Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Moving experience

Over the weekend we moved our stuff from Hesston, KS to Shickley, NE. I am overwhelmed by the kindness and helpfulness of friends new and old. We had about a dozen people help us load our stuff in just under 2 hours in Hesston. These were great friends that we've gotten to know during our last 18 months in Hesston. We didn't know them before, and they have become very dear to us in such a short time.
At the other end, nearly 20 people showed up to help us unload. Wes was disappointed that we missed our unload record of 30 minutes, by about 5 boxes. We have to remember that we had a number of more boxes and a couple more furniture items than we did when we moved to Hesston.
We appreciated the help of many people that we hope will become close friends in the coming months and years.
God's blessings on all of you.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Unbelieveable

The last three days I have tried to help Alyssa fly her new butterfly kite. It is unbelieveable! I didn't think I would ever say this, but... there isn't enough wind in Kansas to fly a kite. There I said it. Call me crazy, but it's true.
This is our last week here in Hesston. Today I took the girls to Suzanne's SilverSneakers class that she teaches. Her elderly students just loved having the girls there for a little bit. Then I took the girls to King Park to play in the water fountains. Then it was home to play with the Coburn girls after lunch. This afternoon is the girls friends birthday party. Then supper, then Suzanne and Emberlynn head to Hesston Mennonite for Bible School. I take Alyssa to Kingdom Life, and Courtney to Hesston Methodist. It is neat to see a truly community expression of Bible School (different age groups at different churches). That is enough for today.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Packing and Relaxing

We have been trying to pack a box a day, and sometimes more. The girls have really got into it too. They have been packing some of there stuff, which requires us to unpack a box every once in a while to find something they weren't quite done with yet.

I have had a bit of a recharge which has increased my desire/energy to read and reflect. I finished reading "Road Signs for the Journey" and have started two more books.
Alban Institute's "New Beginnings" and Shane Claiborne's "Jesus for President". Both are very different and excellent reads so far.

Road Signs is a real challenging read. If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to struggle through it. It is based on a 2006 member survey of Mennonite Church USA and looks at current trends as well as comparisons between previous surveys, between racial/ethnic members and Caucasian members and pastors. The book can make our demise seem hopeless, but it can also help us to see where we may be headed and give us some direction for conversation and action to regain hope. I for one, choose hope.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Quick trip to Nebraska

The girls stayed overnight and day at the Coburn's. Suzanne and I drove the car and van up to Nebraska around 7am, and had a productive day. We got to see a number of the church people throughout the day.
-We stopped at the church where Bible School was in session and the children had prepared a special welcome basket of food, cleaning supplies, and paper products. Thank you so much. The items will be come in very handy in the coming weeks. We got to see a number of the adults and children there.
-We went to the Geneva courthouse to take care of our drivers licenses, vehicle inspection, title, registration, license plates, etc. We got everything done in less than an hour. It was all in the same building. Gina waited on us, and her daughter Krista also stopped in to see her mother.
-We parked the car in the parsonage garage. It will stay there for the summer.
-At lunch time we went to Shickley and had lunch at Dawg's Cafe with Wes and Don and Shirley. The fish was awesome. We met pastoral people from a local church and enjoyed catching up with them.
-After lunch we took Don back to the farm and then drove back into Shickley. We stopped into the post office to put a hold on any mail that ends up there before we do.
-Next stop was the hardware to return paint swatches for the girls room. We ran into John, Wes, Linda, and Roland there. We then drove around the block to the Swartzendruber construction and flooring. We met with Kay and picked out some carpet for the basement.
-We stopped at the parsonage to take a couple measurements and ran into George, Matt, Ron, Randy, and Brett.
-Finally, Suzanne and I hopped in the van and drove back to Hesston around 5:30pm. It was good to be with the girls again.

It will be here before we know it. I can hardly wait!

Some buildings

This is the main lodge where we had our meals and some activities. The picture was taken Tuesday morning when we were leaving. It snowed overnight.
This was our cabin (Aspen). We lived on the second floor of this building. It was a beautiful retreat center with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. I hope you enjoyed this picture show. We've got more, but I've also got some other things to do. It is going to be 92 degrees here in Hesston today. Looking at the snow makes it feel cooler:)

Everybody hands up

How cute! The girls worked and played hard, and slept pretty well to boot. Alyssa is hugging Courtney. It may be hard to believe, but this is actually Suzanne and I's bed. We got up and then Suzanne took this picture of the "raised hands while sleeping". They are so precious to us. We have really enjoyed spending time and making memories together.

Sawing

One of our assignments was to clear a "branch" off of a trail high above camp. It turned out to be two large branches. We ended up cutting them into about 6 pieces and dragging them down the hill half way. The picture above shows Courtney and I trying saw it together. The girls were real troopers. Hiking up so high and sitting in the rain for a little while. We were up here for about 2 1/2 hours. As you can tell, it was a very steep incline.

We had an option of a gas powered chain saw. But this was a lot more fun for all. Suzanne and I had a lot of laughs. Especially when I was jumping on the log to break it. I lost my balance and nearly fell down the hill. If I would have got rolling, I doubt I would have stopped before either hitting a tree or getting to the bottom of the mountain.

Kettle popcorn

One evening we had kettle popcorn cooked in this kettle. The sugary stuff got eaten up faster than the non-sweet stuff. Here are just a few of the people (out of about 50) that were there during the weekend. I may get some spelling's and names wrong.
(John and Christy Frederick on the far left, Corbin the camp director in the tan shirt and blue jeans, Mary the cook in the dark blue shirt and black pants, 4 of the 5 Voth family members from Hesston starting with father in striped shirt then mom followed by daughters Marie and Dorothy, behind them you will see me talking with Marvin and Vi Miller. My dad and Marvin lived in South Bend together while they were still single.)

A beautiful view

We hiked up behind the camp to "staff ville". It is where the male, non-counselor staff live. We then hiked up on top of this ridge and decided a family picture was in order. In the back ground you can see part of the pikes peak bottom. If you hiked up there, you would then have about 4 miles up a ridge behind this view to get to the peak.

Gold mine

We explored a gold mine that is on the camp. It is a horizontal shaft about 400ft long. It was about as big as you see it here the whole way in. My head lamp batteries were weak and died completely about 2/3 of the way in. I had to confiscate a little girls flash light to finish the trail in. This was about a third of the group that went in.