A First...

...receiving an invitation to a bridal/couple shower (no, that's not the first; that's the umpteenth, due in part to being active members of both a college and a church community) in which the bridal registry is at a tractor supply store. Don't ask. We know not this young bride, but the groom (part of our church) is a young farmer. And no, we will not succumb and instead go to Kohl's (after a Curves visit for me and supper with our pastor and wife) where they are also registered. This post is begging for a clever title, but I am stymied. Anyone?

Clean-up

Sitting on my deck tonight with cross-stitch in hand, I was not accompanied by the cheerful sound of birds, even though they are not silent. They are drowned out by the antiphonal chorus of the whine of chain saws and the clatter of chippers. Thursday night Wooster got hit with yet another storm that took down hundreds of our trees. The damage, they say, is worse than with the tornado of Nov.03 and the Christmas Eve ice storm of 04. The country club was hit the hardest, losing up to 200 trees; Chuck’s colleague who lives nearby lost a beautiful grove of trees behind her home plus part of her roof. The college lost dozens of its big old trees that make campus so pleasant. We’re within a mile of it and many of our neighbors lost trees and had roof damage. Even though we have our huge oak trees pruned every so often, we have many dead limbs in them, and so it is a surprise that we did not have more than just large branches come down. When Chuck finally got home, he cleaned up three trash bags’ worth from the back yard. Jenny and I had already cleaned the deck and the driveway. We expect the cleanup to continue for a while and wonder what the college will do to replace what is gone from its famous Oak Grove.

Home from Dearborn

I will have to write about my intense and incredible weekend judiciously, but suffice it to say that from beginning to end, my time in Dearborn was very special. Visually, it reminded me of my cousins' neighborhoods I visited in Detroit in my youth, neat brick house after neat brick house. Henry Ford homes, they are called, I learned. Evidently, the various Middle Eastern communities who moved to Dearborn (Lebanese and Iraqi in the east, Yemeni in the south) restored the homes, added front porches and gardens in every spare space, and enjoy a truly communal culture, greeting neighbors, sharing food, enjoying the flowers and vegetables. Also visually, the city is conservatively Muslim. Girls walking home from high school go in groups and wear headscarves and long skirts. Their brothers run freely in their Pistons jerseys and shorts. Although an occasional girl could be observed at the Arab International Festival with her hijab and skin-tight jeans and midriff-showing top, most have not yet succumbed to this aspect of American culture. I wonder what another generation will bring, though some of the families have lived there several generations. Conference attendees dressed conservatively ourselves, with women wearing long sleeved blouses and headscarves outside when we visited the various mosques Friday night (I went to the Sunni mosque that serves the Yemeni community, reputedly the most conservative mosque in the country although I don't know how they measure that). We observed the prayer service (all men and boys; women evidently only have to attend one service a week on Friday early afternoon) and then met with the Imam (from the Sudan) and his assistant to learn about Islam and receive a Qur'an and other literature. He is used to guests and enjoys answering questions, even probing ones.

The conference organizers had hoped for 200 but got 300. The food we were served was all Middle Eastern fare. The scripture exposition was top notch and thought-provoking (Urbana quality, I thought), and for me apropos because two of the sessions were on the Isaac/Ishmael sequence in Genesis. The (six) workshops were challenging and practical and the community observation/involvement stretching. I went to the mosque and a community center serving the Yemeni population (particularly women and children, the poorest of the three immigrant communities. 90% of all Yemeni women arrive in Dearborn not being able to read or write in Arabic). I would love to know if there is similar need/services in G.R. as the Arab population is spilling out of the southeast corner of MI where they number close to a quarter million.... The next evening I attended the Arab Festival with the IV students from UM-Dearborn. My hostess was a kindred spirit--we got along so well. A lovely CRC (but not Dutch) woman who teaching basic English at the Arab American Friendship Center. We could have talked for hours, and she treated me like royalty in her gracious home.

A bonus for me was a few minutes to interact with one of the expositors over the Genesis passages and to give him (at his request) a copy of my study. He says he is a vicious critiquer, but that can only help me. Since coming back to a very empty house--Chuck and Jenny are at the IV faculty camp this week--I have been working some on my FYS but mostly on revising the first chapter of the book that is supposed to emerge from the study. Hard slogging, but a rough draft is now completed. Hopefully the next chapter, which won't be an amalgamation of various other writings, including my own, will go more easily? Hopefully....

Dearborn will now forever tug at my heart. Perhaps these same kinds of ministries will be needed or available in G.R. on a smaller scale?

All Good and Perfect Gifts

The only thing that could top the deck-joy of last week is to share a precious hour there in the warm morning sun with my dear, dear prayer-partner-moved-away (but-here-briefly), S. I put out my grandma S's good Scandanavian table cloth on the picnic table, added a small vase of flowers, poured ice tea into the best glasses, and we shared deeply for an hour. The only thing that would have made perfection even better would have been to share it with our third prayer-partner-moved-away, G. Hopefully, we don't have to wait until heaven for the three-way sharing and prayer that we used to enjoy.

No, no, no, not a production, but BIG

When Julie, Wooster's IV staff member and one of our honorary daughters, was planning her wedding in February (the engagement month), she asked me did I think it was possible to have a June wedding. Naively, I said, "Sure, Julie, if you don't have a big production." "No....not a production, but big," she replied. She was only half wrong. It was big and it was a production. A full weekend of events and celebrations, nearly 400 guests (all best friends), a full choir, many singers, exuberant worship, exuberant vows, a surprise wedding tribute/song from bride to groom, exuberant everything. I had to give a tribute/devotional/toast (genre-confusion if ever there was) Saturday night at the pre-wedding party after her very best friend in all the world had even more exuberantly recollected the ten years they had waited together for Julie's love (Jon) to show up and then act out a hilarious skit with her husband about the process. OK. How can anyone follow that act? The church was full of laughter and applause. The tone of mine was different--with the devotional taking center stage, but somehow it worked. Everything was Very Julie. Very joyful. Very exuberant. Very exhausting. I hope Ellen will post some pictures from her digital camera (check her blog in hopes...)

The four Steiners joined us, so we were a houseful of nine. What fun. Andrew to play with--he and his Wooster grandpa took up again like they'd never been separated. What a pair they are! When A first came into the house, which he hadn't seen in 11 months (and he's just barely 2), he crept into the sunroom where the cat had always hidden from him; somehow he had remembered Werther. But when the cat didn't show up, he forgot and got busy with chasing and laughing and legos and Thomas the Train. Meghan is sitting and cooing and smiling and grabbing for toys and capturing us all. We had good talks with their mom and dad, a hurried deck picnic (Beth had to finish assembing the 400+ favors she had brought from VA right after they got in), a meal at our favorite Mexican restaurant, a trip to Amish country and lots of hugs and kisses from the kids. We had Mark and Mindy and Chloe for Sunday lunch too. And time with the IV missions coordinator who had taken me and the others to Turkey and Egypt last summer. How wonderful are the connections.... (For these pictures, I need Jenny to post...check her blog one of these times. She'll be incommunicado for another week if she doesn't get to it tomorrow.)

Today all but Karen and Jenny left by 9:00 a.m. and I had the rest of the day to do the laundry and clean up the kitchen and put things to "rights." And go to Curves; yes, I've joined. And to remember the big production and all its side benefits. Thursday all the rest of us leave, Chuck and the girls to G.R. to bring Karen back and then to head on to Cedar Campus for the Faculty Camp and I to Dearborn where I will participate in a Muslim Ministry conference with 300 others (helping represent the IV Great Lakes East team, but the CMA was part of the sponsoring group as well, and I'm staying with a CRC woman :)) and to experience the annual Arab Festival. Back Sunday evening.

All Good Gifts...

...come from above. This post will be a little less idealistic than had I written it two days ago when I was dreaming it up while sitting on my sun-dappled deck, looking out at the lush lawn (with only a few holes), at the finished mulching, at the flowers just coming into their glory, at the birds of many more varieties than usual (probably because of all the grass seek we scattered repeatedly), books and computer at the ready, glass of ice tea sitting nearby. I was anticipating the arrival of so many people I love. The next day I cleaned the house and put out fresh vases of flowers. I got maybe 800 more words written for the first chapter (each agonizing, I must admit) and cranked out 1000 for my genre-confused tribute/roast/devotional for tonight's pre-wedding party/worship service. Now all the people but four are here (and they are due in within the hour), and we've had other drop-by alumni guests as well. Now each person's conversation either goes on simultaneously (to outdo or at least be heard above the others --jockying for position, one of my good friends used to call it), the suitcases and sleeping bags and computers fill the previously uncluttered areas, the Rubbermaid buckets of playmobiles have been dumped out (on tonight's sleeping area in the basement), we're trying to wash the outside upper windows with not a whole lot of success--I needed Chuck for this job, and we're anticipating many last minute things to do prior to the alumni gathering and Julie and Jon's pre-wedding party, both tonight. A little more realisitic, but still good.

All Good Gifts...

...come from above. This post will be a little less idealistic than had I written it two days ago when I was dreaming it up while sitting on my sun-dappled deck, looking out at the lush lawn (with only a few holes), at the finished mulching, at the flowers just coming into their glory, at the birds of many more varieties than usual (probably because of all the grass seek we scattered repeatedly), books and computer at the ready, glass of ice tea sitting nearby. I was anticipating the arrival of so many people I love. The next day I cleaned the house and put out fresh vases of flowers. I got maybe 800 more words written for the first chapter (each agonizing, I must admit) and cranked out 1000 for my genre-confused tribute/roast/devotional for tonight's pre-wedding party/worship service. Now all the people but four are here (and they are due in within the hour), and we've had other drop-by alumni guests as well. Now each person's conversation either goes on simultaneously (to outdo or at least be heard above the others --jockying for position, one of my good friends used to call it), the suitcases and sleeping bags and computers fill the previously uncluttered areas, the Rubbermaid buckets of playmobiles have been dumped out (on tonight's sleeping area in the basement), we're trying to wash the outside upper windows with not a whole lot of success--I needed Chuck for this job, and we're anticipating many last minute things to do prior to the alumni gathering and Julie and Jon's pre-wedding party, both tonight. A little more realisitic, but still good.

Mowing and other sundry chores

With Chuck gone for nine days during the height of the lushness of late spring (grading AP calc by day and playing golf by night--I am here to report that he got his first eagle in many a year last night), the tasks are never done. Like the lawn mowing. And of course days of rain have not helped. There was a break on Saturday with enough sun that I thought the front yard might have dried out enough and (not having been able to recruit a high school student to do this for me), I attempted the task (with my 89 year old feet). A kindly neighbor, to whom we speak probably once a year, came over and pulled the starter cord for me when he saw me struggling. I got about a third done when the heavens opened up and the rain came down in buckets. I reluctantly stopped, even though I had already achieved drowned rat status. A couple hours later, with more sun, I even got the blasted machine to start and I began taking swipes across the front yard when it just stopped. No reason that I could discern. This time when I pulled the cord, it somehow got caught on some internal part and wouldn't go in or out. Mowing done for the duration with a very odd looking yard....The next day after church I had two h.s. graduation parties at which to put in an appearance (one for children of dear friends and the other for a church member's daughter's boyfriend...) and a baby shower/potluck at our house for a young couple in our TLC group. The latter was super, even though we were mostly indoors with more threatened showers and 60 degrees. Not good weather for a cute two month old :) Our pastor took one look at the lawn, heard the sob story, and said he would bring his mower over today. True to his word and to his servant heart, that's what he did, and now the lawn looks the best it has (with its holes mostly filled in with adolescent grass at this point) in a couple of years. Thanks, Regis. You and Penny are such a blessing!

Now all I have to do before the wedding arrivals is supervise the (old) carpet cleaning, recruit student help to move the furniture back in the newly carpeted family room, finish the mulching!!! and try to get some writing done. And tend the pots of flowers that will decorate Julie's pre-wedding party Saturday evenning and plan out what I am going to say when I am asked to say something publicly that night (not at the reception.) Everyone with the last name of Hampton converges on Friday around supper time and the Steiners will arrive on Saturday.