Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here

Ann & Larry (part of the 'Frankfort 5') arrived this afternoon and the other group we'll be working with arrived from North Carolina. So our WHOLE group sat down together for a delicious dinner, provided by Mary Rae and the kitchen crew.

The first item on our agenda was watching some of Marcus & Jessie's home videos they shot during the flooding. After the video, they spoke of their experiences and how wonderful all the volunteers have been. They spoke of being grateful that we are taking the time to come and share hope with their friends and neighbors. Jessie even said that in the first days of the flooding when everyone wondered what hope they had, "hope came in a van" as the volunteers began the clean up. (I just love that phrase!)

After worship, we had a time of gathering to meet new friends and worship, led by CF.




Luke and Josh led us (rather enthusiastically, I must say!) in some opening songs.

Then, Sharon & Larry busted out their guitars and joined Luke and Josh. (Tracy and Ann helped to sing, but I didn't get a picture of that--sorry!)

Tomorrow will be our first day at the job sites ... and it sounds like we really have our work cut out for us this week, which makes me a little anxious. But that's for tomorrow. Now, it's time for bed.


As my mom used to say as she tucked us in, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Intobedwego!" :0)

Flikr Photostream

As promised earlier, here's a link to my Flikr photostream with extra pictures. Flikr isn't cooperating so things are sort of a jumbled mess, but you'll get the picture! (Get it??)

Day 2: Part 1 (Worship)

Well, after a late night last night, it was an early AM!


This is the room in which we are eating.

It is ALSO their fellowship hall. And Sunday School room. So, we needed to have it cleaned BEFORE we went to worship ... at 8:30AM! We hustled to be ready and attended worship where the Rev. Dr. John Bell was the guest speaker. 

Yeah, not the greatest picture.

John Bell is a native of Scotland who lives as part of the Iona Community, which produces music and liturgies for churches.  Besides speaking with lovely brogue, he's a great (and witty) speaker. The gist of this morning's sermon was an exhortation of sorts to not be "timid" about claiming to be born again of water and spirit--awesome sermon on baptismal identity!


A number of us then attended his Sunday School class about the Psalms, where he gave us new ways to look at some difficult psalms.  Go read Psalm 88--it's OK; I'll wait. 


He talked about how the Psalms teach us to the words to pray (both rejoicing and lamenting) but also allow us a glimpse into the experience of others that we may not have ourselves. AND they also teach us that doubt and questions and anger at God are not all bad. In fact, his summation of Psalm 88 was this: Would someone go through the trouble of saying all these things if he/she didn't believe God was listening? So even in the mist of all the anger, there still is the seed of faith. And that's all God needs--a tiny seed. 


After Sunday School, a group headed out to the Mammoth Caves for a little exploring. Another group headed out to see the Grand Ole Opry. Yet another group went to see a steam engine of some sort. (I went to church again--I know, I'm a nerd.)


So right now, all those who have traveled around are heading home and those of us who are hear are chilling out or doing homework. The site leaders currently are out scoping out the work that will begin tomorrow but will return for dinner at 6:00p. We'll get to meet the folks from the other group who is here for the week, and hopefully Ann & Larry will be here for that!


Tonight we gather for a meeting where we'll find out what we'll be doing at the work sites for the week. We'll share worship together, and hopefully have an early night! I'll be back later to update you with how the meeting went!


Oh, here are a few pictures of the church I took this afternoon:

Flikr is slowly uploading more photos. I'll post a link when it's finished. Enjoy!

More Day 1 Photos of Flikr

AND, here are more pics from yesterday on my Flikr photostream.

Honking for Jesus

This is what the back of the van I was riding in looks like, thanks to the teens on the trip!

And lemme tell ya, there was a whole lotta honking going on yesterday! And I'm sure today will be just the same.

Here's what some of the other cars look like: 

More later...time for breakfast and worship! I can't wait to show you guys what this church looks like--it's AMAZING!

WE HAVE ARRIVED!

It's now 11:00p (10:00p your time--YES, we're readjusting to ANOTHER time change, thank you very much stupid daylight savings!) and we have arrived in Nashville. It was a long trip, but we had several interesting adventures along the way that made it all worth it! 

Adventure #1The Beaver County part of the caravan (traveling down the road formerly known as 60!) was running a bit behind schedule. (It was bound to happen, sooner or later, so why not at the beginning, right?!)

We were supposed to meet up with the Butler County part of the group (traveling down interstate 79) at mile marker 50 of Interstate 79 just outside of Bridgeville, PA. We Beaver County folks figured the others would be waiting for us when we got there. 

So, imagine our surprise when, AS WE WERE MERGING onto 79, who should be in the lane we were merging into at the same time?!  The Butler County folks!

It was Providence!  As we got out at the rest stop, the crowd was buzzing about the amazing timing of the groups. (Or maybe it was the sugar buzz from the Krispy Kremes that Hap Burns provided for the group!)

Adventure #2Our next stop proved to be just as eventful. We pulled in for gas (for those vans who needed it) and we spied a woman trying, apparently in vain, to pop the lock on her car door...which she had locked herself out of. 

Well, Don and Joe Schmaltzried and Bob Gilson, sprung into action, having had some previous "B&E" type expertise in this area :0). 

The woman had what looked like part of a store display rack--a long, thin wire win a hook on the end. Her passenger side window was down about an inch or two and she was working on using the hook to catch the lock. Alas, it was to no avail. 

For a few minutes, Joe and Don fiddled around with it but decided they didn't have the right tools. What they NEEDED was a teenage girl with very long, thin arms!  

And lo and behold, God provided Taylor Huff who was able to reach in and unlock the car! In no time, our Good Samaritans were back in the vans and we were on our way--still running late, I don't think anyone complained about this reason!

Adventure #3

For dinner, we stopped at "King Buffet," a Chinese restaurant somewhere in Kentucky. (Sorry, I didn't pay much attention to the town names as we traveled!) We had the place to ourselves, quite literally!

Though I think we overwhelmed the staff, I imagine they were equally grateful for ALL the business we gave them! They were super gracious and quick to refill all the dishes that were quickly emptied. (A "regular" customer of theirs even got up and got the drinks for our table!)

A couple of hours later, we arrived at the church, unloaded our stuff, took a little tour, and then had a little meeting. 

Nice boots. 

And now we're going to bed. 

G'night, from Nashville!