Fall in Warrenton, Missouri

Work is progressing as we completed week #2 at Child Evangelism Fellowship. The cement window sills are done except a few more coats of cement (very thin) and the painting. The list of odd jobs they are wanting the men to do is getting shorter. One group of RVICS men installed the plaques that are pictured above on a prayer wall showing each state of the US. The women spent their entire week in the kitchen and dining room helping the regular staff with the large group of state leaders that were here last week. The women always work in the morning. However, this week we split the group and half worked in the mornings and half in the afternoons.

As a highlight for the week, we heard the key note speaker for this leadership conference speak one morning for devotions. He is Czestaw Bassara from Auschwitz, Poland, where he was born just after WWII. What a fantastic speaker! He has spent his life working for CEF in the eastern block European countries as well as Russia. Today, he has an international Bible teaching ministry in which he speaks 5 languages. We were extremely impressed!

Fall returned this past week!! Most of us had given up hope for warm, sunny weather. The trees turned out in all of their glory with lots of golds and yellows. Yesterday, we took a short trip close by and it was like driving in the Smoky Mountains this time of the year. It was complete with the hills and tight curves. Our last stop was in the town of Hermann, a “German” town on the Missouri River. Yes, we can now say we had had a beautiful fall. It is our belief that all of the leaves in Hartford City are now on the ground!

We are noticing that the activities here are slowing down as we are getting deep into October. Many of the volunteers are heading south. There is a ministry class (12 week course) that will be finishing up in 2-3 weeks. We are guessing that in the “winter” it is much slower than what we have been experiencing. Once again, we found that the Christian community is “small”. There was a couple of Oregon with their children attending the conference last week. In talking to her, I found that they had driven across the US visiting with their supporters. One of the stops they made was in Upland to visit a friend of ours!!

Tomorrow, we begin another week of work. We don’t know what that might be but are anxious to get started.

Where is Fall?

“Neither, rain, sleet or snow” will stop us from our work. Even though we didn’t see the sleet or snow it felt like it for a good part of our time here. The above picture looks like snow but that is frost that was on the ground this morning. Brrrr!! The rains and cold temps didn’t keep us from doing the work that had been assigned to us for the week.

The men continued to work on their concrete window sills. They have progressed to a point in getting them done but are hitting a road block in how to get the final coats of cement to stick and not fall off from gravity. That is still a work in process. Since it was too wet to work outside a couple of the days, the men went inside and painted walls, stair wells etc. Most of the women spent their week helping in the kitchen. Marie and I spent the week doing housecleaning (no bathrooms). Special guests came to CEF during the week that required extra work to be done. We, also, set up and cleaned away tables for their banquets and special meeting rooms.

One of the things we like about doing the work we do with RVICS is seeing how the ministries we visit operate. Volunteers are vital to the ministry of Child Evangelism. They come for a week or months at a time. They have a large room where the volunteers gather of a morning and are there when the mail arrives with the completed correspondence courses from the children from around the world. The courses are logged into a computer and given a bar code. From there on it is the personal reading and grading by the volunteers on a one on one basis. When a person reads of a new salvation a bell is rung and everyone cheers.

One of the down sides to the adverse weather is we tend not to gather together as a group as often. However, the sun is shining brightly today!! Yeah! With the sunshine (and warmer temperatures) we are hoping to be able to socialize more this week as well as work outside more.

October 2009 finds us at the headquarters of Child Evangelism Fellowship outside Warrenton, Missouri. The campus is secluded and quiet. The property formerly was a monastery that had a major fire. In 1976 CEF purchased it for their home. This is the home for nearly (if not all) aspects of their ministry. Not only is there a staff of employees making the ministry work but many volunteers come. I don’t believe they could do the ministry that they do without the volunteers. This week there is even a group from Hawaii. One lodge is even called Volunteer Lodge.
Our RVICS team consists of 4 couples that we were with last month. The couple from Wisconsin went home and we added another couple from Indiana. This is a great group. There are a couple of former RVICS couples that volunteer that live here many months of the year doing volunteer services almost full time. So far, the only thing we don’t like is the cold, wet weather. Ha!!
Today was our first day of working. Two of us ladies helped with light housekeeping today. The remainder of the women worked with preliminary food preparation. The men are working on cement window sills. Over time a few of them have begun to crumble. Don and another RVICS worker found themselves using hammer drills to knock down the cement and get it prepped for rebuilding. A couple of the men are working on electric golf carts that are giving them problems.
We are looking forward to another good, productive month.