The Life of a billet
In the past two months we have stayed in six different places...with the potentil in the next month to stay in six more places. Everytime we go to visit a place we anticipate the list of "rules" we will recieve from our billets while we are guests in their home. Here is the conclusive list so far:
-Be in the house by 11 pm
-30 min. on the phone/day
-No eating on the leather couches
-No overnight guests (like we have friends anyway)
-No smoking in the house
-No guests period.
-Wipe down the bathtub after you use it each time
Thank-you Rick Sandberg
One thing I learned to ask myself in Victoria that is now ingrained in my head about evangelism and just about life in general:
Am I fulfilling my own needs?
Or
Am I fulfilling the needs of others?
Basically forces me to do a self-evaluation and question my own motives...am I "doing" evangelism because it makes me feel good... or am I really fulfilling a need?
TheCall Nashville
Jessie, Hilary and I had the opportunity to go to TheCall Nashville last weekend for a day of worship and prayer.
Cleaning Up
Flood Pictures
The cafe garden and the basement at the cafe.
The streets of Aliquippa
Volunteers cars from the Cafe
Inside the Cafe
The inside of the cafe one week ago today during the flood.
Cleaning out the cave
Yesterday we went to clean out a basement in a sandwich shop at a business down the street.
My conversation with one of the other volunteers went like this:
E- Is that the basement!?
M- I think so...
E- Oh my gosh I can't breathe...
M- There's no handrails...slide in on your bottom.
E- I can't see anything...where's the power switch?
E- I'm really suffocating..what's down here?
M- Rotting bodies?
E- Probably.
E- Ew...the mud is up over our ankles...
M- K...we need to start cleaning this.
E- Please find the power switch- something is touching me.
Business owner pops head down basement stairwell*
Business owner- We had the utilities cut off when we closed the business. There's no electricity or water.
E- We have to clean a foot of mud out of here with no light and no water? You have got to be kidding me....seriously....
M- Let's climb out of here... maybe we can run an extension cord?
E- We can haul buckets of water from the cafe.
E- What a mess.
This was probably one of the grossest experiences of my life. I ended the day covered head to toe in mud (sewage)...it's hard to believe that I'm living this in an urban community right outside of Pittsburgh. Who needs to go to Mexico?
Flood Update
I spent the morning working on John's website... no making fun all you techies...
http://www.stanleysusa.homestead.com/click on Aliquippa Floods for some fun videos and such
Grace Y'all
Bringing the Blog Back
It's been awhile- so long in fact that I had to re-set my password because I had forgotten it.
Current Status- Alive
The more I learn...the less I know...
"...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:3-5
