On The Homefront

Two wonderful packed weeks have been spent at home in New Hampshire!  The time was spent gardening, assisting with the school renovation, and restoring one of the large sanctuary window.

The first week was spent facilitating our Wilderness Camp low ropes course.  This year there were approximately 280 campers and 80 little campers, about 50 counselors and 50 adult helpers.  What a great ministry that brings many people together.  Surely camp has many different purposes for discipleship and fellowship ~ such a good chance for all to practice unity.  

Being home in mid July allowed me to experience the tastes of fresh raspberries, blueberries, sugar snap peas, swiss chard, kale, and the first green bean of the season.  If you cannot tell, gardening and food preservation for the winter is an important part of the summer.  I’m very thankful for the generosity of wonderful friends who share the bounty of their good land - Two weeks of being home and some industrious effort my small freezer is 3/4th full for the winter!  

The second week was packed between the school renovation and window restoration at the church.  Jesse Remington High School now has a GREAT ROOM!  When I arrived home the room was all framed, the roof complete and the wiring done.  During the two weeks home I saw much progress because of the volunteer efforts of many people.  For those of you familiar with the school, there is now a nice step up into the building and the room is very well insulated.  We shall see how this helps in the winter and with sound movement through out the building.  It was a joy to work with many different people for the common goal of a new and better classroom experience for our new students. 

With all this work there was also some time for fun!  I enjoyed a lovely trip to the Sea Coast to see the tall ship in Portsmouth Harbor.  The afternoon was peaceful and a good time to catch up with some good friends. 

Any one who lives in an old home knows the joys and challenges of old windows.  Our church was built in the late 1700’s and I’m not sure when the windows of the church were made, but I do know that occasionally windows need to be loved.  Each of the 6 large window  in our church have 30 panes of glass in the lower section and 30 pains in the upper section.  My challenge was to scrape, putty, and paint one of these windows.  Carefully four men of the church removed the window for me and then started the work. With a small chisel the loose putty was removed and any loose paint was scraped away.  Two pieces of glass had to be removed and replaced due to cracking.  This can be quite challenging as it requires removing all the old putty.  A heat gun was used to loosen the putty and help find the small metal piece which hold the window in place.  To put in a new piece of glass takes some patience and practice.  Putty is placed along the wooden frame and the piece of glass is carefully pressed into the putty creating a seal, then with an angled piece of steal and a hammer the metal triangles are carefully hammered along the glass into the wooden frame.  Now it is time to putty the window.  

This job has special significance.  All my life I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy relationship with people who are older than myself.  Therefore, I have learned many skills that are being lost in my generation.  These skills of faming, gardening, and home care are a large part of my life.  Each time I work on these kind of projects many memories flood my mind of the hours of mentorship!  

Unexpected Adventure

One wonderful aspect of being part of the Au Sable community is the commonality shared between current and past Au Sable alumni.  Several visitors were on campus this Holiday weekend.  On Friday a group of past Interns and myself went for an adventure up the coast along Lake Michigan.  We had no real agenda other than to enjoy one another and the landscape.

Cherry season has just begun and our first stop was a farms market where we found local cherries, sugar snap peas and homemade soap!  From the farmers market we continued our journey up through Charlevoix, Petoskey, to Harbor Springs. In Charlevoix we walked along the shore of Lake Charlevoix and the canal linking this lake to Lake Michigan.  There were several large sailboats in the harbor area.  One the half hour the bridge through Charlevoix opens to allow these very large vessels to travel through to the large lake.  All along Lake Michigan there were the shells of zebra mussels  a reminder of the risk with connecting waterways.  These invasive little creatures made it to the great lakes via the ballast of a ship from Asia.

Prior to leaving Au Sable in the morning we were encouraged to enjoy lunch in Petoskey at the Toast and Roast.  The sandwiches and soup were great!  The small town atmosphere was fun to enjoy.  There were several small stores featuring handmade MI items from pottery to policed Petoskey stones.  

From Petoskey we continued north through Harbor Springs and found a small Nature Center along the Lake.  The Center had a nice walking trail through a cedar swamp to the Lake Shore.  As we approached the shore the sound of the waves was very loud.  I encourage you to watch the video clip here and turn your volume all the way up - that may just provide a small glimpse of the sound we experienced.  As beautiful as the view was here, we could not help but notice the smog rising on the horizon.   

This coming week reach out and enjoy the people who are brought across your path.  Community is such a rich and wonderful blessings - which we often forget to embrace!