Blessings Coming and Going

This week here at Sager Brown was special. Oh they're all special because we get to meet the most wonderful people who come here to serve others and practice the faith they believe in so fervently. But this week was doubly special. We got to fill and ship a container with school and health kits going to Haiti. There were several boxes like this one from UNICEF - School In A Box Kit For 80 Students. Don't you just love that? School In a Box! :) And all of these boxes wrapped in cellophane were health kits. Each of these big boxes was packed with smaller boxes containing approximately 28 kits in each small box.

Each of the smaller boxes was loaded one at a time by a volunteer into this container. The temperature that day was in the upper nineties and inside that container it was excruciatingly hot. But young and old all of our volunteers got to put boxes in, putting their hands on the materials they had packed for people in need.

June 15, 9:00 a.m. a 20 foot container was filled with thousands and thousands of items that had been gathered from all over the United States, churches large and small sending what they could and praying over each piece.

This guy helped load those boxes. He'll probably kill me for showing this picture. :) But he was working so hard, sweat dripping off, and loving every minute. Knowing that you are truly helping people have a little better life fills your heart with joy.

And when it was loaded we all gathered in a circle with two people in the circle laying hands on the boxes and prayed for every person who would receive one of these kits. It was an incredible moment for us all.

This wasn't the first container filled here or the first container shipped and it won't be the last. Hundreds have gone before and hundreds will follow. But every single one is special. And every single person working here and receiving there has received a blessing not to be forgotten.

Finally A Little Stitching!

I've been working on these sunflowers for a long time. I'd sew a little, then put it down and do something else. The background fabric is a deep yellow/gold and for some reason it was hard to see the lines. I first traced them with the blue wash-away pen but that just seemed to fade into the background so I washed that out and retraced the whole thing with a red pen. That was much easier on my eyes. I want to make a throw pillow but don't have any coordinating fabric yet. I'm going to take this with me Saturday and go to a quilt show I found out about that's in Slidell, Louisiana this weekend. The ad said they will over 300 quilts but it didn't mention vendors. Surely they'll have vendors. Right? All quilt shows have vendors. Right? Promise me they'll have vendors!

A Happy Week

Don't you love it when you have a week, a whole week, where you smiled all the time? I had one of those weeks as my first here at the UMCOR Sager Brown Mission. Last Sunday, one week ago today, I checked in the first volunteers I would be working with and I can tell you this week's volunteers are going to have a hard time beating them! They were here to work and work they did. Five women (along with my husband and a couple of other male long term volunteers) painted one and a half houses out in this heat where the heat index was 105. A mom and her two teeenage daughters sorted, straightened, organized and hung up clothes in a clothes closet at the local women's shelter. Two men assembled office furniture. Others put together health kits - nearly 14,000 of them. They didn't just have willing hands and hearts, they had joyful spirits and heart touching stories. The Vesper service they arranged and implemented on Thursday night was a true worship service. This place is truly holy ground.

We're walking at 5:30 every morning during the week because of this menu! And let me tell you these ladies know how to cook - one day one of them made pralines at home and brought some to share. Oh my.

Jerry and I took a drive over to New Iberia, about 25 miles away. You know you're in the deep south when you see homes like this.

And trees like this!

And for those of you who are James Lee Burke fans (he's the author of the Dave Robicheaux, detective, series) this is his parent's home in New Iberia.

We're having a ball here!

Day Two - Home Away From Home

Our second day of travel started out kind of rough. It rained. And rained. And rained some more. Everyone who knows me very well knows that when I get scared I sing Jesus Loves Me, usually quite loudly. Well driving through Alexandria in the pouring rain with interstates above me and interstates below me circling in all directions I'm pretty sure Jerry could hear me singing way up there in front of me! But we arrived safely and spent the afternoon settling in to our new apartment.

Is this not the cutest thing? The housekeepers who work in the residence hall clean the apartments between volunteers and they had it spotless! The cute little elephants on the beds are shaped from a bath towel and a hand towel. :) The bed coverings, pillows and window treatments were all made by a volunteer and are beautiful! She made them for all the apartments and windows in the cafeteria and other buildings. The bedroom has only the beds, end tables and a dresser but is plenty of room for us.

The bedroom is right next to the living area and my husband, who is so hot natured that he freezes me wherever we are, is a happy guy in both of these rooms because they are cold! and the temperature can't be changed because it affects several other rooms on this end of the hall. I have a fleece throw to put over me when I'm stitching or watching tv and also a long sleeved denim shirt to wear. I even put a little electric throw on my bed!

The bathroom is small but certainly has all the necessities. :) It will be interesting to see how we adjust to having one bathroom since at home we each have our own. We are so spoiled and don't even realize it - so many people in the world don't even have one bathroom. :(

The closet is more than adequate - and no that's not all the clothes I brought. :) It took a little while to bring in all the clothes I felt like I "had to have." Trust me, I filled it up. But I left Jerry a little room in there.

This is Jerry's chair. You can see my office beyond it.

And this is my chair. Before I put all my stitching stuff and my Bible study stuff, and my blanket and my Ott light and my Puffs on it. Jerry's end table still looks just like it started. Why is that men don't have all the stuff that we women do? He put his things inside the table but I want mine out where I can get to them easily!

And here's the kitchen. Where I won't have to do much cooking at all since we eat in the cafeteria all week. And diet all weekend to make up for the cafeteria all week! I'll show you a menu for the week next post - oh my goodness can you say good? We walked at 5:30 this morning - if I don't walk the 20 pounds I lost before I arrived will be back on in a very short time!

Our first missionaries arrived on Sunday afternoon - all 48 of them. They are processing health kits and birthing kits this week. A truckload of health kits and school kits will be shipped out to Haiti on Thursday - somewhere 12,000 and 15,000 of them. These groups came from Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Missouri and will go back home on Friday. They range in age from 13 to 70+. Some are processing the kits, some are painting a house, some are sorting clothing at the local women's shelter, some are sewing baby layettes and school bags. There's plenty of work and thankfully, there are eager hands and hearts. More later!

Day One - The Journey Begins

I took a little walk through the yard before we left. These white lilies I planted six years ago - the year after my parents died. I had placed them in the church on Easter in their memory and in my husband's parents memory. They come up every year and are more beautiful each year. The swing that overlooks the lake is a wonderful cool place to sit on a summer day and a perfect place for conversations with God.

Usually I have lots of blooming flowers on this deck but this year I knew we wouldn't be there to take care of them so it's a little bare but still the perfect place to sit and watch the boars go by.

It's hard to leave home when you know you won't be back for four months. And it's hard to leave knowing that all your "stuff" is staying there! We women and our stuff - aren't we funny about it. :) I had the hardest time deciding what sewing stuff had to go and what had to stay - I wanted to take it all!

As we pulled out of the driveway I put a CD in and the first song I heard was by Mercy Me - "Here Am I Lord, Send Me". If I needed a confirmation that we were doing what we were supposed to, I certainly got it - don't you just love when He does that?

My husband drove the truck and pulled the camper. We aren't living in it but we want to make a few weekend trips so we're taking it along. I drove the car behind him ... I thought this would be my view all the way to the mission.

But then I realized that God had rolled out the carpet for me - not a red one but a white lace one! it covered both sides of the highway all the way through Arkansas!

I got a fortune cookie at lunch and it said this...You first have to make an exit in order to make an entrance to something better. I love that.

A Break in the Packing

This little bunny with his Happy Spring is the project we made at Jo's Redwork Workshop a couple of weeks ago. I put the binding on last night - it was a welcome change from the organizing and packing!