SPEEDING ON TO ANOTHER PROJECT

God has such a great sense of humor. I picked this title shortly after our arrival in early February for our project at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center, Talladega AL because one of the first fun things we did was visit the great Superspeedway where we were able to participate in the Fan Track Day. That meant we were got to take our own vehicle and run the track. Well, we went with friends who had a one-ton Ford Dually. I was grateful it was their truck and not our car. I believe, had Bill been driving our car he would have accelerated a whole lot more than we could in that truck. As far as I’m concerned we went plenty fast in the truck; I think it was about 90 MPH. I held tight onto my friends arm in the back seat as Bill was in the front seat with the driver.

Look close. New VMMer entering her rig.

You’re wondering what that has to do with God’s sense of humor; well, you’ll have to wait until the end of this story to find out. First, I’d like to tell you about our amazingly wonderful time at Shocco Springs and the great bunch of VMMers we were blessed to work with. We were especially blessed to have a couple that we met at EAA AirVenture this past summer whom we invited to join us on this project as part of the Volunteer Mobile Missionaries (VMM) Buddy program.  It’s a program designed to give interested couples an opportunity to “try out” this lifestyle. Apparently they liked it enough as they have now joined VMM. We are so delighted and we will be working with them again in April. Welcome, friends!  

One of the main projects for the guys was removing old bathroom fans and installing new ones. Only problem is they didn’t ship as planned and were not on site when the men were ready to work. So, for the first week of the project they painted and then installed doors in several of the lodges. Then look what arrived. This picture may not be very impressive, but from what I was told, you should have seen the crazy lady trying to run on the uneven grass to catch up to the front end loader and  snag this picture. (As you may or may not have ever noticed, I rarely use names in my writings. So, you’ll have to guess who that crazy lady was.)

The ladies did a variety of jobs on this project. One of my favorites was helping in the gift shop with the inventory. Pricing, sizing, folding, and (neatly) storing t-shirts. Bottom row, before. Top row, after. Organizing is in my blood. There wasn’t a lot of room to work, so I used boxes and a wheeled cart to set up work stations. Anyway, we got a lot done in a short period of time. That’s one thing I’ve learned while on project…no offense to paid workers, but it appears that volunteers get things done faster than paid help. I guess it’s because we’re working for the Lord and His rewards are out of this world. J  With the t-shirts all neat and tidy, I was able to help out some more by integrating a new shipment into the Bible section. I could really get into this merchandising thing (just don’t make me do the ordering).  So much fun!

A very important example was set for me on this project which I particularly noticed on our Ladies Day Out in Oxford AL traveling around to numerous stores.One of our beloved ladies always found a clerk or cashier to chat with about life and Jesus; listening to what they weren’t saying, so she knew what to say. Watching her love on others, with no thought of having something else to do or place to be, truly inspired me. I’m praying that I won’t always be in such a hurry to move on and will be more intentional in sharing Jesus’ love with those He brings across my path. Help me, Jesus! Another one of these dear ladies, offered to share an article about this very kind of behavior. God’s timing is so perfect. The bottom line that spoke to me from this article was not to look at speaking to others as a duty but out of a sincere love for our neighbor (the second greatest commandment). The writer referred to it as needing a baptism of love. This is my prayer, Lord Jesus. 

Our group enjoyed a delightful bring-your-own-meat-to-grill potluck to celebrate Valentine’s Day. 

Meet my friend Mario. I actually call him Goofy, because he’s one of the cutest goofiest looking dogs I’ve had the pleasure of bonding with. Love it when there are friendly little dogs on project. 

Besides our trip to the Talladega Speedway, we visited the factory at the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind. What an experience. They sew ALL the ties for military uniforms and a bunch of other stuff too. We also went to two awesome museums: Anniston Museum of Natural History and Berman Museum (as a gun collector, he covered most wars from the Revolution to WWII). There also was a great pictorial of Pearl Harbor. Pictures I had never seen before. Oh, how I pray that we all would remember what has been sacrificed for our freedom. It’s so sad that our young people are, in many cases, unaware. The Natural History museum was much more uplifting. So VERY well done especially in displaying animals in true likeness of their natural habitat. I would recommend both these museums to anyone who is in the area.

As I said, this was an amazing group. We all had such a wonderful time and here we are celebrating our final night (Thurs 2/22) together at a local restaurant. It’s time to head back to the rig and finish packing up so we can head out first thing in the morning. Keep in mind, first thing in the morning, when you have to pack up your entire home and auto, takes a while but we managed to get on the road by 9ish.

As some of you already know, if you were on Facebook during our travels, things didn’t go as well as we would have liked. Not even out of Shocco Springs, Bill made a really tight and sharp turn with such precision that he relaxed for a moment as he pulled the rig over so we could attach the tow dolly  and he caught the back wheel of the rig on the curb. He was so mad at himself…made the really hard turn and, not thinking, ran over a curb at the beginning of a straightaway. I was following with the car so I was very perplexed why Bill wasn’t coming out to put the car on the dolly. Well, he was inside cleaning up some of our daily Corelle dishes. That’s the second time that cabinet popped open; the first time was almost exactly one year ago when we hit a really big pothole coming out of a truck stop. The good news is, the pieces that broke, were extra bowls and plates. We still have a service for, at least, four. Praise the Lord!

And the “fun” continues. Barely out of Shocco Springs, the rig started acting up; jerky and losing acceleration. Warning light. We pulled over, got the manual out, and decided it was okay to continue on. The rig seemed to smooth out, and then not.  Help us, Lord. Help us make wise decisions. Please help us get to our destination safely. Bill started thinking we may have gotten some dirty fuel. So we started looking for a Truck Stop along our way so we could get it checked out. I started letting friends know on FB that prayers were desired. It got so bad (especially going uphill) that Bill had to drive the rig on the shoulder of the Interstate. Can’t tell ya the number of miles we travelled between 15 and 30 MPH. Praise the Lord, he was able to safely do that.  Now this is where, I ‘m making reference to God’s sense of humor. I title this blog “Speeding to another project” and here we are going from 90 MPH at the speedway to 15 MPH on the Interstate. J Most of the time if we got up to 45 or 50 MPH, Bill was happy. The prayers kept us going, that’s for sure.

In the midst of all this, early in our trip, there was a car in front of us where the driver kept sticking his arm out the window and hitting the outside of his driver’s door. He was following a big truck and was closer to it than to us, so I assumed he was sending a message to that driver. Oh no, he was signaling us to let us know that the basement door under Bill’s driver’s seat was open. We found that out many miles later when we made a quick stop at a rest area just as a safety precaution. What next? Trust me, there’s a lot more to come.

Well, we finally made it to a Love’s Truck Stop in Dublin, GA, around 4 p.m.  Crazy busy place and the layout was kind of weird as well. Most truck stops we’ve been at have pull through parking and drive through diesel islands. Not this place, big semis literally going in circles and backing into a very tight line up for parking. The good news was they had a 24 hour repair service. The guy at the counter was really nice but there were two trucks ahead of us. While we waited, Bill went to take the car off the tow dolly. Three more surprises! One, the passenger side tire on the tow dolly had blown. We had no idea when that happened but it couldn’t have been too much before we stopped as the wheel rim didn’t show any damage from being tire-less.  That was surprise number one. Surprise number two was even wilder. Somehow an owl (yes, a rather large owl) got trapped between the dolly and the car. Seems impossible to me but my nephew wrote on my Facebook page and I quote: “So we think the owl might have been on the edge of the road or in the ditch and just as you drove past it flew up just in the wrong spot and it got sucked in.” I suppose that could be it. Look at the picture and tell me how you think he got there.

Surprise number three:  Another unknown occurrence took place. We now have several serious/deep scratches on the passenger side of our rig. At first, we couldn’t figure out what it could be as, again, we heard nothing and it wasn’t there when we stopped at the rest area much earlier in the day. But, then again, we were pretty fixated on keeping the rig moving forward. With where the scratches are located, all we can come up with is that the tire caught something and it flew up and into our rig. Bill does remember driving over something but didn’t think anything came of it. Who knows??? Well, God does and we’re just trusting Him with all of this knowing that He is faithful and trustworthy. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.” Prov 3:5-&6 This is one of my life verses and kept coming to mind throughout this whole situation. Amen & Amen!

Once the owl was disposed of and the car off the dolly, we were able to get the wheel rim off and headed out to find the right size tire. (Love’s didn’t have it.) We were told there would be a 2-3 hour wait at Wal-Mart so we rushed (drove very fast but not too much over the speed limit) to a tire shop that would be closing in 20 minutes. HalleluJAH! We made it in time and they stayed and took care of us. One problem solved. PTL!

Once we got our rig in to service, we went on another wild goose chase looking for fuel filters, hoping that would solve our problem, yet, knowing we were still going to have to spend the night in this crazy Love’s Truck Stop lined up with all the semis. It still gives me shivers when I think about how tight those spots were. It’s not surprising that I didn’t sleep all that well as I kept praying that no one would back into our wonderful home. Yes, I know, these semi drivers are a LOT more skilled at backing than I am (which doesn’t take much), but it still caused me a teeny bit of anxiety. BTW, no luck finding the filters as all the more likely places had already closed.

Saturday morning bright and early (7 a.m.), so we’d be first in line, we headed over to see the main mechanic who was now on duty. He sent us out to a trucking company that had the exact filters we needed.   Of course, one of those filters ended up being the wrong one, so we had to go out one more time to get the right one. Got those replaced and hoped that would do the trick as the result of his diagnostics was beyond this service center’s capabilities.  We knew that we could get service in Savannah, so we choose to believe that the filters were the answer as the rig seemed to be running better, so we headed out for Savannah GA arriving mid-afternoon. About the time we should have arrived the day before. Oh well, not complaining; just thrilled we made it as we almost called for a tow truck as the rig really struggled to keep going in some places. The second time that it stopped completely, Bill said, “I think we need to call for a tow.” I bowed my head, and said, “could we just wait a few minutes.” Breathe deeply and pray. When Bill started the rig up, it purred like a kitten and off we went. It still wasn’t running right and we had several slow downs, but it never came to a stop again. HalleluJAH! PTL!

Thrilled to be at Ft. McAllister Historic State Park. We’ll call Cummins first thing Monday morning but in the meantime we’re going to relax and enjoy the beautiful setting! 

 We had time yet that evening to get together with some old Oshkosh friends who now live in the Savannah area. Showed them our rig. Was treated to a delicious meal at a close by restaurant called Fish Tales. Here’s their daughter, enjoying oysters. She’s quite skilled at it, but I could barely watch…they give me the creeps. Too squishy and slimey. Went back to the rig for a lovely campfire. Sunday morning we joined these same friends at Compassion Church (which we really enjoyed), and then followed them to their house for Lupper (mid afternoon combo Lunch & Supper). Love their mode of transportation. Grateful to be able to enjoy this time and not think about the rig.

 

And then came, Monday morning, time to get the rig checked out. We called Good Sam to see what our Extended Warranty might cover and Cummins Sales & Service to see when we could get our rig looked at. Good Sam opened a ticket for us (which will be a PTL a little bit later on), but at the moment the news wasn’t good. They did not cover diagnostics . Our call to Cummins wasn’t very promising either. The only way to get on the schedule was to bring the rig in. We tried to explain that we live in it and could we please bring it in when they were “ready” for us. No way, no how. We decided to take a ride (in the car) to their location; after several more attempts of explaining our engine problem and living arrangement, we were able to talk to the service manager. He said absolutely positively do not bring the rig in. According to him, with the warning light we had, we should not have been driving it at all. Oops! That’s not what the manual said; it just said “service soon.”   He recommended sending out the mobile unit. Oh no, that’s big bucks and Good Sam won’t cover diagnostics. (Lotsa silent prayin’ going on, I can tell you that.) Plus, there was still a strong possibility that we would, ultimately, have to have the rig towed in. The good news (not really, I hated the thought of our home being tipped and towed), our vehicle insurance through State Farm would cover the towing and one hour of the diagnostic. Well, that was something but, as some of you know, I sent out a Facebook prayer request that it would be a simple fix. So now, all we could do is wait until the mobile unit was available; hopefully by Wednesday we would learn the fate of our dear home.

With that being said, we thought let’s enjoy our time here while we can. That afternoon we visited the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum (fabulous) and then took to the streets and river front of historic Savannah. I could spend hours looking at all the architecture and park squares and historical markers and row houses and and and but it got too dark that we had to call it a night but not before we stopped at Leopold’s Ice Cream Shop. Yummmmmmmmmmmm!

Not knowing for sure when the mobile unit would appear to diagnose our rig, we decided it would be a good idea to maybe add a few more days to our park reservation. While we were in the park office and due to some unexpected charges by the reservation company, the Park Ranger let us take the walking tour of Fort McAllister for free which, according to somebody, it’s the best-preserved earthwork fortification of the Confederacy. It was absolutely incredible. Definitely worth the price (had we paid for it). We spent the entire morning taking in the fort and its history. Learned a lot and loved it. After lunch we headed out to Skidaway Island State Park and walked a beautiful winding trail for almost three hours that went through maritime forest and past salt marsh and liquor still site, leading to a boardwalk and observation tower.

Wednesday morning, just a little after 8 a.m., Tom, the Cummins mobile mechanic showed up. Hallelujah!!! (I don’t think that I mentioned enough that through all these trials, I kept turning them over to our faithful Father and I remained fairly calm, for me, that is, trusting Him to do whatever was best for us. So much better that way!) So, Tom got to work doing all the diagnostic stuff; eventually he found a problem…the lift pump wasn’t running. Seriously, we had the high pressure pump replaced almost exactly  one year ago and were told then that we should buy the low pressure one as well because one failure often follows the other. Kind of forgot about that. The good news, no great news, was that we still had it and Tom could replace it for us on the spot. (No towing!!! PTL!!! Beyond thrilled. So happy!) About half way or more through the process of replacing the pump, I remembered that in order for Good Sam to cover repairs, they needed to talk to the repairman and approve the repair. Well, this is what I referred to earlier when I said there was good news in the initial inquiry call I made to Good Sam. Because I had made that initial phone call and because we were considered “roadside assistance,” they would cover it. End of story? Well, sort of! What this means is that the diagnostic time will be included in the repair bill and also will be covered. Huge savings! Thank you, Lord! Thank you for friends who prayed! Soon we will be “on the road again” moving at a normal speed. HalleluJAAAAAAAH!!!

P.S. We spent the next day truly relaxing and enjoying a bit more of the area before heading out to see our son in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

Thanks for sticking with me through this rather lengthy detail of our Talledaga to Savannah experience. 

Long Overdue Greetings!

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!

 

 Our big trip, of course, was back to Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas with family and friends. We are so grateful to be able to leave our motor home safely parked in French Camp for the three weeks we were gone.  Also very grateful to be able to stay with very good friends who put up with our crazy schedule. It was so good to see everyone and spend time with the grandkids. For those of you who are on our Christmas card mailing list…you can stop looking. It did not get lost in the mail; just too much going on with limited resources to make it happen. Hope you all had a Blessed Christmas!

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 31^st) 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!

God's at Work

God’s at work in French Camp, Mississippi, changing lives and hearts – particularly mine! We’ve been here for more than six weeks now (okay, when I started writing this blog for the third time, it was six weeks, now it’s almost eight) and we have been busy busy busy. Sound familiar? The really great thing about this is that it’s a really good busy-ness. Rarely have we felt stretched or overwhelmed and there have been plenty of relaxing evenings and even some full days of just hanging out.

So what exactly has God been up to? Well let me tell you. You can see by all the pictures that the men have been quite busy building a fellowship hall and classrooms for the church. They have made excellent progress and all without any serious injury. Bill does come home with a few scraps and bumps, but that’s to be expected. He’s a boy playing with big boy toys. Ya gotta know there’s going to be some blood shed. We thank the Lord every day for their safety. We are also very grateful to all the wonderful people here at French Camp that are praying for the safety of our men. We praise the Lord for these dear prayer warriors. Again, since starting this writing, the trusses have appeared and Bill has been lovin’ the “high” work. Me, I can’t watch him. I take a quick picture and walk away praying earnestly for his safety. Praise the Lord, God is taking good care of him and keeping me focused on His goodness.

The next set of pictures show a few of the things I’ve been up to. I was blessed to help out in the Pottery Studio to help prep an inventory of pottery for three upcoming events. The studio is one of many ministries here at French Camp that raises funds for the Academy and provides another avenue of learning and working for the students. I did the initial three coats of glaze on many pieces so the resident artist could paint the pretty stuff.

I also helped organize clothes and books at the Double Blessings Thrift Store (another ministry of the Academy). Most of you know how much I love organizing…so this was right up my alley. I did come home with seven books but I managed to only grab a pair of jeans for me and a couple of shirts for Bill.

God used one of the student girls that I’ve made friends with who works at the thrift store to teach me a much needed lesson.  Y’all know that I like to tease and oftentimes it comes off as sarcasm (which I thought I got delivered of years ago…not). Well, we were driving pass this dear girl as she was walking to work at Double Blessings. I yelled out the window…”hey there, ya better get to work.” She didn’t look too happy so I figured she had had a rough day at school. The next day at lunch, I put my arm around her and asked her if she had a rough day yesterday. Oh my, no..that wasn't it...it was my “yelling” at her that caused her unhappy look. She had taken me seriously. I was very apologetic and she was very gracious. I told her next time I’ll call out, “Looking good. Have fun at work.” She said, that would be much better. There were two other times that I teased a student only to get a serious or concerned reaction. Help me Jesus to always be kind especially in my teasing!!! I’m practicing how to tease in a positive way. It takes a lot more thought but is really fun to do!!! Thank you Jesus for this embarrassing lesson.

One of the major events that I was helping to prepare for at the Pottery Studio was the annual Harvest Festival. That took place the second Saturday of October and what a wonderful event it was. Besides helping with the pottery, I spent a bit of time in the evenings making cards that I donated to be sold at the festival. There was an all day auction going on as well, along with making sorghum syrup the old fashion way (a horse walking in circles at the grinding mill). Speaking of horses, I’m still trying to get over my fear of riding them. They were offering rides for $2.00 and I decided to ride with one of the younger girls here. Apparently, she was holding her legs too tight on the back of the horse that it started bucking. Really, is this really happening to me when I’m trying to be brave.  It happened a second time and both of us wanted off the horse. The girl did choose to slide off the back of the horse but the handler convinced me to stay on to keep me from being more afraid the next time (if there is a next time J). So I stayed on the horse and PTL there was no more bucking. Okay, so maybe I will try again another time.

Bill is grateful for his new bow. He was invited to do some bow hunting here at French Camp on this our return trip so he brought along his old bow which he hadn’t used in more than 15 years. He was hoping to find someone to give it a “tune up” or whatever it is you do with bows that are old and haven’t been used for a long time. Honestly, I was mentally prepared for Bill wanting to purchase a new one. He wasn’t so sure. So we took a little time to think about it by touring around the area we were in. We were near Grenada so we checked out the downtown square (I love old time downtown squares.) Glad we did. We stopped in a resale shop only to find the couple who owns it is from Appleton WI (for those of you who don’t know, that’s only 20 minutes from Oshkosh). Love these “chance” encounters. They suggested we check out Grenada Lake. Hopefully, the pictures give you an idea of how beautiful it is. Well, you already know the end of Bill’s bow story. He looks happy doesn’t he? 

The project took a week off, so Bill and I decided it was time to do some renovating ourselves. We’ve talked about it since we got our motor home. Another God story for sure. We were walking around a downtown square in another nearby city when Bill spotted a flooring store on a side street. "Let's check it out," he said. Found exactly what we were looking for from a business that was so very helpful.What we thought would take two days, actually took four; but so worth it. We love our new floor! Getting rid of that ugly carpet along the slides has really made the space look bigger and, if I say so myself, quite beautiful.

This week some of the ladies and I started priming and painting some rough looking spots in the old classrooms of the church due to the foundation shifting. Trying to keep things looking nice until the church renovations reach Phase 3 (a couple years down the road) which will include these classrooms.

I’ve made a new friend here at French Camp. I pretty much had no choice J . I can’t tell you the number of times people would ask if I was related to this delightful woman or someone would call out her name as I was passing by and wave to me. You can understand why I had to get to know her. And, what better way to get to know her than to invite myself over to watch Dancing with the Stars. It’s one of the few shows I really enjoy and one of the many channels our antennae does not pick up. You have no idea how excited I was to find out that she is a bigger DWTS fan than I am and was delighted to have someone to share it with. In fact, she was in the audience of DWTS a few years back.  Talk about being a fan!!!  We have had so much fun being “related.” In fact, now we’re starting to dress alike without consulting one another. 

Bill and I took a lovely trip down to Vicksburg. We took a 16 mile drive through the Military Veterans Park and were able to walk the grounds where many battles took place, view a house that survived, and saw many memorials (including several Wisconsin ones) and read detailed civil war history signs along the way. It was truly an amazing experience. We thank God for our time there.

Our trip included a two night stay at the Duff Green Mansion B&B. We got the small economy room, but it was still lovely and the home quite beautiful and rich in history. A tour of the home followed our delicious three course breakfast. Friday afternoon we had a late lunch at a Rooftop Restaurant (great view) and then walked along the river front which had more than 20 huge historical murals painted on the flood retaining wall. Great overview of the city. On Sunday we did our own walking tour around the Mansion as there were many other beautiful homes and history to look at. On our way home, we took our time along the Natchez Trace. What normally would take a little over two hours, took us five. The Natchez Trace is a 444 mile parkway from Natchez MS to Memphis TN. It is part of the National Forest Service and there are no commercial vehicles, businesses, or billboards the entire way. There are many many historical sites and trails to take advantage of and that is why it took us five hours. We made several stops and took a few hikes. We feel so blessed by God to be able to enjoy His creation and learn about the history of our great nation in this way. 

 

We had a lovely birthday here at French Camp. Didn’t do anything special (it was a “work” day) but felt very loved. Not sure how, but word got around to a lot of folks that it was our birthday, so we had lots of greetings throughout the day and during dinner in the dining hall, everyone (students and staff and anyone else who was there) sang happy birthday to us. It is something they do for anyone who’s having a birthday but it was nice to be included in the “family.”  Got some great hugs from the students, too.

Once again, I have waited too long to finish a blog. There is so much more to tell, but this is already getting too long. I know I need to write more often but oftentimes I just don’t feel like it. And, then I wait…and wait…and wait some more. I am sorry, I’ll try to do better.