FOMA or the fear of missing out :(

Last year our girls started a tradition of taking a road trip together.  Last year's trip was to Florida. This year they chose a destination where they would have great lodging at a reasonable cost (free).  Their Grandfather's house in Maryland.  They were to leave on Thursday the 25th of September and stay through Tuesday the 30th, returning on Wednesday October 1st.

  

I must confess that I was having a serious case of FOMA.  For those of you in my generation FOMA is the Fear Of Missing Out.  It is a new phobia that is rampant in the techno generation.  I must admit that I find myself often feeling the effects.

Jane and I are leaving South Carolina on Tuesday after her followup for the second kidney stone crushing last Tuesday and heading for a Sower project in PA.  We will arrive in Maryland after the kids have left so I would miss out on seeing all of the Grandchildren.  Hence the FOMA.  

I found out that they were all planning to rendezvous at Julie's in Wake Forest NC and launch on their journey on Friday the 26th .  Rachel found a cheap flight from Punta Gorda (where is that?) Florida to Greenville SC.  Rebecca picked her up on the way to Wake Forest NC.  

So Jane and I hopped in the car on Thursday and headed to Wake Forest to surprise them.  What's a five hour trip when Grands are at the destination!  We told Maribeth so we could take Olivia with us to give her some freedom to stop and take care of Wren.

  We were able to stop at South of the Border and let Olivia play on the ancient animal statues.  We haven't stopped there since the kids were young.  The same animals are there, some missing feet and tusks.  Olivia had a great time seeing them but she didn't want to get on any of them.  Guess she could tell they were pretty worn out from years of abuse :)

We were able to pull off the surprise to Julie, Becky, and Rachel.

We had a great time with the kids

All aboard the chair train!

We had a great time in the pool at the Sleep Inn. 

Ella Mae and Olivia slept in our room.  We enjoyed watching Mickey's playhouse.

The van was repacked with Julie and Mari's stuff

Micah, Olivia, and Wren in Mari's Van

Ella, Isa, and Bowen in Becky's truck

Giga Jane and her Girls

Jane and I headed back to Charleston and the girls headed out for Maryland

Quiet time

All arrived safely at Pop Pop's house.  

Jason flew up (he's the smart one)

Stroller Parade

I am so grateful that our children are adventurous and love to be together.  

God has truly blessed us real good!

As of this writing they are having fun in Maryland.  Blessing their Ninety one year old Grandfather and giving their Aunt Amy more grey hair.

Jane weathered the second kidney stone blast well and baring a bad report from the followup Xray next tuesday, we plan to leave on time to arrive at our October project at Summit Grove in New Freedom PA on Friday the 3rd of October.

Godspeed till next post,  

                                            Glenn and Jane

CIT Project at Union Mills NC

Three weeks passed very quickly at the Center for Intercultural Training (CIT) at Union Mills NC.  The project was very rewarding as we were able to serve the staff there in multiple ways.  Our partners this time were Bobbeth and John Hawkins from Rome Ga.  They have been Sowers for over twenty years and are heading toward their 100th project soon.

CIT trains folks that are headed to the foreign field to serve in many capacities.  The training is aimed at enabling them to be successful long term.  The staff were wonderful to work with.  

Jane and Bobbeth spent the first two weeks cleaning the main dormitory which has two wings with two floors each.  Each floor has a three bedroom apartment and a number of single bedrooms.  They have a large living room with kitchen facilities and a communal bathroom with showers.

The third week the fall session began with folks arriving from around the country.  There were 28 adult participants in this session, most with families.  There is an apartment building with ten apartments as well as a house that has three apartments in it.  The kids sure enjoyed the pool.

There are programs for all ages that also provide training specific to their age group.  This group of middle and high school students met under the tree in the afternoons.  Their classroom had been recently remodeled and John helped get it setup for the incoming teens.

These preschoolers had great fun and the teacher has a curriculum specific to their needs as they travel to new surroundings.

This is Gloria the lady that handles all of the housekeeping at CIT.  She is assisted by her daughters when they are out of school.  Bobbeth and Jane were lifesavers to her with the cleaning chores.

On the left is Art who is in charge of Facilities Maintenance.  His brother Ron on the right recently retired and moved here to volunteer his expertise to the ministry.  Both of these guys were a blast to work with. We had lots of laughs and Laurel and Hardy episodes. Their dad was a painting contractor in Bakersfield CA and they taught us lots of painting tricks.  Art gave up his painting business and has served at several ministries doing various maintenance tasks.  Needless to say they are experienced craftsmen and I learned alot working with them, and from John as well.

The first two weeks we painted two apartments and the living room of a third.  We fixed some kitchen sink drains helped with some grass cutting just before the families started arriving for the session.

The third week we cleaned out some spaces in one of the maintenance shops and constructed walls to partition off the spaces.

The ladies moved to the cafeteria kitchen for the third week of our stay.  They helped prepare meals for the participants and staff.  We were privileged to join them for lunch and were able to meet some of the families and learn about their calling and how we might pray for them.

The community center just across the street hosts a free Blue Grass concert every Friday night.  Dinner is available for five dollars and then two groups perform from seven until.  The old school building provides a great venue for a concert.

We were able to go to Rome to visit Rebecca, Corey and the girls on our second weekend.  We had a great time with them at the park in town and were able to babysit Saturday night as Corey took Becky out for a night on the town.

We are back in Summerville for the next week.  We report to Summit Grove Camp in south central Pennsylvania on October 6th.  

While we are waiting to leave Jane will be undergoing shock wave treatment on her right kidney.  She has four stones that were up in the kidney that we thought would be ok to wait till November to take care of.  A followup Xray taken when we got home last Thursday showed that the largest M&M sized one has move to the exit of the kidney and needs to be taken care of now.

Our time at CIT was a blessed one for us.  We look forward to the opportunity to go back and serve at this special place.  Pray for us as Jane recovers from the second procedure that we will be able to get to the next project on time.

Blessings till next post...   Godspeed,  Glenn and Jane