August-December

A lot has happened between August and December, so this is a catch up post for all the events during this time.

Safe Harbor Blitz 3

At Safe Harbor in August, Ryan and Levi finished the last bit of mudding and sanding at the gym and made the forms for the sidewalks and pads, then helped pour the concrete.  Levi left just a few days early to head off to college in Ohio at Youngstown. 

Sarah first started off in the basement of cottage 2 helping with painting, then led a painting crew in the gym. The bathrooms, salon, kitchen, storage room, mechanical room were painted along with all of the trim inside the gym. The outside concrete bottom portion of the gym received paint as well. 

One of the many partners, Keim, sent a handful of employees for half a week which included several Amish men and women. It was a unique opportunity to get to know the Amish and ask questions about their way of life and beliefs. 

Festivals

For the past two months, we have not gone anywhere since we were a little busy building our place. However, we did have booths at a couple of festivals; Medaryville Potato Festival, Little Cousin Jasper, and the Francesville Fall Festival. We did well at each one, even selling out at the Fall Festival.

Homestead

God provided for us in many ways throughout the entire build of our homestead. We had some Eight Days of Hope family come and serve, some people provided meals and others donated. We had people from MI, MS, TX, TN, NY, IN and  even a Canadian. As of now, we will be living in the camper full time, parked in the barn which will be heated. We do have all of our things from the apartment set up on the barn dominium side and a shop bathroom with washer and dryer.

Warehouse

Since this was the first year in ten years for the mainland US to NOT get hit by a hurricane, we had some time to catch up on maintenance down at headquarters in Tupelo, MS in November. While we were down there, Ryan helped with trailer brake maintenance, oil changes, and cleaning up the warehouse for the Gala in December. Sarah worked on a welding project for the mass feeding ministry. They have two box trucks and wanted to add metal containers below the frame to hold extra straps, oil, coolant, and tools.

Gala and Merry little Christmas

We returned the first week of December to help and attend the Eight Days of Hope Annual Gala. Due to snow, we did not arrive quite as early as hoped, but we were able to help the day before the big event. There was a stage for speeches and worship in the first half of the warehouse and the other half was set up to display each type of trailer and equipment. During the event on Thursday, Ryan valeted and Sarah greeted guests. 

On Saturday, Eight Days of Hope hosted a Little Merry Christmas party for the community. They had cookie decorating, a hot chocolate bar, food, our display of trailers and equipment, and touch a truck, where anyone could ride a skid steer, mini excavator, or lift. Ryan went back and forth between the mini skid and skid steer giving kids rides. Sarah was with the lifts putting harnesses on those who wanted to ride the lifts. Mostly kids were the ones who wanted to, but there were a few adults who were brave enough to go.