What a delight to be home! At least it was last week, when 90% of the snow in our yard was GONE. It was my daunting task to tackle cleaning up 6 months of doggie doodoo, and it was quite obvious that there had been many snowfalls, as there were layers of it exposed during the melting process - my task, I say, because it is my choice to have the dog… The garbage man (husband) will have the wonderful job of taking it to the dump. Oh the joys of having a pet. The good thing is that we only have one dog, unlike our son’s family, who has two, larger than ours, so he has more than twice the clean-up. The children probably get stuck with that job!
It was not so delightful to wake up to find all the snow back on the yard the beginning of the week ! And then more coming yet… Back to square one, with just the walks shoveled and a trail to the garden shed. The snow was so heavy that the sun deck needed to be relieved of the weight. Our metal roof that was finally cleared of snow, was in exactly the same state as when we arrived home in mid March. Obviously we should have extended our trip south another month…
Then when the news included 62 tornadoes in one day in North Carolina, and 240 throughout the USA the same day, how foolish we feel complaining about the inconvenience of another downfall of snow!!! Looking on the U.S. map shows that North Carolina is a very small state. 60 tornadoes would pretty well devastate the whole state.
It was a wonderful surprise to receive a telephone call from Jeanerette, Louisiana, in the middle of the week. There was Rosella, one of our homeowners, who was just thinking of us and wanted to keep in touch. When I inquired about what she had been doing recently, she replied, “Oh, just sitting here waiting for you to come back!” When we are asked why we do what we do with MDS, this is one more confirmation that God sends us to people who have a need for a special personal touch, even more than just help rebuilding their home. What an enormous blessing we receive from these contacts. Whether we ever get to see them personally again is unknown. She has never seen snow in person, so I wished she could have been here instead of on the telephone…
As you are aware if you have been following our story, we have tremendously enjoyed attending Cowboy Churches in Texas and Louisiana. Upon our return, we suggested to our home church, Grace Mennonite, that we would like to try that casual type of service here and were happy to find they were receptive to the idea. Accordingly, you will soon be seeing posters about a Cowboy Church service on Father’s Day, in the restored old-fashioned barn at Spruce Home Farm, followed by a dinner which can be purchased, and a Country Gospel Jamboree in the afternoon featuring Larry Krause and others. Any proceeds generated at the dinner and from goodwill offerings at the Jamboree will be donated to Mennonite Disaster Service. We hope we will see y’all there. It should be a very enjoyable Father’s Day! I sort of see it as akin to St. Patrick’s Day, where everyone is Irish. This Father’s Day we can all be “cowboys”. At one Cowboy Church we attended, the pastor told us to feel free to say “Eee-haw” instead of Amen!
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