Greetings my friends and family,
I know it has been awhile since I’ve written but you know how it is, same as
everyone else: I’ve been keeping busy…
living the great life God has so richly blessed us with.
So what have we been up to since
early November? Well, we’re still loving it at French Camp MS even though we had
a really long cold spell. Had several nights when it was in the single digits
and that can cause some real problems with water freezing in a motor home. Plus we hadn’t gotten around to figuring out
what was wrong with our front furnace thermostat. Thank the Lord for electric
heaters. Oh the joys of motor home ownership. (Love it still.) As you can see
from the photo, we
are also got to enjoy a bit of a Wisconsin type winter wonderland. Snow is not
common place around here. And, yes, to my northern friends, most everything
closes down under these conditions. They just don’t have what’s needed to make
travelling safe especially on the very shady country roads and there are many
of them, so they close. 
Our guys continue to work on the
church addition, taking a few extra breaks to warm their hands and other body
parts. The project is coming along
nicely and as you can see it’s beginning to look more and more like an actual building.J And, they use the same
database program as His House does which made it possible for me to help out.
Recently, Bill has been helping put the decorative trim on all the posts as
well as helping our volunteer electrician. Some of the other guys are building
a stage area and a few of the women are helping with caulking and pulling
wires. I am not in that category. I’m keeping busy with all the extra
bookkeeping duties for His House CF required every January plus I help in the
Academy Admin Office entering donations. They get behind in January too!
One of the big projects for the
ladies each November/December at French Camp is helping with the Bread
Mailings. What’s that you say? I’m so glad you asked. Giving a loaf of homemade Sorghum bread to donors began back in 1950 and it continues to this day. Each November, every donor of $25 or more annually will receive a loaf of this delicious bread. Another mailing is also done during this time for “gifts of bread.” For a minimum donation of $25 you can send a gift of bread to anyone in the U.S. And it is worth it! Can’t tell you the number of letters folded, stuffed, sorted and attached to a loaf of bread we did but we sure had a good time doing it.
Since November, we have had so
many more wonderful experiences engaging in the school and community. We
attended more tailgate parties and football games cheering on the French Camp
Academy football team through the first round of playoffs. At one of the
football games, there was a special tribute to veterans that Bill participated
in. So cool! 
We have had the pleasure of
joining some of the elementary girls for lunch in the public school cafeteria.
(The Academy is junior and senior high kids only.) They seem to enjoy the half
hour of our attention or maybe it’s that we buy them an optional ice cream
treat when we visit.
I really enjoy helping set up and
attending the monthly historical luncheon hosted by the church. I’ve learned so
much about French Camp through these interesting talks and have met so many
lovely and interesting people.
There is no prom at the Academy
but they do have a very special Christmas Banquet; and very special it is. We
were thrilled to be invited to attend. The girls get all dressed up, a boy can
“pick up” the girl at her dorm and walk her to the banquet, there are pictures
taken of couples or groups, and a lovely dinner is served by a youth group from
a church in Memphis. Apparently, this has been going on for some time. This
youth group comes and transforms the dining hall into a beautiful banquet hall.
We were able to sit with
my Mississippi sister and her husband and one of the guy student’s Bill (and I) have befriended and his “date.” It
was a truly beautiful evening to see and experience.
We feel so blessed to have the
privilege of engaging in the lives of these dear people (students, staff, and
community members) of French Camp. We’ve already started referring to it as our
second home (and, from what I hear, they’re okay with that J). We’ve been
particularly blessed in developing special relationships with several
students. One student was extremely
disappointed when she found out that we wouldn’t be here for her graduation. I
guess, some of them think this is now our home even though they know it’s
really not. We get regular hugs and waves from these students several times a
day as we see them about the campus and most often at lunch or dinner in the
common dining hall. It truly warms our heart as we love to encourage and love
on these kids as much as we can.
We managed to fit in a couple
side trips; some overnight, some just for the day or evening. Loved our trip to Memphis. We stayed in a
darling AirBnB bungalow at a VERY reasonable price. We had a few funny instances when we first arrived; the
lockbox holding the entrance key would not open. We could see it was jammed.
The good news was that we had our hostess’s cell number and she was out on a
run with her dogs, so she was able to get home within a reasonable amount of
time to let us in. Yes, I did say dogs, but we really didn’t notice that they
were there except maybe the extra dust around the house. Oh well, that didn’t
bother us (too much). We had a small but sufficient bedroom attached to our own
private den with a comfy couch and TV. When we went to use the bathroom which
was adjacent to the bedroom, the beautiful glass doorknob came off in my hand.
Too funny. Hunted down our hostess again and Bill repaired the knob. That
evening we were trying to watch TV in our personal den, but couldn’t figure out
how to get regular channels. Apparently people that usually stay with her are
more interested in Netflix and Hulu or whatever else she had. She wasn’t even
sure how to make the regular stations come in, but Bill finally figured it out.
Good thing…I wanted to see the Finale of Dancing with the Stars. Then the next
day we hear a knock on the outside door. We ignored it as we were pretty sure
our hostess was home. Finally, Bill went and answered the door and found some
utility workers who were there to do some repair work. Our hostess didn’t
answer when I called out to her, so I used my phone to find her. She was
exercising and apologized for not hearing the door. We found these incidents a
bit comical, but as I said, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. 
Our site-seeing excursions in
Memphis, of course, took us to Graceland, but just a brief stop outside the
gates Touring Graceland
isn’t something Bill really wanted to do (and I get that) so if I were to spend the money, I’d like to go with someone who wanted to be there (and he gets that). It’s not something I’m dying to do, but I’d go if I had someone to go with. (Any volunteers?) The biggest highlight for me (and Bill enjoyed it too) was the six hours we spent at the zoo.
For Bill, we went to Bass Pro Shops Sportsman’s Paradise and shopped around a bit. That evening and the next day we checked out Beale Street. Oops forgot the other big highlight for me…walking across the Mississippi River. I started out a little nervous…you know me and heights (especially when I can see through whatever it is I am walking on) but thoroughly enjoyed the experience, especially the contrasting views looking back at Memphis and over to the Arkansas shore.
Bill really blessed be my taking
me to one of my favorite shows: Disney on Ice. It’s been years since we have
gone and “Frozen” was playing in Tupelo. Yes, I’m one of those “little” girls
who love “Frozen.” Let it Go. J
One thing I love about the
traveling we do is going into these old southern towns and seeing the beautiful
Antebellum and Victorian homes. On one of those freezing cold days, we took a
driving tour through Aberdeen MS with a brochure in hand outlining forty-nine
homes of interest. Another highlight in the area are the many parks and
national forest trails that we enjoy hiking usually with one of the couples
from the project. God always manages to provide us with friends who like to do
the things we like to do.
Such a blessing!
Staying in one location for an
extended period of time has been good. God has taught me a lot of lessons; some
I’m embarrassed to admit to, others have been a bit more encouraging. Of
course, as I write this, I can’t think of a one that I’d like to share, so
you’ll just have to take my word for it. J
It’s times like these that I really wish I could get myself to write this blog
more often. Oh well.
As the end of our project time
here at French Camp drew to a close, Bill and those he was working with worked
very hard to get all the posts done; I and some of the ladies had a bead board
painting frenzy. These will be used on
the ceiling of the outside porch. One of the things I love about this group is that we
find a way to get the work done where we can all do our best. We were like a
well oiled machine. It was a lot of fun.
Our final church service at
French Camp was part of their Mission Conference and it was amazing. Students
and staff started the service by marching in individually with the flag of
their country or a flag having significant meaning in their life. Very
impressive. As part of the
conference we went to a viewing the night before of the movie “Mully.” If you
haven’t seen it…I encourage you to do so. A wonderful testimony of what God can
do through just one obedient (some considered crazy) man. |
| To God be the Glory! |
We are sad to be leaving this
very special place but excited to head off to a new project tomorrow morning (Jan
31st) at Shocco Springs Conference Center in Talledaga AL. We have
not been there before but are looking forward to working with some couples that
we have worked with before and meeting new ones. We are especially excited to
have our first “buddy” on a project. It’s a couple we met during our time back
in Oshkosh as fellow volunteers for EAA. We have invited them to “check out”
VMM (Volunteer Mobile Missionaries) and see if it is something they would like
to do. As I’ve said many times, we love
this lifestyle and believe they will too.
Until next time, be blessed and
be a blessing!
