Return to Little Galilee

We had a totally different plan for our May project…helping a friend in his business in Michigan. However, we found out that being there for an entire month would have been more than they could manage and still be blessed. So, the plan was to go for just a week or so. But then, what would we do for the first few weeks of May? We wanted to head in the direction of Michigan (and, ultimately. Wisconsin) from our location in Louisiana and what better place than the great camp we were at last May near Clinton IL: Little Galilee Christian Camp.

Bill made the call and they were delighted that we had a few weeks of volunteer labor to give them; it didn’t matter to them when we came or when we had to leave. PTL! They were just happy to get the help. The plan was to still visit our Michigan friends for a week or so later in the month. Although I was very excited to visit our friends in Michigan, I have to admit I was a bit nervous about where we were going to be parking our home. (What else is new?) Originally, we had a great spot lined up on private property very close to our friend’s place, however, that became unavailable and the alternate spot wasn’t as convenient for such a big rig and we wouldn’t have had the convenience of a sewer hookup that I so very much desired. I say all that to say (and, trust me, I could say more about why I wasn’t sure this Michigan trip was such a good idea at this time) that instead of getting all worked up about the “what ifs,” I truly surrendered it to the Lord with the attitude that He has taken us on many adventures and I survived just fine. J This was just one more of those adventures and I really came to believe that. Later that same day of surrender, we got a call from our Michigan friend who had something else come up for the week we were planning to visit, so we ended up postponing our entire visit for another time (yet to be determined). I was blown away at how quickly God handled my concerns. This also meant we could stay a bit longer at Little Galilee and return to Oshkosh ahead of schedule. HalleluJAH!!!

So here we are at Little Galilee and lovin’ it as I knew we would. We even brought one of the VMM couples with us from the Louisiana project. This is the same couple I referred to in last month’s blog; they were the first couple we met on our first project and we became fast friends then and continue to develop that friendship now. We love having them with us at Little Galilee. First, it’s more fun when you have someone to work with and, second, they like to play card games and visit fun places. And we did a lot of both this month.

We had a fairly uneventful trip from Tall Timbers in Louisiana to Little Galilee except and this is a big (but good) except, we stopped for an overnight at French Camp, Mississippi.  Sure we could have saved an hour of travel time and slept in a Wal-Mart parking lot or rest area, but why would we do that when we could visit our dear friends in French Camp. What a delight!!! Loved the surprised reactions as we walked around town and visited as many people as we could. Students and adults, alike, were surprised and happy to see us. Some were sad that we were only there for overnight but we reminded them that we would be returning for a four month stay in October. Oh my, how it’s nice to be loved! We were there less than 24 hours but enjoyed every minute of it. We love this community and feel so loved by them!

Our arrival at Little Galilee wasn’t quite as grand especially when there didn’t appear to be any room for us to park. As far as we knew there was only us, our friends, and one other couple from a different ministry group that would be volunteering but all of the spots were filled with RV’s or blocked off with vehicles. Oops! Quick call and all was good. The vehicles that were parked in the empty spots were there to hold those spots for us. Good to know. J Thank you Jesus!  Let’s get those vehicles moved!

 

We did have one little glitch in our travels. When we arrived at French Camp for our overnight we couldn’t get the closet door to slide open. For some reason, the closet pole bent in one place and completely broke in another. Good thing we really didn’t need anything from in there as we traveled. Upon our arrival at Little Galilee, Bill got right to fixing it which meant a trip to a nearby Menards. Oh, how happy to have familiar places nearby.  I was actually grateful for something physical to do (empty the closet) upon our arrival after all the sitting. I have a sore sitter…some of you probably aren’t aware of that, but that’s one reason we chose a motor home over a 5^th wheel. I can get up and walk around in the motor home as we travel and that is a huge blessing. On this particular trip, I even laid on the couch a while, just to get off my back side. Okay, that’s probably more than you want to know. J Anyway, Bill got everything fixed up in the closet and I got to put all the clothes back in (and, yes, I organized them even better than they were before).

Bill got right to work the morning (Monday, 4/30) after we arrived. The project before him was winterizing a cabin that previously had just been used in warm weather. He insulated the entire building by himself including the cathedral ceiling. I took the first two days to catch up on my His House bookkeeping which has become a bit more time consuming. As I’ve stated in earlier blogs, there’s been some big staff changes taking place (mine included) and with that comes extra bookkeeping and a few more challenges. Last fall the Lord was preparing me for retirement, but I knew it would be hard to give up a position that I’ve had from its infancy to a ripe old age of 14 years. But the good Lord has made me more than ready now. I’ll finish up training my replacement upon our physical return to Oshkosh and be done before the end of June. More freedom! J More time to volunteer! J

I was able to get started helping out at the camp with the same project Bill was working on.  It was my job to paint the wall and ceiling panels. The good news was that the first two coats were done before they were put up. Much easier to paint that way. Praise the Lord!!! 

Instead of writing about all that was done to this cabin, and there was a lot, I’m going to let you see for yourself. (I hope you enjoy these photos.) FYI, there was little light and a lot of shadows in this building, so painting was a real challenge, but we were diligent and from what we were told they were happy with what our team accomplished together in such a short time.

Besides the cabin, the boys got to play with big boy toys. There was excavating going on at the camp to make way for a new dining hall and our guys got to drive the dump trucks back and forth from the site of the excavation to various places on the camp grounds. I have to say here, I love how well thought out this camp does things. There were three different areas of the camp that needed the dirt (a new riding arena for their horse camp, filling in an area used for paint ball, and filling in a trench so a bridge in need of serious repair could be removed). 

And, it wouldn’t be fair of me to not mention one other thing Bill got to do. His favorite… NOT!!! Painting!

So, with all that work, did we have anytime for some fun trips, you ask? Absolutely!!! But our first trip wasn’t exactly fun.  Our first free day after our arrival, we ended up driving to Danville IL (about an hour and a half away) to the VA Outpatient Care. Short story is that Bill had terrible pain in his mouth; he wasn’t sure if it was in his jaw or tooth. Turned out to be in his tooth; he was given something for the pain and an antibiotic to, hopefully, clear it up until we got back to our Wisconsin dentist in a month. (FYI: He made it. PTL) Unfortunately, he was still in a lot of pain the next day and we had plans to take a tour of the Funk Prairie House, Mineral Museum, Nature Center, Church & Cemetery with our fellow VMM friends. Although I had been there two times before, I really wanted to go again to experience it with our friends as I knew they would love it too. Bill insisted I go without him, so I did. Such a great guy! Thank you, Jesus!

Our second weekend in May, we took a long but wonderful  trip to Columbia MO to celebrate and see our niece graduate from the University of Missouri. So good to have an opportunity to spend time with family!

I’m so grateful that Bill and I both enjoy history. We went to a Civil War Reenactment at high school near Bloomington and then to Miller Park (which is the Bloomington zoo). If there’s a zoo nearby…I’m there!!! (Thanks honey for indulging me!)  Another time, we went to Decatur IL where there are so many beautiful historic homes and buildings and lots of Abe Lincoln history. Love exploring those areas. (Guess what? They also have a zoo in Decatur. And, yes, we spent a morning there.) One Sunday after church, we drove to Springfield IL to have dinner with Bill’s cousin and wife; we left early so we could take in Abe Lincoln’s home (where his children were born) and neighborhood where he lived when he was nominated for President. Really enjoyed that! (Can't believe I didn't take a picture of it. But I did take pics of lots of animals at the zoo.)

Because there were just two of us ladies working together, it was much easier to coordinate “outings” and game nights so we took advantage of that and had several game nights and many outings:  a delightful nearby coffee shop (several times), huge antique mall, several  thrift stores,  and two country stores. (Now don’t forget about all those pictures above…we worked hard too.) One of our outings took us to the quaint downtown square where we met a young shop owner who was closing her store. She told us her husband died unexpectedly during an asthma attack. I’ve never heard of such a thing. We were so taken with her story and being obedient to the Holy Spirit, we asked if we could pray with her. I love it when God stirs our hearts like that. I pray this dear woman was blessed and is doing well.

From our last time at Little Galilee, we had no problem deciding on where to attend church: First Christian Church in Clinton. Our first week there they had a guest speaker who we recognized from being the keynote speaker at a His House Christian Fellowship retreat a few years ago. Small world.  And an excellent message. Here’s a few things I took away:  Jesus did not come to establish a religion or institution but rather to release a movement. The first step in this is “an abided connectedness to the breath of God.”  And, being before doing. (Now where have I heard that before? So many many times.  Help me, Jesus!)

Here’s one more God story:  Remember past blogs, in the early part of our journey, how fearful I was when the wind would rock our world (motor home). Well, HalleluJAH and Praise the Lord, we had some serious wind (again) for several days in Clinton IL and I do believe I’ve been delivered. Peace cometh! J

We ended our time at Little Galilee with a delightful surprise. Our last night, we decided to drive over to the game room and play a little carpet ball. On our return, Bill saw eyes coming out of a drainage ditch. It was a little fox. So fun to watch! After it went back into the drainage pipe, we only went a few yards and saw more activity…three more foxes, playing and looking for food. Not sure how long we watched but it was so very delightful and what I refer to as a “kiss from heaven.”

I guess I could say this entire journey has been one big wonderful “kiss from heaven” and with that I will close with, Be Blessed & Be a Blessing!!!

Cajun Country DELIGHTFUL!

Greetings friends and family, my apologies, once again, to those of you who actually look forward to reading my blog. (I understand that there are a few of you and I thank you so much for your encouragement.) I had planned on updating y’all on our time in Florida as soon as we were done vacationing and settled into our next project. However, our next project and other activities surrounding it, kept me busy enough that when I had some downtime, I actually sat down but not in front of my laptop. I said all that, to say this…I’ll write about our time in Florida later (maybe) as there are some potentially interesting stories to tell. For now, let me tell you about our return visit to Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center in Forest Hill, Louisiana (less than a half hour south of Alexandria), our April project.

I say return visit because Tall Timbers was our first official VMM (Volunteer Mobile Missionaries) project back in October of 2016. In a way, it seems like only yesterday but on the other hand, it also feels like a long time ago as so many blessings have transpired since that first project.  It was wonderful to return and see the staff who had become our friends in such a short time. It was also wonderful to share this project, once again, with the first VMM couple we ever met at Tall Timbers in 2016.

The reason I was kept so busy on this project is two-fold. First there was plenty of work for the ladies to do (and I’ll get to that) and, second, I’m winding down as Financial Administrator for His House Christian Fellowship. Last December, I told our Executive Director that I wanted to fully retire by summer.  I had no specific date in mind but did want to be done (long) before going back on the road in fall. Just wasn’t sure how that would work with being on the road trying to train someone long distance. The good news, actually great news (praise the Lord), is that a replacement has been found and training has already begun. A lot of time and energy has gone into the many transitions taking place at His House (I won’t go into all of them here as they are all good but they have added a bit of extra work for me) that by the time I get done with my His House bookkeeping, personal bookkeeping and house work, and project work, I’m not really wanting to sit back down at the computer and write.

But here I am, ready now to tell you all about our time at Tall Timbers. Our men got right to work on a building that was in the middle of being transformed from a large meeting room into four separate bunkhouse rooms each with its own bathroom. I’m so proud of my husband. His two least favorite things to do are taping/mudding and painting and that’s exactly what he got to do after they first finished the dry walling. 

The ladies, at least, got to be outside doing our work. I thoroughly enjoyed our first task: re-painting lines on the parking lots. It took awhile but we got better as we went along. When we got this done the ladies went on to another painting project. This time we were freshening up one of the lodges. One nice thing about these painting projects is the great maintenance crew took care of dropping off all our supplies each day where we needed them and picking them up each afternoon when we were done. No clean up for us. Yippee!!! We surely appreciated that blessing as we were pretty tired when we stopped each day. I actually took a day off from painting at the suggestion of a local chiropractor. From all the driving and sitting and painting and my ongoing back, neck and sciatic issues, I searched out a local chiropractor to give me some relief. Just so grateful, we are both, overall, in good health and can serve God in this way. HalleluJAH! All Glory to God!

Tall Timbers Dining Hall

Steamboat BILL's

We definitely ate well on this project; I’m not talking about the many meals we ate at home but about the good Cajun food at Steamboat Bill’s, Quebedeaux’s Boudins, Billy’s Boudin & Cracklin’ Shop; and the Crawfish Boils at Abita Brewery and one in Tall Timbers Dining Hall. Talk about some good eatin’! If you don’t know what Boudins are, you gotta try one sometime when you’re in Cajun Country. I gotta admit I’m not near as excited about the Crawfish Boils. We met a nice couple out on the lawn at the Abita Brewery who showed me how to get the meat out and shared a few tastes of crawfish.  Pretty dang tasty! But when it came time to choose between fried catfish and boiled crawfish for our meal at Tall Timbers, I’m glad I choose the catfish. I still wanted a little bit of the crawfish (because it really is good) I just didn’t want to work so hard for so little. Well, one of our project friends shared a crawfish with me but instead of just handing it to me she set it down in front of me. YIKES it looked like an over sized ugly freaky bug and  I just couldn’t bring myself to pick it up. I couldn’t even look at it. Take it away, please! Take it away! The catfish, by the way, was delicious and I ate plenty of it.

The ladies did manage to take a day off and chose to go to the Alexandria Zoo.  I was thrilled with the choice as y’all know I love zoos, but I particularly love this zoo. Bill and I visited back in 2016. It is one of the most naturally laid out zoos I’ve ever seen and has animals not often seen at many other zoos.  I was so enthralled with the animals, I didn’t take many pics but love this one as I have never seen such a large tortoise actually move. The ladies also had the pleasure of going out to a delicious Mexican restaurant with the three delightful ladies from the Tall Timbers office who then took us to the small community of Glenmora where there were several antique/flea market shops and one shop called Cute & Classy & A Little Bit Sassy.  Enjoyed the shop very much but loved the name even more. J 

Bill got to do some fun things too (and he let me come along). We visited the “remains” of Camp Claiborne which was the birthplace of the 82^nd and 101^st Airborne. It was operational from 1940-45 and trained over 500,000 soldiers. We trudged through some fields and forests to find the various buildings; one of which I couldn’t figure out what it might be but Bill said it looked like the remains of a gymnasium. How do guys know that stuff…he was absolutely right. Another day we went to the Southern Forest Heritage Museum which highlighted a turn of the century sawmill and included many of the accompanying buildings and leftover railroad cars that made up its own little town. 

Bill and I had an overnight getaway our second weekend in Louisiana with a special mission. Sometimes Facebook comes in real handy even though I’m on it a bit sporadically. When I posted the “Welcome to Louisiana “sign, one of the students Bill and I became friends with from French Camp commented that she was now in Louisiana. We both felt a strong desire to see her even after finding out she was still over three hours away. No matter, let’s make a weekend of it (or, at least, an overnight) which we did. Once again, we were blessed to find an affordable Airbnb house with guest quarters less than a half hour from where our friend lived. On our trip to visit her, we stopped in Opelousas LA. We first stopped at the Welcome Center where it was part of a collection of restored historic structures which were moved to this one site to create a small village. So well done!  I loved the fact that they also had an historic walking tour brochure for the rest of the city even though we only had the time for the downtown area (which included another 17 historic buildings).  Other than visiting zoos, looking and reading about historic buildings is one of my favoritest J things to do (and Bill too).

Before returning to our accommodations, we stopped in at the Abita Brewery where there was a Crawfish Boil going on (as I mentioned earlier) and met some new friends. A lovely couple from Baton Rouge who did two, no make that three, lovely things for us. First, they let me taste some crawfish without getting freaked out. Second, they knew bad weather was coming and offered us a place to stay on our return trip Saturday just in case the thunderstorms were as bad as what was being predicted. (Although the rains were quite heavy at times, Bill did an excellent job getting us home safely. Thank you, Jesus!) And, third, and best of all they prayed with us as we shared a bit of our reason for being in the area. What a huge blessing and encouragement to us as we were meeting up with our young friend in the morning. Praise the Lord!

Our plans were to pick up our friend and her boyfriend, take them to lunch, and then spend as much time as desired hanging out at a nearby state park. That was a wonderful plan, however, the pouring rain and, at times, thunder and lightning, put the kibosh on those plans. So we stretched out our lunch for as long as we could without outstaying our welcome at a most unique diner (Liz’s Where Y’at Diner). Because our young friend likes animals so much, we went to the animal shelter dodging the pouring rain the best we could and then wandered around Wal-Mart to have a bit more time together (and stay dry). It was an unusual way to visit but it worked and we trusted that God had a plan and a purpose. Not real sure of the specifics of those plans or purpose but know, without a doubt, He used our time for good and His Glory. After spending about four hours together, we prayed with our young friends, promised to stay in touch, and said our goodbyes for now.  Thank you, Jesus! We love this journey He has us on especially at times like this!!!

God didn’t stop there. He ordained another very special meeting and that was meeting the parents of yet another dear student we befriended at French Camp. When this particular friend first found out that we had a project at Tall Timbers and that we attended a nearby small church, she got all excited. Her hometown is Alexandria and her family attends the same church (the big one) in Alexandria. The details of this meeting most definitely show God’s handiwork. We had no idea how well (or not) received our desire to meet them would be, so Bill and I prayed a lot about God leading us, opening doors or closing them. The first Sunday back at Tall Timbers, we went to the smaller nearby church as that is the custom when a project starts. We all go together. Anyway, that Sunday they had a pastor from the big church substituting for the regular pastor. So, after the service we had an opportunity to ask him about the couple we wanted to meet. He happily took our information and said he would pass it along. We didn’t hear anything from the couple in the week that followed but we did go to the big church the following Sunday. It just so happened that there was no service at the small church because of a guest speaker at the big church. We were thinking about going there anyway, but this encouraged us greatly. After that service, we did not see the pastor from the previous week but there were some ladies selling books written by the guest speaker which I bought (Sharing Jesus [without freaking out] by Alvin Reid). I asked one of them if they knew the couple we were looking for and if they knew whether they might be at this particular service. She was so very sweet as she came around the table, took my hand, and led me over to the mom. The reception we received was more than I could have imagined. The mom was very encouraged by our interest and love for their daughter that we made plans to meet for lunch the following Sunday after church. That lunch lasted two and a half hours ending in hugs, prayers, and great blessings for all parties. Definitely new friends for life.

Speaking of friends…we look forward to seeing all of our old friends and family very soon. We’ll be back in Oshkosh the end of May. Be blessed and be a blessing!