and God was praised.  Or that time when we had 126 eighth graders and their chaperones.  CRAZY (warp speed for sure) but a blast!

 Mostly though, time has passed without much notice.  Time = the distance between the irregularities such as ASP with Fayette First UMC (Check out our super cool safety gear.  Are we ready for demolition or what?)

or Kate's visit (we had a good time at the lake and eating lunch at Abe Lincoln's uncle's house :)  Good times.) or biblically themed golf with the family.  (Kodak moment = Mills family on Noah's ark, hole 6)

or the Red Bird concert.  (I could go on pounce games with the Quest work crew, Berea with Katie and Lexi, Red Bird Mission bowling night, etc.)  Besides the 'changes to the plan' moments, calluses, tan lines, coffee addictions, morning routimes, and increasingly more stained clothes mark time's journey too.  From the state of my clothes, yep, I can tell I've definitely been here a bit.  Also, from the joy of mornings and from fun of swapping crewleader "war stories," time sauntered on by.  Thanks to the staff, to the volunteers, to the residents, and to God.  It's been an adventure and a half and there's even a little more left.  'Sparky' here still has a few outlets to wire and homes to crawl under.  Until I get home, happy summer to you all.  Can't wait to see you friends and just a tip, always wear a hat or bandana when heading to a construction site.  You'd be amazed at the creepy crawlies they prevent from reaching your happy hair ;) 

I better sign out.  Next week I work "where the blacktop ends", literally. Love you! 

Gratitude

So, just wanted to say that last week a big prayer was answered.  My very first week with crews of my own I worked for a very sweet lady named Lucy.  Lucy had children of here own that were grown and now sort of cares for a grandkid as well as caring for her mentally-handicapped brother, Liam.

Mrs. Lucy lives in the house her Dad/Grandad (not sure which) built.  It is small and old and cute.  While plumbing in her kitchen sink, I discovered she had lake o' sewage underneath her house and did not have an operational bathroom.  The lake created the perfect feast for rather disgusting bugs who then invaded her home.  And of course there was a rather intense odor because the bathroom floors were in rough shape too.

While we worked on her home, I just knew that it was sort of pointless.  Until the lake was fixed and the bathroom up and running the lake would grow and the house would get worse.  This broke my heart.  Mrs. Lucy shows such extravagant love caring for her 60+ brother who cannot even speak.

Well, last week a church came to fix on Mrs. Lucy's bathroom.  (I don't think that they realized exactly what they'd gotten into.)  But, two gentlemen braved the stench and muck.  These guys completely re-plumbed Mrs. Lucy's bathroom.  The lake below will now dry up and then the home can be fumigated. And all will be well in the underbelly of Mrs. Lucy's home. These guys were absolutely angels to work in such ICK.  They eliminated the source of the problem and answered deep hope of this girl.  Praise be to God for answered prayers, for crazy volunteers, for bleach, for lysol, for the big love of a quiet mountain woman, and for functioning toilets.

Psalm 68:5 "Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation."

Amen.

Check in Box on Bucket List

I have now earned a 'SECURITY' shirt.  It's totally official.  I had a walkie-talkie and mean-mug and roamed back stage.  A life goal has now been fulfilled.  :)

Let me back up a little.  Red Bird Mission turned 90 on July 1.  To celebrate, the Mission held a big concert slash fireworks show.  I was recruited to do a multitude of tasks for said event.  However, the most exciting was concert security.  It has been a life goal of mine ever since my first Relient K concert to earn a security shirt.  (Simply buying a shirt that said security would be far too lame.)  

I will say the concert went well.  The bands sounded good.  Fireflight rocked!  (And they were super nice. I was at one point a band chauffeur as well.  High heels + wet hayfield = hazardous terrain for rockstars).

Anyway, thought I would share my exciting news.  Happy summer! 

The Joy of Today

Hi folks.  It's been quite sometime.  I do apologize for my neglect of this little blog.

Let me begin my update with a post about Thursday because it was a fairly normal, fabulous day at Red Bird Mission.  God was good and work was busy...

1. I hit snooze twice.  Both times the extra ten minutes were awesome.
2. There was cereal for breakfast and Bob (a co-worker, friend, and all around cool guy) was back and in the crewleader meeting.
3. My group kept me laughing as we finished up the 70ft (that's stinking long by the way) wheelchair ramp for a sweet elderly lady and her husband. see picture below
4. We got back to campus and finished a few little maintenance jobs at the mission, including installing working fans in the large group meeting room.  Yay for a cooler evening gathering!
5. We celebrated and took pictures and prayed with the family.
6. I got to run and spotted a bunny, turtle, and family of birds.
7. A sweet workcamp volunteer (day job: professional hair dresser) trimmed my hair.
8. The talent show was alternately funny and worshipful.
9. I'm now drinking raspberry tea and talking to my parents on skype.

An old post from April 2:

Hi friends.

So, we had sunshine today!  It was such a joy to see blues skies and sun.  I could hardly wait to finish cabin cleaning so that I could soak in some vitamin D :)  The sun was especially welcome after we had the snow Monday and sleet later week.

However, my sunshine time was cut a little short for two reasons: 1. The wind was pretty chilly.  2.  I was invited to learn to make Indian food with Suzanne.  Suzanne is one half of a missionary couple down here.  Suzanne is the Women and Children's Coordinator.  She's five feet tall of awesome!  (Her husband Bob is the Materials Coordinator of workcamp and pretty cool as well.)  So, I scampered off to fry some naan and stew some lamb.  Several hours later, my finger tips are stained yellow, my belly is full and my clothes smell like Taj India.  In other words, I had a blast.  Suzanne taught me to make naan (a little bit of a cheater kind), cucumber raita (the yogurty dish to cool everything down), tandori chicken, saag aloo (spinach, potatoes and spice!), kashmiri rogan josh (a lamb dish), and basmati (Indian rice).  Mmm Mmm good!

Borrowed pictures from the birthday week of AWESOME

Martha, the head cook made a triple layer chocolate cake. Mmm yummy goodness!  The Wisconsin crew was happy to help me celebrate.

Fair warning, this is the group from the last post. Check out our awesome backrub line :)

Yeah, they were that cool.

In the Words of a Very Brave Man...

It is hard work to chase hope.  Hope is not for sissies.

These people and this past week reminded me that it is totally worth it.  Thanks Wisconsin. (P.S. note the gorgeous nature of those stairs!)