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It's A Wrap!

How can it be over so soon?  

After all the change that 2017 brought, we started this year planning our first season as "Love Goes".  I spent weeks planning our travel itinerary, securing reservations at campgrounds, and making contact with places we would be serving.  Now here it is the end September, the trip is over, and we are back at our home base in Monroe, Louisiana.  We have been home for a week processing all that we have seen, heard, and experienced over the last few months.  I just now feel like I'm ready to try and communicate what a blessing and joy this new role has been and how grateful we are for those that have come along side us to make this possible.  

We began this journey on April 12th when we left Monroe.  We traveled north with stops in TN, NC, and VA to visit family along to way.  Then it was on to Huntington, Massachusetts, to serve at The Retreat at Norwich Lake, a ministry of the Timothy Hill Children's Ranch.  We spent the next 8 weeks working along side the dedicated folks that serve there full time.  We worked so hard that most nights we were anxious for dark so that we could go to bed.  Al worked on closing in 8 lakeside cabins with tongue and groove pine to make them more usable year round and building a huge tent platform on one of the hill sides.  I worked in several roles including housekeeping for guests that came and went during our stay, helping in the kitchen as we hosted groups, landscaping the grounds, caring for the horses, and hiking trails to mark them for future hikers.  When we left the facility was ready to start the summer camp season which would serve hundreds of kids over the next couple of months. 
From Massachusetts we moved on to the Timothy Hill Children's Ranch on Long Island to help there for the summer while the residents are out of school.  As always, Al's skills as a carpenter/builder/fixer of all things proved to be invaluable.  He repaired fences, mowed, moved tons of dirt to fill in a boggy place in the field, worked on the girl's recreation room, and trimmed out windows at the East End Church of Christ where Jerry and Fern Hill worship.  He also resumed his role as the Friday night grill master cooking burgers and hot dogs for the residents and staff.  My role for the summer was to work with the girls at the Ranch and help with the horse back riding program for them.  I was privileged to do several devotions for them and we did some painting of inspirational signs and some signs for the horses' stalls.  

All too soon our time at the Ranch was over.  We were so blessed during our stay to reconnect with some dear friends and former residents.  A piece of our heart will always be with the Ranch.  But the time to move on came and we departed heading northwest to a family wedding in Oregon.  On the way we took a few days to experience Glacier National Park.  What a magnificent place it is!  The Oregon visit was wonderful and we got to see family that we don't get to see very often.  Spending time with them was wonderful.  

When we left Oregon we started winding our way home heading southeast with our last missions destination being the Tuba City Church of Christ in Arizona.  We spent a couple of days with the Eric and Tracy Kee and Tyler who serve there full time.  The purpose of our visit was to explore the possibility of helping them in 2019.

We call this year's trip the survey trip.  We launched out without the benefit of previous experience doing this new thing.  To say that we learned a lot would be an understatement!  Here's a little bit of what we learned:
  • A small portable ice maker is a great investment
  • Pack half what you think you'll need
  • Beauty is beauty whether majestic, stark, or desolate
  • Worship that may look and sound different is still worship and truth is truth no matter the name on the building
  • Doing laundry in a laundromat costs a lot!
  • A trucker's atlas is also a wise investment
  • The GPS guy sends you places a motor home can't go
  • Like building a house, plan on spending more than you think you will need
  • Multiple shorter mission trips may be a better idea than over 5 months on the road
So now it’s time to rest, reflect, and pray about how God will use us next.  We are grateful and blessed to be in his service loving on his children wherever He sends us in the coming year.  For the remainder of this year we plan on being here to welcome this sweet great-granddaughter coming in October and enjoy the holidays with family and friends.  Please join us in prayer as we seek God’s plan for the future and discernment to recognize his will. 

 Because of Him,
Big Al and Marsha

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