Building on the Rock

Life is a whirlwind of activity here in Crisfield. We have a full house of volunteers every week, so work on the jobsites is progressing at a very rapid pace. We're currently working on six different houses, which are at varying levels of completion. They range from stud walls only, to lacking nothing more than a wipe of a cleaning cloth and the handing over of keys.

Of course, I say "we", but it's Aaron who does all the work on the houses. The kids and I try to stay busy back at the bunk house, cleaning in the dining room, keeping the RV picked up enough that you could walk from one end to the other without tripping if need be, and doing schoolwork at the big white tables.

This weekend, though, we toured around town with Aaron. We had a chance to see the progress on the various houses, and the kids got to help Aaron put a few things in a big crawl space. (Crawl spaces in Crisfield should actually  be called "stoop spaces" because after the flood waters caused by Sandy, the houses all have to be pretty high off the ground.)

We said good-bye to our January cooks this weekend, and welcomed a new cook. This is always hard because we become very attached to the cooks since we're here around the bunkhouse with them most of each day. Sam, Pat and Rachel will be sorely missed, but our new cook seems like a lot of fun, so we look forward to getting better acquainted.

Departures in general are, by far, the most difficult part of volunteering. You meet so many great people each week/month, then you have to say goodbye. If it weren't for the knowledge that I will get to see them all again someday (in eternity, that is, if not here on earth), I don't think I'd be able handle it all. As it is, we get lots of hugs and write letters and email and thank the Lord daily for Mark Zuckerburg and his little invention called "Facebook." (I know, there's some debate about that, but if you're a Winklevoss fan, write your own blog.)