Not Haiti

Faithful trustee Jon showing up to work on the sidewalks for church tomorrow

...followed by faithful Larry doing the same thing

Ice is lovely, if treacherous.


Job 37:10 "The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen."

Haiti team lands in Port au Prince!

Just thought you might like that update as of 5 minutes ago.  They were delayed at JFK airport, waiting on the plane for a couple hours I think, so they are a bit behind schedule, but despite the weather they made it! Thanks for all the prayers.

Early morning take-off

"He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled."  Joshua 24:17

Miscellaneous as we wait ....

...for the last of the Haiti travelers to arrive at our house tonight.  Carrie came in on the bus to Morgantown this afternoon.  Rod arrived by car this afternoon too, and Matt is almost here this evening.  They are all 14 of them meeting in the church parking lot at 2 am tonight/tomorrow to drive to the airport.  We know a winter storm is coming in, and we're trusting all will work out.

A funny time of year to work on mower repair.... 

Wednesday the Food Bank served over 100 families!

Cheerfully!

Matching workers

Our hardy fish surviving under the ice

beautiful Greene County again

Balloon lessons

Charlie wanted to learn to make balloon animals for kids in Haiti.

Rich knows how and brought his balloons

waiting for that possible pop....

Jean Lemley

Beth and I visited Jean Lemley, and here's some of what I learned about her life:

Jean was born in Bula WV, and her family moved quite a few times while she was young.  At one point they had a restaurant in Jefferson where Walters' garage is now, but it didn't work out for long because the depression happened then.  Then her father had his car stolen and he could no longer drive to work, so they moved back to the family farm with Jean's grandparents.  Her mother was pregnant at the time and Jean remembers it as a pretty tough time.

Her future husband, Paul, lived on the same road she did near Bula, and he used to wait outside church to walk her home when she was 15. She married him at 16, when he was 18  Her parents liked him and gave their permission.  They had a daughter, Sue, and a son, Pat. (They're not related to Melvin and Pat Lemley from the Senior Center). Jean's two children live in Ohio and Maryland now.  She has lots of photos of grandchildren and great grandchildren on her bulletin board at Rolling Meadows.

Paul used to work on a baling machine with the old gas wells.  Sam Scott (father of Carol Scott who has been coming to church with her husband Mike Meighen) gave him a job at the gas company doing a bit of everything, like reading meters and digging ditches.  They lived in Waynesburg then, and that's where their children went to school.  Their apartment in Waynesburg burned once and they lost everything.  "But we had each other, and people were generous" Jean says.

At one point Paul worked for Harris Freeland (?) a rich man in Waynesburg.  Then they moved to Jefferson for Paul to take care of some gas wells in this area.  They were friends with the Folwells.  Jean started coming to the Baptist Church.  

I'm not sure I got everything exactly right.  Jean has been in Rolling Meadows for several years now, and loves visitors.  She said she enjoys living there.  Beth and I enjoyed visiting with her.

Rainy Tuesday...

John is getting used to being a subject for my new camera efforts

Beth and I ran into John Humble at Rolling Meadows today.  He asked about the Haiti trip - the article in the newspaper reached a lot of folks!  We had a call from a local salon today about sending some things to Haiti. They had read the article and wanted to be part of the effort.

You may know Michelle Rudolf as Luke Payson's fiancee, and we think of her as someone who is in training to start working a little with Bethany!