The Church is painted

The work group finished painting the upstairs of the church. Here is a picture of the auditorium with the painting all finished and the benches back in place. Personally, I think it looks great!

Church Painting

This week there is a youth group from Indiana here doing some work projects. One of the things they are doing is painting the upstairs of the church building. There was a lot of smoke on the walls and it looked kind of bad.

They started Monday morning and are almost finished already. It looks really great now. I will try to post a picture of how it looks after they finished painting.

Here they are painting the ceiling in the auditorium. It was white and I didn't think it would look much different after they painted it. I didn't realize how gray it had become. Even when they put the first coat of new white paint on the ceiling, it looked much much brighter.

More Siding Projects

Last Summer I put siding on our guest cabin. When I bought the siding I needed to buy an entire skid in order to get a decent price per board foot. I had also wanted to put siding on the play house, so I thought would use the extra for that.

Then last Fall I decided to put it on the screened in porch. I thought I might have enough to do the screened in porch and still put some on the play house. Last week I started with the screened in porch. This week I finished that and did what I could on the play house.

I ended up being about 4 or 5 pieces short of being able to finish the play house. I may just put some flat boards on the rest of the play house and stain them to match the siding. It would only be a small triangle at the top of the gable end on the back. Very few people will ever see that side of the play house anyway.

I am almost finished nailing the siding. In another week I should be ready to start doing some staining. If it turns out to look as nice as the cabin, I will be happy.

This week while I was at the building supply store I noticed that they had their hanging baskets on sale for half price. I thought I had heard Edith mention that she would like to have on for the screened in porch. I couldn't resist a bargain and bought a petunia hanging basket. We did hang it in the screened in porch. I hope it gets enough light there to keep blooming the way it is now.

Tomorrow I am going to the Kenora District Jail for church services there. A couple of men from our church are going with me.

Next week we have a work group from Indiana here to do some work projects at the church and also do some youth ministry in the evenings. It should be a busy week.

This is the hanging basket with petunias growing in it.

This is our screened in porch with the siding on the walls. It was bare chipboard before I put this siding on it. So, it looks better already.

Here is a picture of the play house.

We are caring for two girls today while their mother is busy. The six year old just ask me this question:

"Do pine beetles go to heaven when they die?" I ask her if she wants them to and she said, "yes". I told her if she wants a pine beetle in heaven Jesus will make sure she has one.

Young Visitor

Here's who came to our finch feeder this afternoon and tore the bottom off!



Our dog, Schnappsie, found out I was watching a bear and started barking loudly at it from inside the house. That made it decide to leave!~Edith

Church Picnic

Yesterday we had our church picnic at Ojibway Park. We met there at 11:00 for our morning worship service. After the service we had lunch. The idea then was that we were going to have recreation, play some games, have a picnic supper, and then a campfire hymn sing.

The rain changed all that. It started raining during the morning service. By the time we were finished with lunch it was a real steady rain. It was also rather cold. At about 3:30 we gave up and decided to move the rest of the event to Nate Hochstetler's house.

Edith and I took Elaine to Camp of the Woods. She is helping out there this week in the dining hall. We got her settled there and then went to Nate's.

We played dominos in the evening. Usually, when we play men against the women, the women always win. Last evening was the night for the men. We not only won the game, we won every round of play. The women had about 1,000 points and the men had zero. It was a real cause for celebration!

The VBS teachers left yesterday as well. This weekend we have a work crew coming from Northern Indiana. They will be doing some painting at the church and some other work projects.

This is when we were almost ready to begin the morning worship service.

Here is Nate getting the meat ready for lunch.

Here are Edith and Jan talking with Jessie Lyon. Jessie is our oldest church member.

With the rain, it was interesting trying to get a picture with all the VBS teachers actually in the picture.

Swimming

Elaine, Dallas and I went swimming at the Sturgeon River bridge this afternoon. This was our first time for this Summer. The water is so-o-o-o-o cold. We swam out to the bridge pier waded around a little bit on the bridge pier and then swam back to the shore. By that time I was shivering. We decided to call it quits for the day.

The water is at least four feet higher than it was last Summer. Last year we could hardly crawl up onto the pier. This year when we stand on the pier the water is waist deep. I had said that I was going to jump off the bridge this Summer while the water is high. That way it won't be so far from the bridge to the water. I think it is usually about 18 to 20 feet from the bridge to the water. Now it must only be about 15 feet. Surely, it is safe to jump from that height. However, it was so cold, and it still looks high when I stand up on the bridge. So, what I am saying is, I didn't jump off the bridge yet.

Feeling Good About Sickness

This morning I overheard an interesting conversation at the coffee shop. The young woman behind the counter was being congratulated by a customer on the announcement of her pregnancy. She said she had been having a lot of morning sickness, but was feeling a bit better now.

The customer told her that morning sickness is good because it means she will have a healthy baby. Then the pregnant lady said that she has been having heartburn too. She said heartburn is an especially good sign, because if you have heartburn with morning sickness it means that your baby will be born with a thick, full head of hair. She said she knows it is true because a friend of hers had heartburn every single morning when she was pregnant, and her baby was born with a thick head of beautiful blond hair.

What do you think? Do you tell yourself things like this when you are not feeling well?

A Ford at the ford

We have had a lot of rain in the last several months. All the lake levels are high. A culvert under the railroad had sand washed into it, causing the water level to rise dramatically over a stretch of road between our place and town.

We have been driving through with the car. Today it was higher and cars were not able to go through. We took the Explorer through this morning. This afternoon I left the Explorer on the town side and walked through. Edith picked me up with the car on our side of the water.

With a vehicle on either side of the water we should be able to keep getting back and forth to town. They are working on the culvert. Maybe by tomorrow the water will be lower.

Memorable Statement

When we were in Israel, I was asking one of the New Order Amish couples in our tour group questions about how they do church. Do they have it in their homes? Yes. About how big a group usually meet before they form a new group, etc. At the end he made a statement that has come to my mind many times since. He said, "It's not the only way, but it's a good way!"

I like that combination of humility and confidence!

I hope it applies to my way of being a mother, wife, and friend these days.
~Edith

Bethanie Wuz Here

Bethanie came back to Sioux Lookout with us. It was great to have her here for a few days. We went out in the canoe one day and we actually saw a moose. The last time I went canoeing with Bethanie we saw a cow with two calves. This time we just saw a cow. We managed to get within about 100 feet of the moose before it saw us. Dallas was along and he caught three fish.

One evening we took her to the Lebanese restaurant here in Sioux Lookout. They have wonderful food.

She was also a great help to Edith with meal preparation for the VBS teachers that are here in Sioux Lookout right now. We have been having about 80 children at VBS every morning.

Today we went to the Foster Parent Picnic at Ojibway Park. It was a cold wet day, but they decided to have it anyway. It didn't turn out too bad if you were wearing a thick jacket. They have a draw for things that were donated to the foster parent association. This year we got the use of a 65 foot house boat on Lac Seul. We will have the boat from August 23 to 29. So, if you come to visit us over that time you can join us on the house boat.

Bethanie left at about 3:00 PM this afternoon and headed back to New York. On Thursday she plans to return to Haiti.

This is the boat we will have for a week in August.

Here are Bethanie and Edith at the Foster Parent Picnic.

The walkway to the island at Ojibway Park is almost under water. The water levels are very high this year. Yesterday we had over two inches of rain.

Back Home

We got back home last evening from our trip to the States. We left on June 21 and had so many things packed into a two and a half week trip that it is hard to remember them all.

We spent a few days at SMBI while I did some teaching at the WATER Training week. I also attended an Anabaptist Foundation micro-finance committee meeting during that time.

Then we went to New Jersey and spent several days with all of our children. Bethanie was back from Haiti and Hans came up from Tennessee. We rented a cabin at a campground. It was great to have everyone together.

After the New Jersey time, we went to our home church, Fairhaven Mennonite Church, in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. We had lunch with Gerald and Lois Ann Martin. Dave and Cindy Weber were also there. We went to my nephew Lindford Burkholder's place for supper. We stayed with my brother Lester for the night.

Monday morning I attended an IGo promotional breakfast. I had a short time with Raymond Burkholder and then lunch with Dave Weber. In the afternoon we went shopping in Lancaster County with Lester and Martha.

Tuesday to Thursday we spent with all my siblings at a cabin in central Pennsylvania. It is kind of hard to believe that we are all as old as we are. How did we go from being children in Ephrata, Pennsylvania to being kind of old people?

After the time with my family we sent to Slate Run, Pennsylvania for the annual Stoltzfus gathering. We had a good time with Edith's family. Bethanie and Jennifer and Darren also came there.

Bethanie came back with us to Sioux Lookout. We are getting settled and trying to take dominion over our lawn and garden.

Dallas and Elaine each took a turn in the batting cage. Dallas tried the 50 mile per hour pitching speed.

We finally arrived at the fire tower after about an hour of walking on the mountain behind the campground.

Here is the mother with her daughters on the walk to the fire tower.

Dallas made his own campfire and actually successfully roasted a marshmallow over it.

This is Edith and I with all my siblings and their spouses at a cabin in Pennsylvania. We had a wonderful time together.

We played phase 10 one evening. I dropped out of the game at 11:30 PM. Edith took my place. The game ended at 12:37 AM.

This is what our lawn looked like after two and a half weeks of being gone.

Here is another photo of the lawn. It does have kind of an alpine meadow look. Unfortunately, it is not an alpine meadow, it is our lawn.