So, Jim and Irene, what do you do on one of these sojourns?

We thought we'd take this opportunity to give you a "picture folio" of our work at our most recent sojourn.  It was at the Middletown, New York Church of Christ.

For the last 18 years this church has been meeting at the Howard Johnson's in Middletown in one of the Motel's conference rooms.  The church has grown to be about 60 members over that time.

Three years ago the church was approached by the town of Circleville.  The town owned a building that was built in the 1940's by the Townley family.  It was originally an auction house.  When it was given to the town it was used for year's as a firehouse.  Then, after the town built a dedicated firehouse, the town converted it into a community center.  This caused it to become a well-known landmark within a 10-15 mile area.  So the church put in it's down payment on the building and the town of Circleville is carrying a 5 year note.  The church is required to make a one-time-per-year payment of "X" amount of dollars.

Since they got the building they have been working on getting it habitable. Apparently the town actually dumped it rather than sink the necessary money into it to bring it up to code.  So, for the last 3 years the church has been bringing in the sojourners to help with the necessary work that they have to do to make the required work, modifications and upgrades to get a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) so they can officially move into the building and "open" the building as a church building. (Until they get the CO they cannot have the building open to the public for liability purposes).  We are the 3rd Sojourn that has been here (1 per year) and they are getting to the point where they H-O-P-E to be able to get the CO by the end of this year.

OK, now on to what we had to do this year.  One of the things they needed done was to have a pantry area painted and a shelving unit in it sanded to remove the rust and then painted.  Irene jumped on that.  (After our Midwestern Children's Home Sojourn, Irene had purchased a "painter's kit" and was itching to break it in).  She had gotten pretty confident rejuvenating rusty metal items.  Here's a picture of the renewed pantry and shelving.

They also needed the kitchen (an institutional style kitchen) cleaned.  It was absolutely filthy.  There was 40 years of grease on the stainless steel venting to the stove/fry vat area.  Ethie, one of our fellow sojourners had started on that and once Irene was done in the pantry she helped finish the job.  Irene said in places the grease was up to 3/4" thick.  Here's are pictures of cleaned area.

One of the main tasks they wanted done when we arrived was to paint the walls: First with primer and then with a light beige finish coat of semi-gloss.  Unfortunately the drywallers hadn't gotten done finishing out the drywall.  It was all hung but they were still taping and finish coating the joints.  So the painting would have to wait.... for the most part.

One area that we could paint was the entry.  So this was the next area that the women jumped on.  Since this area was paneling it had to be painted using a brush for the grooves and a roller on the main part of it.  Here's three pics of them putting on the primer.  

Another big task they wanted done was a coat closet.  The room was built with conic blocks on 2 of the outside walls.  So, those 2 walls required insulation.  The whole room would need to be framed in and have drywall hung to get it ready for the drywallers to tape and finish.  Martin Buchanan and I drew that task.  Here are two pictures of our framing the wall that will hold the insulation inside the block exterior wall:

It took us 3 days to get the framing done and the insulation installed. It took us 1 1/4 days to get the drywall installed.  But here is the finished product:

The second week of work we got to the painting and hanging the suspended ceiling framework that need to be done but had to wait until the drywallers were out of our way.

The suspended ceiling framework was handled (for the most part) by some of the other sojourners.  Here are a couple pics of them leveling the outside wall of the room rails in the fellowship area that is just inside the entry foyer:

Now a few pics of them actually hanging the suspension grid from the wires that had been screwed up into the ceiling joists:

Since all of the drywall was "raw" the first thing that needed to be done was a priming coat to seal it and then it could have the finish coat put on it.  Here are some pics of the "before" drywall:

It took 2 days for all of the priming to get done.  Having said that, after any one room was primed (after about 6 hours drying time) we could begin putting the finish coat on.  First, however, the walls would have to be brushed down to get all of the drywall dust powder off the walls from sanding the drywall joints:

Then the primer coat could be applied:

Now it was onto the finish coat on all the rooms that needed painting.  Those include: the entry foyer; fellowship area; 2 classrooms; a cry room; a connecting hallway and the main assembly area.  At first while many of the sojourner ladies were doing the primer coat on the drywall, once we could start, Irene and I did the finish coat.  

As they finished priming the other ladies jumped on helping Irene with the remaining finish painting: 

Since I was going to be teaching class on Wednesday night, I took part of Wednesday off to get my notes prepared.  It would be Lesson 1 of the 10 lessons on "Perfecting Holiness" which would be a workshop I would be teaching on Saturday morning.

Thursday is the final day of a sojourn and we still had lots to do.  We needed to continue on the suspension ceiling in the main assembly hall and clean the floors as well as we could.

I got moved onto the ceiling suspension team for the final push:

We didn't quite get the ceiling in the main hall completed by Thursday, but Bob Jarvis and I were both sticking around until Friday, so we finished it that morning (and even got paid time and a half for overtime - of course 1.5 x $0 = $0.00 still).

We decided to stick around an extra week and just do some relaxing and catch our breath.  Our next sojourn is in Saguenay, Quebec.  We will leave tomorrow morning after meeting with the church one more time this evening for bible study.

Here's a picture of the whole Sojourner team that was at Middletown:

The Things They DON'T Teach You in School OR Chasing a River

We finished the Vacation Bible School (VBS) at the Groesbeck church of Christ in Cincinnati Ohio on the 2nd of July.  It went very well.  6 children attended - 4 of which attended because we had passed out 700 invitations to homes around the church's building.  That was nice.  They all had a wonderful time.  Now the members have to step up to the plate and have classes ready for them to attend on Sundays and Wednesdays.

We drove to Lafayette and spend the 4th of July weekend with Neo and her parents.  We parked in Frankfort, at the congregation I preached at for 12 years (they put in an electrical hookup for us).  Neo came and spent the night of the 4th of July with us so she could go to services with us on Sunday morning.  Sunday evening I had the opportunity to preach there.

On Monday we had to take the trekker to get the Driver's Side Rear Ride Height Leveler adjusted.  Now it's working great.  I also had the dreaded and loathed "shot in the eyeball" doctor's appointment on Monday.  That evening Steve (Neo's dad) and I went to see Terminator:Genisys.  It was pretty good.

Tuesday morning we left for Middletown, NY and the sojourn with the church there.  We got as far as Streetsboro, OH on the first night.  We stayed at a KOA there.  We left at 8:30 AM Wednesday morning and got all the way to Middletown, NY by 4:30 PM.  Sweet!

Coming into NY we went over a river.  When we looked it up it was the Delaware River.  LO AND BEHOLD!  I was born in Pennsylvania and was taught that the "Delaware River is the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey."  Your a kid and you hear what you are told.  You believe what you are told.  It's like I thought it was a line that was between those 2 states and those two states alone: "the Delaware River is the border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey."  Yesterday was the first time I realized that the Delaware River kept going.  I got to looking at the map last night (Wednesday, July 9th) and realized that it is also the border between Pennsylvania and New York State for a ways too.  Then it turns north (and a little east) and splits into the Eastern Branch of the Delaware River and the Western Branch of the Delaware River.  These two branches have their beginning in the Catskill Mountains of New York.  OH COOL!  Since I read the works of Irving Washington as a kid (Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow) which are set in the Catskill Mountains, I've always wanted to visit them.  SOOOO, today was "ROAD TRIP!"

We got in the car and headed for Stamford, NY which is where the Western Branch has it's headwaters.  Along the way we stopped for lunch in Phoenicia, NY.  If you are in the area, Brio's Pizzeria is a great place to eat:  Good Food; Good Portion Size (meaning - BIG).  As we continued to Stamford we saw a sign that pointed to Roxbury, NY which is where the Eastern Branch of the Delaware River has its origin, so we went over to it first.  Having found the Eastern Branch beginnings in a bog near Grand Gorge after about 30 minutes of chasing it down, we headed to Stamford once again.  This one took us about 20 minutes to find the headwaters area.  It was on private property, so we couldn't get in to see it.  We had to settle for the place about 3/10 of a mile away where it emerges into view from River Road.

I know feel infinitely smarter knowing the truth about my beloved "Border River" the Delaware and I've gotten one thing checked off of my "bucket list" - I've seen and driven through the Catskill Mountains.  My only regrets are I didn't see a headless horseman or a bunch of little men bowling.

HOOKUPS?? We don't need no stinking hookups..... or do we?

We finished our Sojourn at Mid-Western Children's Home on Thursday, June 18th.  We had to head over the Lafayette, Indiana because I had a Board of Directors meeting at Shults-Lewis Children's Home on Saturday, the 20th.  Following the meeting we had lunch with my sister, Charlynn and then we had dinner with one of our 6 year old granddaughters, Neo and her mom and dad (Kazumi and Steve).  Then Steve and I (for Father's Day) went to see Jurassic World.  It was totally predictable, but would you want, or expect anything different? 

The board meeting went well Saturday, but it was l-o-n-gggg (9 AM - 1 PM).  We headed to Lafayette and had dinner with Irene's sister, Kathryn and her children Kendra and Krista and her husband DC.  That was nice (all except my forgetting to get back my credit card after I paid for dinner.  DC had to go to the restaurant to pick it up this past Wednesday when I realized I didn't have it).  

Sunday morning I preached in Frankfort, Indiana at the congregation I had preached at for years before we began sojourning.  Following that we buzzed back to Ohio.  

Our next Sojourn (and we are presently in the middle of it right now) is at the Groesbeck church of Christ in the Cincinnati area.  Irene and I had gone over on the last Sunday in May to get "the lay of the land."  At the time they had NO hookups of any kind.  Hookups for RVs consist of:

1. Electric - 30 or 50 Amp depending on what the needs of the RV are.

2. Water - most RVs have an "on-board" water tank that's between 75 and 100 gallons.  But that's only for use while traveling.  Typically RVs hook up to a water line on site.

3. Sewer - Waste water.  This comes in 2 forms: Gray Water - this is from the sinks; shower and washing machine and; Black Water - from the toilet(s).

Well, the church building had ZERO hookups.  They did have a breaker box in the basement 140 feet away from where we would be parking.  However, they didn't have any kind of outside water bib or a "clean out" that we could dump in.  They did say that before the sojourn began they would put an outside water bib in and pull electrical line from the breaker to our parking area.  OK, let's do it!!!

When we arrived there on last Sunday the electrical and water hookups were in - GREAT!  Er, not so fast.  It ended up that the 140 feet of wire had a 13 Volt line loss.  At our rigs we were getting 105 Volts. OUCH!  Nothing will burn out an RV A/C air conditioner faster than low voltages.  Try as we may, try as we might we couldn't get the voltage up.  Also, the hose that was run back to the rigs was not potable water hose.  That could be easily fixed.  So, after a great deal of trying to work on the voltage, the decision was made to move back over to Mid-Western Children's Home and commute over everyday for the sojourn.  We felt bad because the church had done all they could to try to make it happen there, but we couldn't take the chance of burning up our rigs electrical system.

Today the Hughes and we went to the "Creation Museum" over in Northern Kentucky just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.  It was pretty nice.  It had some beautiful gardens.  The museum itself was pretty good.  I wasn't particularly impressed by their emphasis on proving that dinosaurs actually existed.  I (JIM) have a different view.  I believe fossilized dinosaur "bones" are red herrings placed in the ground so those that don't want to believe in creation can have a grand time "chasing their tails."  As it says in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 -- "and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."  Irene believes that dinosaurs lived prior to the flood.  She disagrees with my view as stated above.

We start our VBS (Vacation Bible School) Sunday night.  It runs through Wednesday night.  Then we will head to Lafayette for the 4th of July weekend and an eye exam for me to see if I'll need to get another shot in the eye.  That will happen on Monday, the 6th.  The next day we head to Middletown, NY for our next sojourn.  Life is great!  Our God is great!

Watch the Birdie OR "Momma go git me my Gun!"

We left Kayenta, Arizona on the 17th of May and took 7 days to drive across the nation to Durham, North Carolina to visit our oldest son, Junzo (and his family - his wife Emma, and children Maeda (age 6) and Rowan (age 3)) and our youngest daughter Fumiko.  They are both at Duke University.  Junzo is the head of the GYN radiation oncology section and Fumiko is just finishing her "internship/transitional year" and about to begin her residency in Radiation Oncology.  

Irene is a retired radiation oncologist (I guess I should make sure you know that a radiation oncologist is a Medical Doctor that treats cancer with differing types of radiation).  She has had 3 of our 7 children "follow in her footsteps."  Kazumi (our next to oldest daughter) is also a radiation oncologist.  In fact after she finished her residency she moved to Lafayette, Indiana and joined Irene's practice there.  After Irene retired and we started full-time RVing, Kazumi became Co-Director of the department there.

On the way to Durham we stopped for one afternoon in North Wilkesboro, NC to visit Irene's sister, Carolyn Marion.  She got hold of her son Doug and wife Rebecca near Winston-Salem, NC and they came up, so we had the pleasure of seeing them for the first time in quite a few years.  That was nice.  

We got to Durham on Friday, May 23rd and stayed until the 28th of May.  We had a great time visiting with the grandkids (yea, ok, with the parents too! LOL).  Since it was Memorial Day weekend, Maeda didn't have school on Monday (She is a kindergartener now).  We played in the back yard with them and Irene did some crafting with them.  It was just a good, relaxing time.  

After we left Durham, we stopped in North Wilkesboro to spend the day with Carolyn again.  It just so happened that her other son Mike and his wife Becky and their 2 children Joey and Reagan were there.  HOT DOG!!  It was great to spend some time with them also.  

We left that evening (the 28th) to head north to our next sojourns both of which are near Cincinnati, OH.  We got to Mid-Western Children's Home on Friday the 29th in the afternoon.  We got set up and ready for our Sojourn here which began on June 9th.  

On Sunday the 31st we drove over to the Grosbeak church of Christ in Northwest Cincinnati to go to church there.  Our next sojourn, which begins on the 22nd of June is at this church.  They are having us hold a Vacation Bible School (VBS) for them.  Since the church has never had a sojourn before we wanted to go over and meet with them to assess what they need to do to prepare the way for us.  I think we accomplished a great deal.  We've given them a list of suggestions which will (hopefully) make for a more successful VBS.

We had the week off from the 1st-6th of June.  We were parked at Mid-Western already so we wouldn't have to move until at least the 18th of June.  Time for some Scrabble tournaments.

The couple that converted me to Jesus while I was in the Air Force and stationed in Minot, North Dakota, Larry and Jan Long, now live in Centerville, Ohio just south of Dayton, Ohio.  Larry was actually the one that talked me into signing up to lead the sojourn at Mid-Western.  They had applied for sojourns for a couple years in a row and no one signed up to lead them, so they couldn't be done.  Larry mentioned this to me when we visited them last year and I told him I'd lead it if they would apply for one, so........ here we are.

One of the things they have here at Mid-western is a pretty large lake on the property.  There are about 4 or 5 pairs of Canadian Geese that have decided to make this their home too.  From 1918 Canadian Geese have been covered by the Migratory Bird act as an endangered species.  About 10 years ago Irene's department had a pair of honkers decide that they wanted to make one of their department's parking lot dividers that had a tree and some bushes and grass in it their nesting area. They called the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and were told that they were a protected species and the nest could NOT be moved; the geese could NOT be bothered in any way and the area had to be left untouched until the goslings were grown and the whole family flew away.  Well, the conservation efforts in behalf of the geese were effective.  This led to them finally being removed from the protected species list in 2011.  So, the next time you see one of these avian beauties and think "I wonder if those birds taste good."  Just go over and TRY to grab it (Geese are M-E-A-N!!!) and wring its neck and cook 'er up for dinner.  You won't be committing a Federal crime anymore (though you will be committing a State crime if it isn't Goose Hunting season!  

Here's a pic of one set of proud parents and their brood:

We also have a Grey Heron that has visited the lake 3 or 4 times in the last couple of weeks.  I managed to snap some pictures of it was taking off one day:

AND, as an added gift to us at absolutely NO ADDITIONAL COST, We saw our first skunk in the wild.  It's visited the lake 2 times in the last week.  Skunks are NOT something to be messed with for more reasons than just the obvious ability to SPRAY you with their anal scent glands.  Rabies is rampant in wild skunks.  The same is true among those cute little raccoons you want to pick up and cuddle.   So N-E-V-E-R approach a skunk and if you see one acting "goofy" or walking weirdly, GET AWAY and make sure, if you have pets, that they don't get near it.  Skunk to dog rabies transmission is the 2nd most prevalent path of dog to human rabies transmission.

On a different note - I once had a skunk as a pet.  It was a descented skunk purchased from a "skunk farm" in Illinois.  Skunks are a cross between dogs and cats in their behavior.  They are VERY clean (like cats) yet they are very friendly (like dogs).  It is reallllllly important to get the skunk before they are weaned by their mother so they "imprint" on YOU instead of on her.  In many states it is illegal to have non-domesticated animals (skunks, racoons, etc.) as pets.

Wow look at all this stuff OR Beauty is in the eyes of THIS beholder

We left Tucson, AZ on the 1st of May and arrived in Kayenta, AZ on the 2nd of May.  Kayenta is a city in the Navajo Nation.  The Navajo Nation's reservation includes much of Northeast Arizona; Northwest New Mexico and Southeastern Utah.  It covers 27, 425 square miles making it slightly larger than the state of Massachusetts.

The land there is lovely.  Barren to a large extent but amazing in its beauty.  Monument Valley is on the Navajo Reservation.  It is actually a Navajo Nation Park.  Here are some pictures.  (Many of them may seem familiar.  John Ford used to shoot many of his westerns in Monument Valley.)

Another beautiful area is Canyon de Chelly.  Below are some pictures of this "Mini Grand Canyon."

Also in Canyon de Chelly is an Anazasi ruin (a tribe that lived in the area BEFORE the Navajo).  I got one picture of this ruin:

We also had the opportunity to go to the Navajo National Monument.  This is the site of another, much larger, Anazasi ruin.  Two pictures are below.

Here are some other pictures from the Navajo National Monument.