was chief ladder holder, tool getter, and part finder.
While Gary worked his superpowers in the upper reaches of the barn.
It was a good day.
Category Archives: SOWER Projects 2021
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Gardening Distractions
Did some gardening here at The Potter’s Place today.
Oh my, so many distractions!
Matthew 6:28-29
A Little Farther Back
Remember that “Slip N’ Slide” platform that Gary was helping to build back at Lake Placid Conference Center in February?
Well, the March SOWER group was able finish up the slide! Great job, guys!
Wheeeeee!! Looks like it’s going to be a great summer at LPC3!
Still In Reverse
Since I feel like I’ve left a fair number of loose (blog) ends lately, I’m still moving in that backward direction! Let’s see if I can wrap-up our time at AIM (African Inland Mission Retirement Center) back in March. I think the last time I detailed just what kind of work we were doing there I had moved from cleaning houses and washing windows to figuring out how to redeem some well needed, but in pretty rough shape, chairs.
Of course the best solution would’ve been to totally re-cover them, but both the cost and the time involved in that endeavor was prohibitive. So we moved to plan B. Or maybe it was plan D. Make some chair covers out of Drop cloths. As the designated Sewing SOWERS, Diane and I set out to develop and implement a pattern that would be serviceable and (hopefully) a bit attractive.
It took us several hours to fine tune the pattern, but by the end of the project we had cranked out 23 chair covers!
And from the back –
I’m not going to tell you they were the swankiest of covers, but they fit the bill for the need at hand! We got the drop cloths at Harbor Freight (4′ x 12′) for $8.50/ea and were able to get 6 covers out of each cloth (less one that we needed for facings). Add in some sturdy twill for the ties (at about $.50/chair), and pretty much each chair cover cost about $2.00. AND, they are washable!
While I missed the fellowship of working with all of the other ladies, I’ll confess that I didn’t really miss all the opportunities for cleaning! We would all meet together for break, and we even had a lovely “Salad Luncheon” one day, so we were still able to connect nicely. There were 7 of us SOWER ladies, plus another 5+ volunteers that also worked and fellowshipped along side us.
Here’s our official March 2021 Group Picture –
When I look over these pictures it still surprises me that this was just two weeks ago. When we arrived at the project we only knew one other couple. By the time we left, we had enlarged our ‘family’ by many more than are even in that picture! I love how God knits us together over the course of just three short weeks and we treasure each of these new co-workers for Christ!
Backing up
No, not what we’re supposed to do FREQUENTLY with our computers and other devices.
No, it’s not the backing up you do when you need to get out of a parking spot.
It’s the kind of backing up where I need to fill in some of the blanks from my sad lack of blogging over the last several months. So, I’m going to give it a shot to get this little corner of the internet back up to speed (whatever speed that is!).
First up – our zipping out, zipping back, six night, four motels, trip to Texas last week. (Was it really just last week?)
Our time in Texas was pretty much all SOWER all the time! And while the Trustee meeting was of upmost importance (at least for Gary), the Texas Round-up that happened early in the week was certainly the highpoint for us!
It was a bit smaller this year thanks to our constant life-interrupter COVID-19, but it was special in so many ways! Among our group were at least two couples who hadn’t done any projects yet (and one of those was a ‘second generation’ SOWER – Mom and Dad had served years ago! We had even worked with them back in 2008!). Others had just completed their first project, and some only had two or three under their belt. It was so exciting and encouraging to see that we ‘seasoned’ SOWERS were outnumbered by the new kids on the block. I loved meeting these new folks that the LORD has brought into our ministry!
Along with wonderful fellowship we also were blessed to be part of constructing 10,000 (yes, that’s ten thousand) booklets of John and Romans to be sent overseas.
The booklets
Part of the collating team
The staple team
Thousands ready for the next step –
They’ll get trimmed and then packaged to go. It was inspiring to think about this portion of God’s Word getting into so many hands – and hearts, we pray!
Working on that Scripture project was very meaningful and I’m so glad it was incorporated into the Rally. But there were also many, many light-hearted moments as well!
Like jelly bean balancing
Or jelly bean rolling
or (my personal favorite) Peep Target shooting
(Photo creds to new SOWER (and friend) Michelle Malek!)
Our Game Masters (Gail and Wayne) kept us thoroughly entertained. (or perhaps we were the ones entertaining them!)
While laughter was an ever present guest at this gathering, there were some serious moments too. We had some Group Leader training (with lots of good questions) and a Q&A for the trustees that were present. With so many new-ish SOWERS it was a wonderfully informative time.
We finished off the Round-up with a ‘formal’ banquet hosted by the ALERT Academy staff.
Complete with a harpist.
What a lovely evening!
All of the laughter, inspiration, encouragement, and fun made for another excellent gathering of our SOWER Family!
If you’d like to see additional photos (along with pictures of individual couples in attendance) you can check them out here!
I’m not gonna lie – it was an exhausting week. But oh the joy that came with it!
