Reaching for the £ight
One of the most challenging aspects of ministry is doing it alone, without volunteers, but pulling it all together in the moment we’re in is most urgent and relevant. The art world may have vanished overnight, but creativity is flourishing.
Will camp go on despite the 2020 pandemic when most overnight summer camps around us in Mentone have been cancelled or postponed? What will summer camp look like beset a social distance mandate when close contact is the most basic human need.
There are times when nurses have to touch their patients, like last month when Caiden split his big toe open with an ax. There are times when Jesus laid his hands on people, like when he touched her hand and the fever left her: and she arose and ministered unto them — Matthew 8:15. What better time to be hopeful?
Urban Community Life is optimistic that we will be able to hold a nine week summer camp starting May 26th that will boggle our minds. This brings several challenges and responsibilities into high relief.
On March 28, Quann showed up to eat dinner with our family and asked what construction projects we needed. As with most talented and skilled people, they are less than optimal business managers. We haven’t seen Quan since. We plan to sleep in hammocks hung high in the trees, at least until the large canvas tent arrives. We’re co-quarantining in a space of refuge.
If God is the farmer and farms are the salt of the earth, what’s a farm without a truck? Randall Allen loaned us a 350 truck and flat bed trailer on April 22nd. I spy reasons for hope on every street.
You would almost have to be nuts to go without water. Well, well driller, Jimmy Peek, did just that the first week of May, even through mountainous rock. Outdoor showers and outhouses are in the works.
Two electric poles went up in the middle of May along with a partial, gravel driveway. This contribution delivers a semblance of power.
I’m crazy about electricity.
The goats arrived with solar powered fencing May 22nd by Kevin and Cameron Johnson. Amid the crisis, these 15 goats will provide structure and steadfastness by showing how interdependent we all are in goat grazing.
Through the workings of love, community, time and grace — some elemental shift will occur and we will find ourselves semi-okay again. Even semi okay can be a miracle.
§tacy §weeney