We Finally Made It!

We made it! We finally made it! We are on our first mission work project. We are both so VERY excited to be at New Creations in Richmond, Indiana. We arrived Thursday, April 14^th, late afternoon. It was quite an ordeal getting here. More accurately it was just an ordeal for me.  Bill wanted to get on the road as soon as possible, so we prepped the motorhome for travel and left Pigeon Forge, TN by 9:15 a.m. At the moment, Tennessee is my favorite state. Even though driving on narrow roads, around lots of curves, up and down the side of the mountains, in a really large vehicle towing a car behind, I still love these mountains. What I don’t love is Cincinnati. More like dislike immensely. What I really dislike is multiple lane highways, with lots of cars and trucks and crazy people. And, although, I could be talking about myself, I’m talking about all the other crazy people out there. Those driving in the big cities like they’re the only people on the road. Don’t get me wrong, I know, I’m the one with the problem. I had been doing so much better with remaining somewhat relaxed as we travelled in the motorhome, but something happened going through Ohio (particularly Cincinnati). One possibility is, I’m not pointing fingers, just wondering if some of my prayer warriors thought I was doing so much better in this area that you stopped praying. Please, always be praying as we travel (for our safety and my mental well-being). My anxiety was ridiculous. I hope and pray that it was just an attack of the enemy trying to stir things up as we were so looking forward to being on project. I know I was driving Bill crazy and made it hard for him to concentrate and not be affected by my craziness. I need serious counseling if I’m going to get over this phobia of being close to semis when they pass and being fearful of us drifting or other vehicles drifting into our lane or cars darting in front of us. Please be kind to motorhome drivers as you travel, they are not able to stop or change lanes as quickly as a car. I have such a greater appreciation and respect for large motor vehicles and trailers. Because my reactions were worse than usual, I felt even worse for not trusting God to take care of us. Fortunately, once we were past all the multiple lane highways, I relaxed a little but was still pretty exhausted by the time we reached our destination.

We arrived at New Creations around 4:30. By the way, a word of advice when using GPS, you may want to compare the specific directions ahead of time with a map. Oh, we made it to New Creations all right following the GPS but there is no doubt, that the last hour of travel could have been by a much more direct route. This happened to us once before on our way to our granddaughter’s house in Belleview; we made four or five turns down some back roads where we could have stayed on the main highway and make only one turn. We’re learning all sorts of interesting things on our travels.

We received a warm welcomed from Pastor Tim Cummings, Founder of New Creations Chapel, Inc. upon our arrival. Here’s a few tidbits about New Creations. It started in 1969, with a choir and a Bible study for teens and young adults. It grew over the years and now includes: a boarding school that serves teenagers ages 12-17, a Christian K-12 school, a non-denominational church body of local people, staff, and students, a riding stable for education, therapy, and adventure, and a camp offering retreats, family and youth camps, reunions, and corporate gatherings all located on 600+ acres.  It’s quite the place.

Friday morning, we had a driving tour around the property by Dave, the Facilities Manager.  Rolling terrain with lots of trees, a 50 acre lake, a river that winds through the trees; there’s corn fields, cabins, dormitories, school, church, stable, and lots more buildings and fields. As we rode, Dave pointed out all the various potential projects that Bill could help with. Friday afternoon, he chopped down a tree and trimmed up a couple other ones in the RV parking area. This week he got to use a frontend loader/backhoe to widen one of the roads on Monday, followed by the next two days when he chopped and cleared out brush on one of the access roads.

Now you may all be thinking…well, we’ve finally settled in. We’ll be staying in one place for a while. All I can say is “that’s a silly thought”. After being at New Creations for 40 hours, we hopped in the motorhome and headed to Lafayette, Indiana to attend the Purduettes Spring Spectacular Concert. Our niece, Kara, has been part of the Purduettes since her freshman year; this being her senior year, this was the last big concert of her Purduette career and we were less than three hours away.

Originally we were going to take the car, but after checking hotel costs, we were much better off taking the motorhome and boondocking at Walmart. (We’re getting pretty good at that.) It would be a huge blessing not to have to tow the car, so I prayed hard. In researching Walmart lots that allowed overnight parking, I was having a little trouble but found a possibility near Hwy 26 & I65. I mention those highways because in talking to Bill’s brother/Kara’s dad, Wayne, he said that he’d be happy to pick us up and drop us off if we weren’t too far off from their hotel and, you guessed it, their hotel was on the other side of Hwy 26 & I65. I called the Walmart to be sure it was all right and after talking with several people, I finally got the okay as long as we parked on the far end. You can imagine our surprise upon our arrival to find signs in the lot that said “No truck or trailer overnight parking.” There wasn’t just one sign, there were many! Oh noooooo! Please, Lord, give us favor. There were several semis and one motorhome parked at the far end, so we pulled in. Part of me didn’t want to go in and ask, but I knew I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving it for the concert and I probably would have had trouble sleeping, thinking someone would knock on our door asking us to move. Soooo, we went in and asked once more if we could park in the lot overnight. Thank the Lord, the lady said yes. She said the signs were to deter semi-drivers as they have been causing some damage getting in and out of the lot.

It was great fun showing Bill’s two brothers and their wives our home on wheels. When we boondock we don’t put the slides out, so it wasn’t as spacious as when we’re parked normally but they could still appreciate the fact that it had everything we needed. It was so nice to see and spend time with family from Wisconsin. We got to see our niece’s apartment, had a delicious lunch, and walked around the campus. It’s quite lovely and the concert was fantabulous. (That’s fantastically fabulous!)  Sunday morning we got picked up again (such a blessing; PTL) had brunch (because we had to wait over 75 minutes for a table) with everyone at Another Broken Egg Café.  Quite the popular place, understandably so, very good with a very unique menu.  By 1:30, we were on our way back to New Creations.

So, here we are Wednesday evening, Bill has put in three hard days of work and I’ve been able to catch up on some much needed bookkeeping. I’ve done okay with keeping up with my duties on the road as Financial Administrator for His House Christian Fellowship, but I had a lot of catching up to do with my bookkeeping for the Greenway House Bed and Breakfast.  I’m happy to say, I’m feeling good about both. Good thing, because tomorrow morning as soon as we have the car packed up, we’re heading to Wisconsin for five days. This time the motorhome is staying at New Creations and we’re driving “home.”

It’s time to get another load of much needed household goods, more clothes, more tools, and other things we wish we had remembered or been able to bring along when we left to pick up our rig. (By the way, I had another suggestion on RIG...Resting In Grace. Love it. Thanks Sam Smith.) Actually, the real reason we’re coming back to Wisconsin is so that we can attend the His House Board Retreat (Bill is on the board). It’s one of two meetings a year that Bill is committed to attending in person otherwise meetings are held on-line which makes it possible for him to remain on the board. It’s in these instances, I praise God for the internet.

We’ll be staying at my sister’s condo in Oshkosh, where all of what’s left of our belongings is stored. We’re hoping to see a lot of friends and family, but if we miss you this time, we’ll be back in June. You can continue to keep up with us as I’m hoping to be a bit more timely in my posts, now that I have finally gotten caught up and our life is beginning to have some sense of normalcy. What is normal, anyway? For us, it’s constantly changing. Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful journey you have us on.