What We've Learned

  I think we have learned to expect the unexpected.  To go with the flow - knowing that God has a plan even though we may not know where that plan is taking us.  For example, we were't expecting to have major detours in Milwaukee.  We were't expecting to see a traffic bulletin on the interstate in Indianapolis telling us to avoid I - 65 in Louisville because of bridge construction (and that was the route we were planning to take.) Weren't expecting to have to wait in line for more than an hour and a half on Monday morning to get the directions to our family's home and pick up our tools.  We  weren't expecting to show up at our family's home only to have Melissa come to the door and ask us if we could come back tomorrow because they had a leak in their water heater and they needed to fix it first.

  But then again, we weren't expecting to see such beautiful scenery near the Ohio River because of our detour. We weren't expecting to see all the beautiful weathered stone fences, probably 100 years old, near Lexington nor the beautiful old homes in their down town area.  We weren't expecting to see the miles and miles of white fences near Lexington and beautiful horses in the lush green fields. We weren't expecting to worship with 600 to 800 others in  a huge auditorium with 4 mega screens in front of us with a live band (projected onto the screens) along with the live sermon-which taught us that lying never helps a situation-it only makes it worse. We weren't expecting the tall hills that took us up and up over mountain passes and hairpin turns that gave us majestic views of the mountains as we neared Frakes, Kentucky and Henderson Settlement. We weren't expecting the simple turkey sandwiches at Henderson would taste better than all the food choices we had at Golden Corral the night before. We weren't expecting our evening informational meeting to include a dozen or more Tennessee/Red-neck jokes by someone who could easily be a stand-up comic as good as Jeff Foxworthy. We weren't expecting the mist to roll in about 8 pm giving us an amazing view as we looked out from the deck on the dorm building. We weren't expecting to see the morning mist hanging in the valley as we looked that direction for vespers in the morning. We weren't expecting our morning vesper lesson to remind us that at the end of the week we shouldn't expect others to thank us for what we just did-that God will be pleased with our work and that is really all that matters.  We weren't expecting to completely seal the picnic pavilion in 3 1/2 hours when we were sure it would take us 1 1/2 days!  We weren't expecting to see a beautiful golden-yellow butterfly on our work site or for Morgan to adopt a 3 inch long slug that she named Ernie. We weren't expecting Kaatje to see a skink while raking some dirt away on the tennis courts.  (Don't confuse a skink with a skunk!) We weren't expecting the Brick House to have so many bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a huge kitchen table  for us to all gather around in the evenings.  And lastly, we weren't expecting our after work showers to feel so wonderful!