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Articles
Weekend Trip to San Carlos
Congregational
Life
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Engaged: Stratton/Hull
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Baby Announcement: Dakota Powell
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The True Tale of Four Red Hens
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Did You Know (Nathan Landis trip to
Europe, Casey Walton Graduation & Bessie Schaefer's 100th birthday)
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Women's Outreach- Pictures
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Children of PMC-Picture
Annual
Day of Mennonite Women of Virginia Conference
From
A Grandma's Perspective...
by Pat Hertzler
"Me"
Library
Nook
by Renel Kennell
From
A Pastor's Heart...
by Tim Kennell
Do You Believe in God?
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Weekend
Trip to San Carlos
Dear Loved Ones,
Here
are more details about our trip this past weekend. Thirty of
us (ten were children) left the school Friday at 1:30 by bus. It
was a three hour trip to the Methodist Camp where we stayed. It
is always incredible to leave the city and travel through the mountains
and see the villages and countryside here. We got settled in
our rooms and then headed into town to get supper. The camp
had nice grounds with property down to a stream with paths and benches
on the hill. There was a dining hall/kitchen building and
several dorm type houses. We had a three bunk room for our
family. Saturday morning after breakfast, the leader asked a
couple of us if we could assemble 70 sandwiches to take to the job site,
gather the other food and fill the five gallon water jugs. No
problem! Then Cindy (my “little sister”) and I stayed
back to check out the supplies for a Bible school. They had a
stash of Jonah coloring pages and a Whale costume and words for some
Spanish children’s songs.
We got to
the worksite which was only ten minutes from camp and joined the rest of
the team. They had started the house which was the main
project for the day. The house was a 20 X 20 structure. Many
of the people used to live in tin houses but they are being replaced by
more sturdy homes. I don’t think they have running water in
the homes though. In one home I saw a young girl around five
years old sweeping the floor and a 10-12 year old at an outside sink
peeling vegetables with a huge knife for their meal. This
area has a community center/church and this is where we had the Bible
school. Mid afternoon we gathered the children up and walked
down the hill to the church. Forty-five children plus our ten
and a few mothers gathered for singing, story, coloring and a few games. I
would have preferred a bit more preparation time and organization on our
part, but it went well and we were able to interact with children and
love on them. They were very well behaved and attentive.
Most of the day
Jeremiah was with the neighborhood boys. He climbed the two
trees by the worksite gathered tiny guavas from the trees, and hammered
a nail or two. Hannah moved some boards, gathered some trash
and played with the children. Bethany played Jonah in the
acting out of the story, climbed on the building supplies, interacted
with everyone around her and had a great time.
By the end
of the day the house had the main beam in, rafters on and most of the
outside wall panels in place. The floor will get poured at
the end and the roof needs to be put on yet. The supplies
were a bit slow in coming but it definitely felt like a worthwhile day. Several
were invited into homes to chat throughout the day. We ended
the day with many sunburned faces, necks and ears in the group. Our
family faired pretty well. Showers felt really good that
night.
Sunday
we had church in an outside amphitheatre at the camp and then went a
mile down the road to a hot springs. It was rustic. We
walked down a wooded area to a stream and beside the stream were pools
made out of rock. Each pool was a different temp. and was
marked with 37-48 degrees Celsius. I wish I could remember
the conversion of Fahrenheit to Celsius. I didn’t go in
the 48 degree one because it was stinking hot!!
There
were a dozen or so folks at the camp on short term mission trips who
were from different parts of the States. Most were in the
over 65 age bracket but it was neat to interact with them too and hear
their stories of trips to CR (some have come year after year) and to
share our stories of language school, callings to missions and
anticipated work in other countries.
We were
truly blessed by this experience and ones like these put life into
perspective, make me ready
to hit the books again, and continue to work as hard as I can to learn
Spanish.
Love to you all,
Regina
February
29, 2004
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