Monday, March 29, 2010
I know, I'm a slacker but here's my last month
It's been a month since I blogged...I could make excuses about being on the go but in reality it's about making time to do it. I am going to try and get caught up a bit this week. Here's the rundown:
Feb 27 - March 6: At JDV with the Francesville work team. My Uncle Curt and Aunt Val (Leman) and three little cousins (Winston, Garrett and Spencer Benjamin) were all on the team, so that made it extra special.
I also got to spend time with a good friend from the college days, Brad Ricketts, who randomly got connected with the group. I was blessed to have some sweet fellowship with him. Also, an intern with CCCD was up at JDV from the MoBay campus, Gunnar Martin, and I roomed with him for the week. It was quite funny how quickly we adjusted to each other and within a couple hours were teasing each other left and right like we were long time friends. Also from college days at Purdue, Dani Weuthrich was on the team, so there were 4 of us in a similar age range that was truly a blessing for me. Things like hanging out with friends in your age range is something I took for granted back home, so when it comes along now, its a huge blessing. There were also a lot of familiar faces on the team, and in particular I was blessed to spend the week laying block alongside Dave Zeltwanger, who wasn't afraid to challenge me and ask tough questions. The whole week was a blessing and we got to finish it out by bringing about half the team to my campus in Kingston. Brian and Jackie Huber have been to Kingston many times and sponsor a couple students, so it was neat to see their love for the kids in action.
March 6-13: Back to Kingston for Grace Church from Roanoke, WV. This was a little hectic. I left JDV and went to Kingston, so I didn't have much time to get prepared for the team. They had the late flight out of Miami, so we were picking them up around 9 or 10 pm. As I was loading luggage I turned around to pick up the next bag and, standing right there, was Betsy Foster. Her and I go way back to the two summers we interned together at CCCD in 06 and 07. God blessed us with a very close friendship, and I truly count her as one of my closest sisters in Christ. She has an amazing testimony of God's work in her life, as she began losing her hearing at the age of 15 but has adapted to significant hearing loss in an amazing way, by reading lips and also becoming amazingly fluent in sign. This allows her to interpret perfectly both for deaf people and for hearing, which is such a rare gift. I also got to know some legends of CCCD, Pam Swallow and Bob Gordon, two team leaders who have spent quite a bit of time on the island, with Bob even helping to coordinate teams when CCCD was shorthanded in years past. We got a lot of work done and had sweet fellowship.
March 13-20: I said goodbye to the team at the airport as I picked up my family. This was a long awaited moment, but also a bit surreal as I had not thought about it during the last two weeks. I suppose I was busy enough that thinking about their arrival just didn't happen too much. As they began trickling out I was excited, especially to see mom and Kates. I will blog more about the week with them later, but we had a blessed week. We spend Saturday-Tuesday at CCCD (JDV and Kingston campus, as well as a visit to KP) and then Tuesday-Saturday at a hotel in MoBay. This was a great way to spend the week, as my family got to see a lot more of what my life is like but we also just got to hang out and relax and beach bum it. As a family we hadn't been on vacation together since maybe 2000 or 2001, so it was special.
March 20-27: I once again said goodbye to one group (the fam) and then left for the airport to say hello to the next group. The only difference was that now I had a 4.5 hour trek across the island to get from MoBay to Kingston airport. Thankfully I picked up Erin Davis in Mandeville and she drove the 2nd leg of the trip to Kingston. Her mom was coming with the group from Gridley, so it was a bit ironic that I would say bye to my mom that day and then Erin would be saying hello to hers. We were both excited to see the team, as Roger and Mary Stoller and Harvey Kaeb were all returning from their recent trip in January.
March 29, today, I am back up at JDV to help with a team from Florida. I will be here for a couple days and then head to MoBay to pick up my sister-in-law-to-be Tamara. I'm excited that its going to work out for me to spend some time with her as she is visiting all her friends from her 2 month stint this past summer. Hopefully I will get some time this week to add pictures and details.
In summary, the month of march absolutely flew by and despite all the times I was stressed out of my mind with no idea of how things would work out, God ALWAYS provided and everything ALWAYS worked out better than I could have hoped for, because at the end of the day, God is good, All the time, No matter what.
Feb 27 - March 6: At JDV with the Francesville work team. My Uncle Curt and Aunt Val (Leman) and three little cousins (Winston, Garrett and Spencer Benjamin) were all on the team, so that made it extra special.
(While waiting for the team to arrive in MoBay we took the boys to the beach so they could "just get their feet wet" which turned into being soaked from head to toe)
March 6-13: Back to Kingston for Grace Church from Roanoke, WV. This was a little hectic. I left JDV and went to Kingston, so I didn't have much time to get prepared for the team. They had the late flight out of Miami, so we were picking them up around 9 or 10 pm. As I was loading luggage I turned around to pick up the next bag and, standing right there, was Betsy Foster. Her and I go way back to the two summers we interned together at CCCD in 06 and 07. God blessed us with a very close friendship, and I truly count her as one of my closest sisters in Christ. She has an amazing testimony of God's work in her life, as she began losing her hearing at the age of 15 but has adapted to significant hearing loss in an amazing way, by reading lips and also becoming amazingly fluent in sign. This allows her to interpret perfectly both for deaf people and for hearing, which is such a rare gift. I also got to know some legends of CCCD, Pam Swallow and Bob Gordon, two team leaders who have spent quite a bit of time on the island, with Bob even helping to coordinate teams when CCCD was shorthanded in years past. We got a lot of work done and had sweet fellowship.
March 13-20: I said goodbye to the team at the airport as I picked up my family. This was a long awaited moment, but also a bit surreal as I had not thought about it during the last two weeks. I suppose I was busy enough that thinking about their arrival just didn't happen too much. As they began trickling out I was excited, especially to see mom and Kates. I will blog more about the week with them later, but we had a blessed week. We spend Saturday-Tuesday at CCCD (JDV and Kingston campus, as well as a visit to KP) and then Tuesday-Saturday at a hotel in MoBay. This was a great way to spend the week, as my family got to see a lot more of what my life is like but we also just got to hang out and relax and beach bum it. As a family we hadn't been on vacation together since maybe 2000 or 2001, so it was special.
March 20-27: I once again said goodbye to one group (the fam) and then left for the airport to say hello to the next group. The only difference was that now I had a 4.5 hour trek across the island to get from MoBay to Kingston airport. Thankfully I picked up Erin Davis in Mandeville and she drove the 2nd leg of the trip to Kingston. Her mom was coming with the group from Gridley, so it was a bit ironic that I would say bye to my mom that day and then Erin would be saying hello to hers. We were both excited to see the team, as Roger and Mary Stoller and Harvey Kaeb were all returning from their recent trip in January.
March 29, today, I am back up at JDV to help with a team from Florida. I will be here for a couple days and then head to MoBay to pick up my sister-in-law-to-be Tamara. I'm excited that its going to work out for me to spend some time with her as she is visiting all her friends from her 2 month stint this past summer. Hopefully I will get some time this week to add pictures and details.
In summary, the month of march absolutely flew by and despite all the times I was stressed out of my mind with no idea of how things would work out, God ALWAYS provided and everything ALWAYS worked out better than I could have hoped for, because at the end of the day, God is good, All the time, No matter what.
# posted by Blake @ 9:23 PM 
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