Mary’s Blog

This “Summer of Mission” has been so incredible. I can’t believe all the places I’ve been and the people that I have met. The Dominican trip was so rewarding. We built two houses, had VBS for four days and were welcomed into homes everyday. The people of Las Flores were so glad to have us there. I have never felt more welcomed in a new community.

I made some new friends in the Dominican and grew closer to the Northminster friends that were my mission partners. We had wonderful, beautiful walks every morning and fun, crazy card games every evening. the work was hard but rewarding with a great sense of accomplishment at the end of each day.

I hope to return to Las Flores next summer and would love to work on my Spanish before then.

Well, I’m frustrated because I submitted an update to my blog, last week, but it didnt’ publish or post. I’m still trying to figure all of this high tech stuff out so that makes it even worse.

Anyway, the trip was wonderful and the students and leaders were amazing. We laughed alot and cried alot. One of my favorite things was when my van would start singing on our way back to the hostel each night. The guys would get out the guitars and we would sing worship songs.

Rich had given us a challenge for the trip: “Find what breaks Jesus’ heart and let it break yours”. We found lots of things that would make Jesus weep. But there were also many moments that show that God is already at work in South Philly. Cornerstone Christian Academy was a great home base for our daily work. We got to help out their great custodian, Mr. Sweat. He even joined in our group photo, in front of his tool shed. I had lots of fun painting in MOES Hallway. It is a beautiful soft, yellow. Day camp was frustrating but the kids were so happy to have the extra attention, even for a few short days. I made a great new friend, Kathy. Wish she didn’t live so far away or we would call the hogs during football season.

I just started reading Captivating by Stasi Eldridge. It has been highly recommended by lots of ladies. If you have read or are reading it, let’s chat about it on my blog. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Hopefully this will make it to the website this time.

Today is my first day with an on-line journal and the responsibility feels pretty overwhelming. I’m not sure what I will write about or how often I will add entries. I would love to hear thoughts from others and topics of interest that we can talk about.

Fall is definitely my favorite time of year and I am so thankful that I live where the seasons change. I love going to the apple farm with my family, picking out pumpkins, drinking crisp apple cider and eating donuts. Unfortunately, these days are too few. Soon enough it will be time to scrape windshields every morning before work, shovel snow and try to put on enough layers to keep warm (a perpetual problem for me). But for now I will enjoy the cool, crisp days with beautiful blue skies and the colorful Ohio leaves. Remind me of this feeling in mid-February. Until then, I’m happy.

Mary

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