Church Basement Floor

The church basement floor is finished. Here is a picture of the floor from the kitchen facing toward the outside door.

Here is a picture of the basement floor from the back corner facing toward the kitchen. We finished doing the grout on Wednesday evening. I went over to the church and cleaned the tile on Thursday. Yesterday and today I put sealer on the grout. So now it is all finished.

The next step of the project is to paint the walls. The ladies are picking out paint colors. We hope to have it finished by Thanksgiving weekend. We have a fellowship meal on Sunday October 12 for Thanksgiving.

I think the floor looks very nice. It should last for a very long time. We had a good time working together as men to do it too.

Perhaps a slow learner?

I have been taking university courses since the Spring of 1999. This Spring I finally finished a two-year associate degree in Justice Ministry from Taylor University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I received my diploma in the mail today.

Now, I know in my family, you guys have Doctorates, Masters and Bachelors degrees, so my Associate Degree is barely a beginning. Also, it took me 9 years to do a two-year degree. But that is not necessarily a statement about my intelligence or about my commitment. It merely recognizes that I did a few other things during those 9 years beside studying.

But still, I did get it done. I remember when I started that Edith made the comment, "I hope you are as excited about your last course, as you are about the first one". I was pretty much excited about the last course. The Appreciation of Art and the Appreciation of Music courses where probably the ones I struggled with the most, except for the math course, which I completed in 2000.

Travel Post # 2

At the Women's Retreat in Ga, I really enjoyed a workshop Alma Miller [she's Terry and Lanita's Mom] lead. It was entitled, "The Empty Nest--Grandma's Ministry. The older ladies were in that workshop of course, and really participated in giving ideas and asking questions. As I sat with those ladies I was thinking how much I like them. I like the fact these ladies aren't ashamed of aging. They don't try to hide their wrinkles and grey hair. They accept the unique beauty that comes from going through all the stages of life. They've married, raised children, released them, and now some have lost their partners. They talked about how to affirm, and not work against, the standards their children have for the grandchildren. They discussed how to do grandparenting from a distance. They've been tried and tested by life and are still being fruitful in good works in old age.

I had to think of the story of The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams. He was a stuffed rabbit, a beloved Christmas present. He asked one of the other toys in the laundry what being REAL meant. The Skin Horse told him it happens when you've been REALLY loved for a long time. The Velveteen Rabbit asked him if it hurts. The Skin Horse said, "Sometimes. When your are Real you don't mind being hurt."

Then the rabbit wondered if it happens all at once or bit by bit.

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

These ladies were Real and when I grow up, I want to be like them!~Edith

Travel Report 1

I got back home this evening with the car floor covered with lots of tiny pieces of glass from the broken window Merle mentioned. And my heart is full of good memories and thankfulness. It really was a nice ladies' retreat and I felt treated like royalty.

There were more travel adventures. The ladies who were coming from the Magnolia, Miss. congregation picked me up at the airport. Jeanne Schrock was driving. She did a great job in the 6 lane traffic heading one way in Atlanta. After we got a road with less lanes, a scary thing happened. We were all the way over in the left lane. A car beside us wanted to pass the tractor trailer truck ahead of him/her. We were in their blind spot, so they started coming over. Jeanne was alert and quickly moved onto the shoulder of the road. Otherwise we'd have been collided into for sure!

Incident # 3 happened after the retreat on our way back to the airport. There was a topper thing on the roof of our vehicle the ladies were storing some of the suitcases, etc. in. As we drove along, there was a clattering in the back and off it tumbled onto the highway! Fortunately, the vehicle following us had space to react and go around us. The topper slid to the side of the road and we backed on the shoulder back to it and reloaded everything inside. It could have been a lot worse. It reminded me how quickly things can happen and how many miles we travel safely. I'm especially grateful this time! ~Edith

Ladies Retreats

This is the weekend for Ladies Retreats. Edith went to Hartwell, Georgia to speak at the Ladies Retreat there. She left Thursday morning early and drove to International Falls to get a flight from there. On the way down 502 a truck pulling a boat passed her. It must have picked up a rock, because as it went past her, the window in the drivers door shattered. She drove the rest of the way to the airport without the window glass in her door. Edith will be coming home Sunday afternoon.

Also this weekend is the Borderland Ladies Retreat in International Falls. Elaine got a ride to that retreat with Heidi Hochstetler. They left after school on Thursday. She plans to be back this evening.

That leaves Dallas and I alone here at home. So, I guess in some ways we are having a Men's Retreat. We have been doing a little grouse hunting. We didn't get anything. Also, we worked on the church basement floor a bit too. We are doing okay, but we won't mind having a few ladies in the house again.

Brace Yourself!

Yesterday both Elaine and Dallas got braces put on their teeth. We went to Winnipeg Tuesday evening and they had their appointment on Wednesday morning. Now they are eating soup, yogurt and applesauce. Hopefully, they will be able to chew more solid food by the beginning of next week. The way they have things arranged in their mouths now, they are unable to chew because their top and bottom teeth do not come together.

Here is Elaine with her braces.

And, here is Dallas with his!

Church Basement Floor

Last Monday the men from the church finished laying the ceramic tile on the church basement floor. Today we got together again to put in the grout. We worked on it from 8:00 AM to about 4:30 PM. We were about 85 - 90% finished when we ran out of grout.

One of the men said that you know you live in a small town when all of the building supply stores in town combined do not have enough grout in stock to do one floor.

The floor is looking more and more completed now. I think it will look really good when it is done. It has been a lot of work, but it will be worth it. It has given us an opportunity to work together as men too, which has been good.

We are planning to go to Winnipeg this coming week for Elaine and Dallas to get braces put on their teeth. I can probably get enough grout of the same brand and color for us to finish the floor when we are in Winnipeg.

Dominican Republic

Thursday I went with Ken Burkholder and John Sensenig to the Dominican Republic. We went as part of the Micro-Finance committee for Anabaptist Foundation. We were participating in a vision trip by HOPE International. They work in micro-finance in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. We are hoping to help them expand their program in Haiti, especially in the areas where there are Mennonite Missions working.

We had a good trip and I am now on the way home. We got to the Dominican Republic just as the last effects of Hurricane Hanna were being felt. We left just as the wind was picking up due to Hurricane Ike. The timing of our trip was perfectly placed between the two hurricances.

I found the micro-finance projects to be very interesting. They are doing a great job of helping people. Many of their clients were Haitians who had moved to the Dominican Republic. That meant that quite a few of them spoke Kreyol and I could talk directly with them.

This is what the ocean looked like on Thursday evening when we arrived in Santo Domingo.

This is John and Ken outside the Kellog Center where we stayed while we were in the country.

This is an eternal flame in the colonial part of the city. There is an old church there that now holds the tombs of some of the past heros of the country.

This is the governor's house in the colonial part of the city. This house was the home of Christopher Columbus' son.

This is the pharmacy in the clinic that HOPE International operates for their clients.

These ships washed up on shore just before we got there, during hurricane Hanna.

This is a meeting of a local bank. Each of the borrowers attends the meeting. There is a Bible reading and some finance teaching. Then each client makes their payment on their loan.

This was the road into one of the villages. They said the water was about waist deep. We turned back and went another way into the village. On the second road we drove through about two feet of water.