Location, Location, Location

Our May project was a wonderful one. It had to be. Why else would we return to the same camp for the third straight year: Little Galilee Christian Camp in Clinton, Illinois.

One reason we like this camp so much is, like they say in advertising, location, location, location. For one thing, Bill has extended family close by which allowed us to host a family reunion (Bill’s mother’s side) at the camp on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. We also like the location because it’s on our way back to Wisconsin for the summer months. With all the beautiful scenic places in these United States, you might not think that central Illinois would be a priority destination. Although the land is pretty flat, there are many beautiful areas and places to visit;I particularly like being in the Land of Lincoln. So much fascinating history. Later on, I’ll share a bit more about some of the places we visited. 

But, one of our main reasons for loving Little Galilee is that they do an amazing job with the variety of God-centered camps they provide and it is an absolutely wonderful place to work. This camp has only three full-time paid employees. They do hire some summer staff, but provide excellent Christian camping experiences using many many volunteers. And then there’s the work we do. Volunteering at this camp is a dream. There is always plenty to do and the person in charge of the work we do knows how to use volunteers to the best of everyone’s advantage. He’s got the projects organized and the tools and materials ready to do the job. Upon our arrival, both Bill and I received a long list of work that we could do with our team.

Knowing Bill to be an experienced welder, one of the jobs for him was replacing a dump box on one of the trucks. While Bill and one other worked on the truck, the rest of the guys put up metal frames for interior walls in the building of a new dining hall. 

 The women painted and painted and painted. The good news is: I like to paint. First, we painted many many pieces of wood cut by our guys that would be put together by them later to make six partitions on wheels that measured 6 by 8 feet. After we gave them several coats, we added a final one after they were put together. Another painting job we got to do was outside and for that we had to wait for good weather conditions (lots of rain and wind and storms). But we succeeded.



The men also had to wait out the weather in order to install the soffit and fascia on the new dining hall. Bill loved being high. J

Thank the Lord there were no major accidents or injuries. I had a minor one when the saw table decided it couldn’t handle the panels we were leaning up against and it fell over. Why, oh why, I thought I could catch it. Obviously, it was an automatic reaction. I couldn’t move the table by myself, why would I think I could catch it as it was tipping over. Good news is: I only had a small bruise on my arm and was able to continue working, no problem.

I’m also happy to say, it didn’t stop me at all from enjoying our time visiting places of interest in the area. As I said earlier, there are a lot of great places to go. One not so pretty Saturday afternoon, we decided to check out Lake Clinton. Well, it’s not that simple. It’s spread out and has lots of inlets, a spillway, and random places to park, hike, and fish. As we were parked along the road side, a car pulled up alongside of us and asked if we needed help. We told the nice lady that we had made a few stops along Lake Clinton and weren’t sure where to go next. She gave us excellent directions to a beautiful setting. There were several large camping areas, a lovely beach, and, according to one of the camp hosts that we spoke to, the beach side restaurant has excellent and reasonable priced food. We will go back, hopefully, when the weather is a bit nicer.

Another Saturday took us to the Hieronymus Mueller Museum (don’t ask how to pronounce it, I can’t remember). Hieronymus had seven children all of whom, in one way or another were involved with his enterprises. He was a pioneer entrepreneur who founded several business including Mueller Co. which still exists today and produces many of the original patented products including the water pressure valve and the iconic fire hydrants found all over the U.S. It may not sound like it here, but his story is quite interesting and the museum was so very well done.

That same afternoon we made a few more stops. One was to Blessingdales. I just like the name…it’s a thrift store in Decatur IL. Cute, huh? The other stops were two area breweries. Ya know Bill, if there’s a dark beer he hasn’t tasted, he’s all for giving it a try. He’ll go back to 4 Door Brewery as he really liked the one named “Revolution.” I actually tried a cider (which I don’t usually like) and found the Cherry one fairly tasty. Not really my thing. We enjoyed the camaraderie at the Golden Fox Brewery as we were there at the end of the Kentucky Derby but Bill found their beer choices lacking. He ended up having one that shared the name of one of our granddaughters. Strange, but true. J

Brewery for Bill; winery for Share. That seems fair, right? It’s been awhile seeing as how grapes don’t grow so well in the southern states where we spend a lot of time. Not a big deal. Once again, one place we went was just okay (Alto Winery) and the next one was great (Wyldewood Cellars). First, the difference between our servers was huge; one very personable and helpful, the other just doing her job with distraction. Wyldewood specializes in Elderberry wines and I found one that was deeeeeelicious. It was spiced, and for those of you who know me well, I am a bit spicey. J The unfortunate thing was after we got home and I was putting away our purchases, I found that she forgot to include the Elderberry Spiced Wine. If there is any good news in that, it’s that we didn’t pay for it either. I was pretty disappointed but the winery was just under an hour away and we weren’t going to make that trip just for a bottle of wine. Maybe, next year. I do find the stories we hear about how these businesses got started and why they do what they do fascinating. That’s one of the reasons we search out new breweries or wineries. I won’t go into some of the great stories we heard at these places as I know some of you think my blogs are rather long (but you have to remember this serves as sort of a diary for me).

We took a day trip to visit Lincoln’s New Salem Historic Village. On our way, we stopped in Lincoln, IL (the only city named in his honor while he was still alive) to check out the Lincoln Heritage Museum. Quite unique. Instead of just looking at various artifacts displayed in cases, the upper level of the museum walked you through various aspects of Lincoln’s life using lights to lead you where to look or walk, audio providing the voices and stories from his life, and visual interpretations of various events. I’m not doing a very good job of explaining it so you’ll just have to go see it for yourself. Glad we detoured off to see it.

On to Lincoln’s New Salem State Historical Village, a recreated village that features everything an 1830’s town would have including costumed interpreters that play the role of villagers. The original town actually existed for about 12 years before it was abandoned and left to pasture. Lincoln was a resident of New Salem for six very formative years. One of the “villagers” told us some good stories about how Lincoln gained confidence and leadership skills while living on his own in New Salem. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Such a beautiful day!

Oh, I just thought of another reason we like the location of Little Galilee…the church we attend. First Christian Church of Clinton has a bit of our home church flavor. Sound teaching, great praise and worship, and very friendly and welcoming attenders. Really enjoy the Sunday School class. For two of the weeks we were there the teaching was on the Feasts of the OT. I was so inspired I bought one of the books that the teacher recommended. “Celebrating Biblical Feasts” …. Oh no, I just realized I got the wrong book. The book I wanted was entitled “Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts” by Richard Booker. The book I ordered is by Martha Zimmerman. Seriously, oh well, I guess I’ll just have to put in another order.

In the past, one of the only things I really didn’t like about the Little Galilee location is how windy it can be there. The location where we park, is directly across a road from a large farmer’s field which has a huge wind farm behind it. Needless to say there is nothing stopping the winds when they come and come they did! I’m thrilled to say, that even though the winds and storms we had this time were worse than in the past, I was amazingly calm. HalleluJAH!!! PTL!!!  On two different nights we brought our slides in so we wouldn’t have to listen to the wind blowing on the awnings. That helped a lot. I’m so grateful, that even when the rig was literally rockin’, I wasn’t freaking out like I have in the past when it wasn’t even as windy. Thank you, Jesus! Growth is so good!

Our team also had a few social times. Of course, the ladies took a day off and did some shopping but the best part of the day was having lunch at La-TEA-Da Tea Room. Very cute. Very quaint. Very good. One evening, our team enjoyed a fabulous fish fry made by our fearless leader. Another time the men attended a dinner that was being hosted by the camp. The camp asked if the ladies would like to help serve and we all said sure. Come to find out, they really didn’t need us to help serve but they wanted to feed us too and figured we wouldn’t come to the men’s meeting just for the food. Aren’t they clever? The Sunday before Memorial Weekend and our last Sunday night there, the camp invited us all to a Pizza Party to kick off the summer program with the just-arrived summer staff. It was so nice to be included and hear a bit of what was to come.

As I began this blog, we do really love this camp and that is why we have signed up for another project next May. We are so very grateful to be wanted back and we are so very grateful for all that God continues to do for us. PTL!

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Ye ole scrub woman

Just call me” ye ole scrub woman.” Another project completed -- a really good
project. Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center holds a special place in our hearts because it was our first VMM project back in October of 2016. They host all sorts of youth camps and retreats for all ages. The summer camps are put on by Tall Timbers while other groups that come in manage their own events and retreats. We are always happy to return. In fact, this April, we finished up a cabin that Bill helped drywall last April. One of the jobs the ladies got to do was clean up the mess the guys made in the remodel process. Before we got to the cleaning, we had to prime and paint all sorts of pieces for shelving that the men would install in the closets and next to the showers. 

Our cleaning consisted of removing glue residue and layers of dirt in all four of the bathrooms including all fixtures, floors, and sleeping rooms. Scrubbing, scraping, sweeping, and mopping. It was hard work, but very satisfying. Thank you, Lord, that you sustained my body for this challenge.

The men had their work cut out for them as well. Putting up the shelves was the easy part. There was the 1000+ feet of trenching and laying water pipe for a new outdoor recreation field and then smashing concrete and digging trenches for yet another large room meeting cabin to be remodeled into four “private” sleeping quarters for ten with attached bathrooms. The men worked really hard. Bill, especially, as he was crew leader on this project and a darn good one, if I do say so myself. And I do.

We arrived on project several days ahead of time and thoroughly enjoyed the down time. Although, I was insistent we go into Alexandria as soon as possible so I could get my taste of boudin balls. I must admit I do love Louisiana cuisine. For those of you who don’t know, boudin balls are made with sausage and rice and some really tasty spicy spices. I get the plain ones but they are not plain by any means. Of course, Bill likes the ones with jalapeno cheese.

Bill had lots of fun the first two Fridays we were in Louisiana. First Friday he got to take our car in for some brake repair work to the tune of $500. The following Friday he got to take the car in on a recall for the passenger airbag. If it wasn’t potentially serious, it would be kind of comical. We have had the car 10 years and now we get the recall: if it deployed it might send out metal fragments. So grateful we never had to find this out for ourselves.PTL!!! While Bill was waiting on this work to be done, I was back at Tall Timbers helping housekeeping turn a few rooms over for the next group coming in. This isn’t something we normally do, especially on a Friday, but I had the time and they had the need to get it done quickly. Seemed like a good idea and I enjoyed it.

One of our great joys in being so close to Alexandria on this project was the opportunity to spend time with someone we met at French Camp who lives there. I met Red, as I have come to fondly call her, our first time in French Camp. Short story…we bonded. J  

Red did well at French Camp and after a summer and two school years, Red started high school back home. Our second Sunday at Tall Timbers, we went to church with Red and her family and had a lovely dinner at their home afterwards. Such a delight. I was also able to spend an entire afternoon with Red during her spring break. The timing couldn’t have been better. Thank you, Lord! She took me to her favorite coffee shop, then we went to the mall and a few other places. We had a great time. On that Friday, Bill and I took her to lunch at one of my favorite places and I was thrilled to find out it was one of her favorites too. It was another very enjoyable experience made especially fun because our waiter was a young man that caught Red’s eye. I’ll say no more as I want to remain her friend. I made one more trip to see Red. It was to pick up a couple letters she wanted me to deliver to French Camp for some of her dorm sisters. Ain’t that sweet.

While the guys were digging trenches, us ladies took a day to do some shopping. A favorite of VMMers, is to go to thrift stores. We also stopped at a LifeWay Christian store, Michael’s, Stage, Tuesday Morning, and Krogers to get pints of ice cream to eat on the way home. There aren’t any real ice cream shops in the area so we had to improvise. What was I thinking…I was driving. I ate a few ginormous bites (Blue Bunny Bunny Tracks…YUM) and saved the rest until later. I bought one novel, one autobiography, a really cute leopard print top, two packs of beautiful card making paper for 75% off, raspberry syrup (for my coffee as the selection of flavored coffees in the south is very limited), and, surprise surprise I found some Pecan Caramel coffee at Tuesdays.

After a busy day of shopping, we came home and made quick suppers for our husbands because we had a game night scheduled. We had one game night each week of the project and each time we played a different game. Aren’t we crazy and wild mixing it up like that?  J  Hand & Foot, Jokers & Pegs, and 7s. Men came from behind on H&F, Ladies won J&P, and Bill won 7s. Fun times.

We had some seriously severe weather during our stay but, thankfully we didn’t have to go to the storm shelter. One of those times was a Saturday afternoon and evening. Bill thought it a good time to go to the movies which we haven’t done in years. It helped that the movie “Unplanned” was showing. So good. Sometimes hard to watch, but I highly recommend it. One weather pattern had gone through while we were in the movies and another one was approaching. We stopped for a couple Boudin balls for a quick dinner and then Bill thought it was a good time to check out a new brewery as we would pass right by it on our way home. Initially, I just wanted to get home, but the building did appear sturdier than our rig. It was actually quite enjoyable. We watched the continual severe weather reports on TV and taste tested a few beers.  Now it was my turn to be indulged…we stopped at three gas stations as I remember seeing one advertise ice cream. The third was a charm. More Bunny Tracks for me; and I can’t even remember what Bill got as I was too busy enjoying my own. The rest of the ride home was a bit harrowing to me, as it was raining pretty hard with thunder and lightning off in the distance. Needless to say, we made it back safely.

Because the ladies got their work done, we decided to take another day off. In the morning we went to what looks like a gas station but is more of a small market with a hot food deli and fresh meats, sausages and boudin. Taking some to Illinois for a bit of Louisiana flavor. Our main goal for the afternoon was to go to the local Pregnancy Care Center to pray and encourage. What a beautiful place. God has richly blessed this particular care center. 6000 square feet. Rental cost $1 a month. All furnishings and supplies donated. What a testimony of God’s goodness.

And because, the ladies only work mornings, we were able to spend several afternoons watching a DVD series by Chewbacca mom, author of Laugh it Up, entitled Defiant Joy. What a hoot. But more importantly, what great Biblical teaching and personal application. It didn’t hurt that she quoted so many of my favorite Scriptures.

Our entire team served in a different capacity for a special purpose one Thursday night. There was a huge retirement banquet at the conference center and they needed more servers. Our entire team volunteered to help and we had a lot of fun doing it. Each team member focused on about 12 attenders. I do like to serve and was grateful there was no order taking. Just keeping the two drink options clear in my head was quite the challenge. We got “paid” with a steak dinner.

Another fun (not so much) adventure was me going to urgent care. We thought I might have a teeny sliver in my pinky finger. After both Bill and another team project member tried to find it by poking around my finger with a needle with no success (unless you call my outburst a success), we decided to seek medical attention. It had been sore for several days and was becoming more swollen, hard, and painful. The good news was, they think it’s only a broken blood vessel. The bad news was, after driving into Alexandria and registering we had to turn around and go back to the rig (about 30 minutes)  and get my Medicare card. Up to this time my health insurance card proved good enough. I guess they do things different in the South! I will say, they sure were exceptionally nice and took the time to explain possibilities and options. They did put me on an antibiotic in case there was something so small that the x-ray didn’t pick it up. I’m not used to taking medication and after the first day, I started double dosing because I’m used to taking two each of my various vitamins. Oops…not sure if I had any repercussions on that but I’m happy to say, my finger is getting better just still a little tender and raised.  So grateful, however, for no other injuries by anyone on the project. PTL!!!

In case you were wondering, Bill and I did do some fun things in good weather. Well, sort of. We visited Fort Randolph and Fort Buhrow. These were earthen forts built along the Red River to stop the Union Army late in the Civil War. However, no shots were ever fired from these two forts and they were not maintained in their original form. So as we walked the boardwalks, we had to use our imagination a bit. We enjoyed it even when it tried to rain on us a few times. Bill also might have an opportunity to be a blacksmith at some of their special events that they would schedule in April of next year if we are to return. We also managed to get in a walk around the lake at Tall Timbers without getting our feet wet after a few warm and sunny days. There were some wet spots but still very doable and beautiful. 

On the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter we took a day trip to Natchitoches  (pronounced Nack-a-tish) which has a beautiful historic downtown waterfront. Natchitoches is also home to the main house used in the movie Steel Magnolias. It is now a bed and breakfast. So for $250 a night you can sleep there. On our way, we stopped at Magnolia Plantation. It appeared to be a mostly self-guided tour. Good thing, because there was no one around to provide information. Fortunately, there were brochures available so we could give ourselves a really good tour. Very interesting place. 

We also stopped at the Melrose Plantation where we did have a guided tour that was so worth it. A lot of fascinating history as this plantation was established by “gens de couleur libres” (free people of color) around the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Here’s just a snippet of that history:  In 1742, Marie Thérèse Coincoin was born a slave and leased as a housekeeper to a young French merchant named Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer. A nineteen year relationship ensued, resulting in ten children. Eventually, Metoyer purchased Marie Thérèse and several of their children, giving them their freedom. And that’s just the beginning of a fascinating story. You’ll have to go to Louisiana to find out more or just J Google it. J

What a great place to be for the celebration of our Lord’s resurrection. The church we went to with Red’s family has a small sister church about ten minutes from Tall Timbers. That’s where we went the first Sunday with our VMM team and then again on Good Friday. There was an evening service with several readings, worship songs, inspirational video clips all the while an artist was painting. Very cool! 

On Easter, I was excited to go to what I called the Big Church. The one in 

Alexandria that Red’s family attends. They had a large choir and orchestra. One of my desires on Easter morning is to make a really loud and joyful noise unto the Lord and we sure did that. They also had a couple of baptisms which only added to the joyful experience. We returned to our rig and had a sweet, just the two of us, tiny ham dinner. Mid-afternoon, in gorgeous weather, we played bag toss (corn hole) with one of the other VMMer couples. Wonderfully blessed day. He is risen! He’s risen indeed!

We left Tall Timbers the Friday after Easter, heading north to our next project at Little Galilee Christian Camp, Clinton, Illinois. Going just an hour out of our way, we popped into French Camp to say hi to our dear friends. We stayed three nights. Lotsa hugs, catching up chats, and more hugs made the trip SO VERY worthwhile. Left French Camp Monday after hanging out in the dining hall for all three lunch periods so we could say final good byes especially to graduating seniors. Illinois, here we come.

Be blessed and be a blessing!