Endings are bittersweet

The project is complete. The Howrey family is excited to move in! We are all sad that we will part company. We have had a blast being here and working together. While we look forward to being home and seeing those we love and have missed, we are sad to be leaving behind new good friends.

Please pray for the journey home. See you all soon.

Better, yet Busy week

Where has the last week gone? It has flown by, yet at the same time was exhausting. First, an update on Russ. He was released from the hospital on last Sunday after spending 2 nights there. He was up and around on Monday. He and Judy spent a couple of days sanding and painting (he could do that left handed). He helped measure and cut sheetrock. So, pretty much he is acting back to normal. The last couple of days he has been experiencing dizziness which makes him nauseous. Please pray that the dizziness goes away.

Since Jim returned, we have been flying. We finished up the outside of the second story on Monday. Tuesday we finished the wiring. Wednesday we did insulation. Thursday and Friday we hung sheetrock. Saturday, Sunday afternoon, and Today we did taping and mudding, sanding and more mudding. We hope to texture tomorrow. We have spent many long days trying to finish and get home. We anticipate leaving here the end of next week. We will see if the schedule holds.

We miss all of you in Oregon and look forward to seeing you soon. God bless you all in each of your endeavors. We pray for all of you as we know you pray for us. Till next time.

A Week I Do Not Want to Repeat

Where to start. Things on the project are progressing, but we are currently behind schedule. God has been with us this week, but Satan has been on the attack. We signed all the offer paperwork on the sale of our home. The home inspection was scheduled for Friday the 24th(yesterday). Our son, Spenser, moved home on Monday evening. We asked him to double check a few areas for us in preparation for the home inspection. He called Jim on Tuesday morning and said he found mold on the roof sheeting in the attic. So, we get checking into flights and Jim flew home on Tuesday evening. Lin went to drop him off in their truck. 10 miles from the airport, we lost the right front bearing on the truck (yes, the same thing happened on the way to Prince George, but it was the left front. Both were new spring 2009). We were already hurrying so as not to miss the scheduled flight. Lin was madly praying that God would get us to the airport. The hub locked up and we could not move. God provided a gentleman named Al, who watched it happen and volunteered to take us to the airport. He had to stop on the way to get his girls off the bus. We are used to PDX, so were panicked that there was only 45 min. left till takeoff. We arrived at the airport at 3:35, checked in and got boarding passes, and Jim made it thru the security check and was boarding by 3:50. Praise the Lord! Our host family had a pickup and flat bed trailer, so they came to rescue Lin and the truck. I got very acquainted with the Rapid City Regional Airport. I was there for 1 1/2 hours. Jim will fix it when he returns from Oregon.

Our friends, the Loewens, arrived on Wednesday to help us finish up. Things were going along quite nicely until Friday afternoon. We had built scaffolding around the second story. Yesterday, a portion gave way under too much weight, and 3 fell about 10 feet. Judy and Nathan landed standing upright, and no injuries. Russ hit his head and was lifeflighted to Rapid City. Praise the Lord, I am glad to report, his injuries were not life threatening. We are really in the middle of nowhere, so they lifeflighted as a precautionary measure. He suffered a bruise on his brain (which I think is a concussion), some stitches, and a broken wrist. He has spent the last day in the hospital for observation. He has an MRI scheduled for Sunday AM, if doctors like what they see, then he will be released.

Please pray for Russ, and all the teenagers who witnessed the fall. The images are pretty haunting.

Jim was able to remediate all the mold before inspection, and all other requested repairs were minor. The sale is for the most part a done deal. We close Nov. 18. Please pray that we can complete the project by October 12th, and be home by Oct 15th. Jim has a big bus that he committed to complete. It will need to be done before we leave the property. Also, please pray that God will show us the next step as to where we are to go from here.

To all who received the message to pray, Thank you! I could feel God beside me several times this week. You all are a blessing to us. Hopefully the next report will be less adventurous! Till next time.

Weeks 2 + 3

Things are progressing nicely. As of today, the roof is complete. Tomorrow, we should have the outside pretty much buttoned up. Since I last posted, we have gotten the 2nd floor walls up, built and installed roof trusses, put roof sheeting on, and gotten the roof on. Trying to match up new walls with old existing ones took some time, same with new roof and existing roof. Things should start to take off now.

We are enjoying our time with our host family, the Howrey's. Our kids are having a blast with their children. This has been our best volunteer project yet. There is camaraderie while we work together, and fellowship after. We are all having Bible Study 3 nights a week together. We are all blessed to learn from each other.

The weather here has been crazy. Last Thursday, it was 87, Friday it was 47. Cold most of the weekend, and this morning. The sun came out around noon and it warmed up to about 70. Only one day of real rain so far, now that the roof is on it can rain anytime, except when we need to paint!

We do have one big praise: we accepted an offer on our house last week. The paperwork was all finalized this morning! Now we need the Lord to show us the next step, so please pray with us for that. Miss you all.

Extreme Makeover Neifert Edition - South Dakota

Well, we made it to Vale, South Dakota. We have finished out our first week on the project. We dug footings, poured the foundation and a new front sidewalk and patio, basement walls framed in, 2nd floor joists are in, and the subflooring is in progress. Not bad for a first week!

We are enjoying getting to know our host family, the Howreys. What a neat family. The kids are always pitching in to help. Of course, we are working on their new bedrooms, maybe that is the incentive. We have experienced great food and great fellowship with them.

They have only one computer with internet access and we are all sharing, so do not expect posts to be very frequent. I will try to post something once a week.

The weather has been good, some thunder showers, but the lightning here is awesome! Mostly sunny, some very windy days.

We miss you all and thank you for your prayers. Till next time.

Getting ready for our next adventure

We are preparing for our next big service project. We will be heading to South Dakota to help a family we met while there last year. They are in desperate need of more bedrooms. They have 4 children with the 5th on the way, and they only have 2 bedrooms. We are going to help them build an addition that expands the master, adds 2 bedrooms and an office. We anticipate being there for 5 weeks. We leave next week. Stay tuned for all the details, miracles, and fun stories. Please pray for us as we are going to be extremely busy in the next few days trying to finish projects locally that we have committed to do. Looking forward to "blogging" again.

End of May

Well, we have finished out another month. Some days go by fast, others go by slow. I apologize that I have not posted anything in almost 2 weeks. Our internet is not very reliable, and when I have had time to post, the internet has not been cooperative. Hopefully, I will get this published tonight before it decides not to work again.



The 50th anniversary celebration weekend was wonderful. It was a very full 2 days. On Saturday, we spent about 6.5 hours at the church trying to meet the visitors who attended the open house. We helped serve and clean up at the chili feed. On Sunday, we arrived at church around 9 am. We had regular worship, a lunch, a special afternoon service commemorating 50 years, and then a barbeque following that. We got back to the trailer at 9:30 pm. Monday, we all slept in. We did a home visit that day. Tuesday we helped a widow in her yard. Wednesday, youth group and Prayer meeting. Pastor Lyle let Jim know Wed. evening that he had been asked to do a funeral in Stewart, AK on Sunday, so could Jim fill the pulpit. He put a sermon together in 3 days. It was good, and it was well received.



We took a couple of fun days as a family in the past week. We visited a place called Huble Homestead last Friday. It is right on the Fraser river. It was a trading post. Very well done and maintained. As we were walking around, we came upon 2 small black bears. After figuring out that they were not the least interested in us, we ventured a little closer for some pictures. Seeing them in the wild and up close was awesome! Today, we went to an old mining town up in the mountains called Barkerville. Lots of 100+ year old buildings that we got to look inside of. They had actors in period costumes that did a nice job of creating the "old west" atmosphere. There was one skit in particular that we all enjoyed. We also saw 7 bears along side the road on the drive there. Alicia and I just need to see a live moose now.



Jim is preaching again this Sunday. His Dad and wife are going to be here, they arrive tomorrow and are staying for 5 days. It will be nice to experience a little bit of "home" and visit with them. They are bringing their trailer, and will be staying right next door. We all doubt we will see them too much, for they have many friends to catch up with here.



Prayer requests are for a man named Lyle (not the current pastor). He lost his mother recently and is struggling. He also needs to know Jesus. We also all 4 would like a new "lightning bolt" from the Lord regarding whether we are to stay on past June. Pray for the spirituality of the church. We were missing the SEC prayer service, so have started doing the same kind of thing as a family here on Sunday nites. We did not have permission from the leadership to do it. We told the congregation that we missed it and would be at the church if anyone else wanted to join us. We had 20 people last night! Jim said he would keep doing it until they took his church key away!



Thanks for your nice comments. We miss, love, and appreciate you all. Happy June!