Bees and birds

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(This was written April 24, but isn't being posted until May 3rd because we've been without laptop access until now. Sorry about worrying you....Vicki)

(Leaving Shepherd’s Hill Farm)

The comment has been made to me that I haven’t mentioned much about the work we do with RVICS. We are maintenance missionaries, rather than evangelizing missionaries~~we do some of the physical work to leave time for the ministries’ we’re working for to do the preaching and teaching. This project had four couples; we were scheduled to have six, but John got hurt in Florida, so he and Lola couldn’t make it (he’s doing well, and headed home to West Virginia in a couple weeks) and Dave and Wanda stayed behind to help them. Here’s what the men accomplished in four weeks: fixed rain leak in roof above kitchen door, replaced damaged wall and floor in dining room, fixed floor tiles in kitchen and dining room, fixed outside kitchen light, fixed and replaced part of floor, including floor joists, in Boys’ Next Step house, replaced and painted small part of outside wall in BNS house, sand and paint refrigerator in BNS house, fixed back porch railing at boys’ classroom, installed motion light at girls’ classroom, built handrails from along girls’ classroom, and rail on steps, finished back deck rails outside girls’ classroom, built steps going to game room, sealed front and back porches on guest house, and sealed the gazebo, capped off gas line in living room of guest house, fixed towel rack in bathroom of guest house, painted shutters on guest house and on Girls’ Next Step house, chopped down tree, replaced fascia boards at teachers’ office building, built deck at Embry’s house and put up handrail on back deck, and sanded and painted the basketball goalposts, painted large cross on Shepherd’s Hill.

The women painted the basketball shed, primed and painted chapel doors and door to girls’ classroom, painted front and back decks on guest house, painted rails outside girls’ classroom, and spindles on deck, painted two outside walls on teachers’ office building, as well as primed and painted door, painted well house, washed the windows in guest house, in shop and in Boys’ Next Step house, painted bottom half of wall in living room of guest house, as well as all the doors and the hallway in the guest house, painted one bedroom in guest house, primed and painted one bedroom in Boys’ Next Step house, varnished windows in that bedroom, as well as the door trim of all doors, and chair rails throughout the house, painted the kitchen and laundry room in Girls’ Next Step house, scraped and painted 150’ of 4-rail fence, with much help from the men.

So while we have tons of fun, we get tons of work accomplished too! On the larger scale, for the year of 2008, we (RVICS) served 65 projects, with 119 couples, with a total of 45,868 hours. That’s a lot of free work that wouldn’t be done otherwise, or labor that would have to be paid for.

All that being said, this was one of the hardest projects for us to leave. Every ministry is important, but this one really touched both Bob and me. The kids have run out of options before they are fortunate enough end up at Shepherd’s Hill Farm, and then they’re helped in such a firm, fair, consistent loving manner. It would be someplace that I’d like to stay and work fulltime.

But leave we did, and that was on Thursday; we drove to Charlotte and spent the night with my aunt and uncle (hi, Margo!) And now we’re headed to Maryland, to be tourists in Washington DC! That will be my next entry~~now for the last of the pictures from Shepherd’s Hill Farm….

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Photos

Not a bird, or a plane...
it's a carpenter bee. They're bigger than those big bumble bees, but these don't sting~~they find holes in wood and go in and eat it. They just hang in the air while they're looking for holes~~like a hummingbird. They're very loud, and have kind of an annoying string-trimmer sound. There were hundreds around the camp

Look toward the upper left
and you'll see what the cat was planning for dinner!

I've always been moved by the cross
on the hill, but after the men painted it it was even more spectacular. It seemed to glow!

See--the women painted too!
Well 2 of them did!