Health Updates

Well, Heather and I have both improved, and Tommy remains ailment-free. Heather and I spent our Fourth of July wishing pharmacies and clinics didn’t observe holidays like Independence Day, but in the end we all survived. She picked up some medicine to help the terrible cough she had, and I grabbed some medicated poison ivy scrub. Her medicine seems to have helped a lot, since by Sunday her non-voice had graduated to a louder whisper and her cough did not sound anywhere near as deathly as it did on Saturday. My poison ivy scrub was not quite as effective, and I spent Saturday night rubbing hydrocortisone (to mask the itch) all over my face every 20 minutes and listening to fireworks pop somewhere outside. Woo! The poison ivy (I’m just assuming that’s what it is, by the way) was spreading rapidly, and by the time I woke up Sunday morning, my face was even more swollen than the previous morning. My right eye was close to swollen shut, and besides being everywhere else on my face, some new bumps had spread to my lips. That just doesn’t seem healthy. So after making sure my house was ready for the incoming group, I left a spare key with Heather and went to Randy, who very graciously allowed me to go to the hospital in Princeton (because no clinics are open on Sunday) and get my semi-balloon face taken care of without worrying about being back in Northfork in time for the arrival of the team and the nightly meeting.

The hospital is only 30 minutes away, and I was gone for nearly 4 hours, so there was a lot of waiting involved, but I made it out just fine. They gave me a shot of a steroid (I’m on the ‘roids now! Don’t mess with me, people. Hahaha) called Decadron, if any medical people wanted to know, and tomorrow I have to fill a prescription for Prednisone pills. I have to start off taking 6 pills a day, and the nurse told me they will make me feel “anxious, nervous, and worried.” So it sounds like I am in for a really fun week! :D She also told me the steroid shot might cause trouble sleeping because it makes people feel hyper and jittery. I didn’t believe her at the time, but when I woke up at 1:50 after 3 hours of sleep, I changed my mind. That was 1 hour and 30 minutes ago, and I’ll tell you what, I have definitely got some energy coursing through me right now. I don’t see sleep in the foreseeable future. Which is great, it’s made for some really awesome prayer time! But I wouldn’t be averse to getting more than 3 hours of sleep to start the work week off with. At least I’m having fun. She wasn’t lying about the hyper part.

The group that was going to stay in my house this week is actually staying with Tommy after all, because he doesn’t have a potentially contagious rash taking over his face. I am fine with this, as I don’t want to have everyone avoiding me like a leper in my own house.

I will be taking a group of 10 back to Ms. Taylor’s house this week. What a blessing it has been to spend so much time working at her house! For 3 weeks now I have been able to get to know her, and there’s still probably another week or two of work to be done. Heather is running a roofing and painting site for a man named Donald Bonds, and Tommy is heading up a group reroofing our own warehouse facility. Aside from the lack of sleep and the anxiety that is apparently awaiting me at the Black Diamond Pharmacy, I feel very excited and optimistic about this week.

Prayer Time!

Here's what's goin down this lovely Independence Day weekend... Heather has been sick this week, and had to stay in bed all Wednesday due to her 101 degree fever. She made a miraculous recovery, but still had a bad cough, and last night she started feeling bad again. We got her a thermometer and discovered that the 101 degree fever was back. She went to bed and woke up feeling a little bit better, but she has absolutely no voice. Yesterday my face started itching around my right eye and my jaw line, and by the time I woke up this morning, it was swelled up like a balloon. It would appear that poison ivy has made another appearance, this time on my face. And now it is just spreading like wildfire. My fingers are swollen, my arm is bumpy... It's an epidemic! So Heather and I are about to head over to the clinic and see if they can save us. We both have people coming tomorrow to stay in our houses with us for the week, so it would be really great if we were fully healthy by then.

In today's news...

A few days ago, on Wednesday or Tuesday, I was in the Youth House filling up a bucket of water to take to my worksite (for the team to leave their paintbrushes in while they weren't painting). My van was parked out front, pulled off to the side of an alleyway, and as I was coming out the door, a Jeep pulled up and stopped next to it. I thought it was kind of odd, so I just watched them as I locked up the house. They didn't go anywhere, but when I walked towards my van, the window rolled down so I stopped at the passenger side of the Jeep. There was a woman sitting at the wheel, and when I said hi, she asked me if I remembered her. I thought fast, but she didn't look especially familiar, so I apologetically told her that I didn't. But then she said "It's me, Pearl!" and I was completely blown away! When I was here last year, we worked at Pearl's house all week, mostly painting, and spent a lot of time getting to know her and her 6 year old grandson. After we left, we sent her a card and a small photo album full of pictures from the week, and I have been wondering how she's doing. It's been on my to do list all month to stop by her house and say hi, but I just haven't done it yet. So anyway, she got out of the car and gave me a hug and we stood there and chatted. She told me that she isn't quite able to go back to work yet (after a surgery she had), but she wants to be doing something, and so she wants to volunteer with Mustard Seeds because of the impact that we apparently had on her when we worked at her house last summer. That's actually why she was driving by, because she was looking for the Mustard Seeds offices. She was a couple of miles off target, but what a blessing that she happened to drive by right as I was stopped there, and right as I was walking out of the house. And right as I was there, period! She wouldn't have known any of the other interns if they had been there instead of me. Another thing she said is that the pictures we sent her are on her mantle. Isn't that crazy? My picture is on her mantle, and has been there for nearly a year. She told me that she's been doing really well since then, trying to stay in church and stay on the right path. That's a great start, and I am excited to talk to her more about how everything has been going for her. She looked healthier and happier and pretty different from the last time I saw her, and she sounded a lot happier too. I am going to stop by her house one evening soon, and she wants to have me over for dinner. Praise God for arranging that meeting!

Pearl with the team last year

Sorry about that...

Sorry about the long delay!  Between the start of teams coming in and splotchy internet access, this poor blog has been neglected.  It has been a busy few weeks here in McDowell County.  We've had teams coming through for 3 weeks now, and I am definitely breathing a sigh of relief now that it is the weekend!  Each new team that comes through brings a lot of great fellowship, different dynamics, and occasionally challenges, but I am adjusting to the pace of life with teams and am overall really enjoying it.

The house that I have been overseeing the most work at belongs to an 85 year old woman named Virginia Taylor.  She just turned 85 yesterday, in fact!  A lot of the people we work with out here don't know the Lord, but Ms. Taylor has been a great example to me and the teams of how we should praise Him for every day that we live out, and how we have to keep reminding ourselves that if we are still around, it's because He still wants to use us to further His glory.  I love sitting and talking with her, and since she has a huge 3 story house, I will still be around with teams for another week or two.  I'm excited about that!  

We do have some prayer requests out here in West Virginia, if you want to know about that.  You can pray for us college interns as we are settling into the role of running worksites, especially more than one at a time, and interacting with adults and students on the teams.  Also, the 3 of us (college interns) have 1 local high schooler per week riding around with us.  There are 7 of them total, and they are each working a couple of weeks this summer.  They help us out, and we act as mentors through the week.  It's been great so far, but you can pray as the summer goes on that we are listening to what the Spirit is prodding us to ask or say to them in order to help them get out of this summer what the Lord wants them to get out of it.  

I think that's enough for now.  I hope you're all having a great day!!

Sorry for the absence...

It has been a busy week. All this last week we've been working hard, crawling under houses to fix leaks, waxing floors, getting vans registered, and going to the landfill. In the evenings we have a couple of hours for dinner, and then off to Orientation meetings with Randy. As a result, no time to find internet or cell service in order to keep you folks updated. Right now we're on our way home from camping all weekend in North Carolina. We went with Merilee and a group of people from another mission organization in McDowell County to Hanging Rock State Park, and it was beautiful! We hiked for about 5 miles, and made it up to the top of the official Hanging Rock that the park is named for! What a view... There will be more pictures later, but here is one from the top now. Hope you're all having a great week!

The weekend already

There isn't a ton to do on the weekends, so Heather, Tommy, and I drove to Bluefield to try and get a better idea of the area we are going to be in all summer. On the way back we stopped at Pinnacle Rock State Park and climbed some rocks, then climbed a lot of stairs up to the Overlook. What a great view! It was beautiful, and very relaxing. Now we are just hanging around the house playing Mahjongg and Mario.

Monday is Memorial Day, so no work... a break already! My first day here we went to the carnival, and now after just 2 days of work im getting a 3 day weekend. I am really enjoying spending time with Tommy and Heather. You can pray for our friendships as they develop in the coming weeks. Next week we will be working on getting the Iona house clean and ready for teams, finishing up work in the Emmaus house, and beginning assessments on local houses that will be worked on this summer. I'm excited to get working! Have a great day!

Something to think about...

Words of wisdom from a church in Bluefield...