July 27

Today was… difficult. I woke up at 6:00 and made sure everything was in ship shape around the house, got packed and then loaded the car up. I went to Cattleman’s for breakfast one last time and said goodbye to Bert and Kate. Then I went to the church and gave blood at the blood drive. Once that was done it was time to go, and Doug, Charlene, Mary Lee and I left Riggins! We dropped Mary Lee off in a small town on the way to Boise so she could see her sister, then we went to Ontario Oregon so Charlene could drop something off at her dentist. After that we headed to Boise (not before plugging in the hotel on the gps… Doug and Charlene are sweet…) We got to the hotel and I said goodbye to Doug and Charlene, and that was that. My time in Riggins is done, and now I’m headed for a three day stay in Colorado for LFL. I’ll have a few more posts later so keep your ears perked.

July 26

Today was my last full day in Riggins. I woke up at about 9:00 and cleaned house a bit then got showered and went to the senior’s lunch. I got to see some of my favorite people one last time there, then I went golfing with Doug and Anita. I played my worst game of golf ever (which is saying something if you’ve seen me play golf) but birdied the last hole, so it was all worth it. After we got back from golfing I went to the church and picked up the computer. I had dinner at Bev and Ernie Knight’s house and then taught them the Opensong Program. That went well. I then went home and am going to bed. Good night!

July 25

Welllll let’s see. We’re getting close to the end here. Pastor Jim and Judy left today at about 10:30 and when that happened I went to the church and completed the great lyric migration. Yes. Completed! There were about 150 songs total, so that was an accomplishment. After that I did a little bit of busy-work around the church before heading home. I called Doug and Anita to see if they wanted to go golfing one last time, then tidied up the house before heading to bed. It was sad to see the Thibodeaux’s leave… :-(

July 24

Today was very cool, but sad at the same time. I lead worship at the church this morning, which went surprisingly well, and then there was a going away potluck for Patrick, Jessie and I. The food was amazing and I ate way too much, but it was sad knowing that I won’t see these people for a long time, if ever again. A pleasant surprise was Caleb and Stephen Hackler showing up for the potluck, since I had invited them on Friday, but not gotten a real feedback. Afterward we hung out in the basement of the church playing Wii and whatnot with Megan and Maddi. At about 4:00 I gave Stephen and Caleb a ride home and I hung out with the whole Hackler clan the rest of the night. It was really fun, talking, watching a movie, eating hot dogs, playing music, and just having fun. I’m really gonna miss Caleb and Jordan and I hope to see them again when we hopefully come up here to go skiing. Tomorrow is my last day to see the Thibodeauxs before they leave for their vacation, and that’s going to be rough… Soon I’ll be reflecting on my time here… which will yield very very long blog posts… so… yeah…

July 23

Today I started the day by fixing a flat tire on my Toyota. The valve stem was busted and Pastor Jim and I took it to the chevron station to get fixed. Then we went to the Hot Summer Nights car show. There were some pretty great cars. In particular, a 60’s Pontiac firebird. One of my favorites. As well as a 34 chevy pick up truck. After browsing the cars a bit we went to the church and I gave him a recap lesson on the computer and using his new phone. That went well. Then it was half waiting around, half practicing until the worship got to the church to practice for the service tomorrow. Practice was good, but we’re doing a bunch of songs that were very new to the team… so we’ll see how well it sticks tomorrow.

July 22

Today I started at the church winding up the great lyric migration. I’ve only got about 15 more songs to move over. Around lunch time I came home and gave Mrs. Judy a recap computer lesson. I then went back to the church and practiced my routine for Hot Summer Nights. The talent show went well, the hacklers got two first places and a third between them. I was very happy for them. There were also some really good singers. It’s crazy how so many people who can sing so well can come from such a small town. My performance went well too… at least, everyone seemed to enjoy it. Well that’s all for now. ttyt.

July 21

Well My parents left today. We started by going to Cattleman’s for breakfast, so that my parents could experience the great food and the fun service. They left at 11:00, then Pastor Jim, Doug, Anita and I went to Grangeville and played golf. It was my best round ever. I shot a flat 100. Not a good score for some, but great for me. I only had one hole that I had to take maximum strokes and I got Par twice! Afterward we came home and I was hoping to hang out with Caleb Hackler… but he didn’t call, so I guess he was busy. Hot Summer Nights talent show is tomorrow. I’m doing Bill in Lemon in Guitar. I turn a borrowed signed 20 dollar bill, turn it into a one. Take out my guitar, pull a lemon out of the hole under the springs, cut open the lemon and the signed 20 is inside. Wish me good nerves.

July 20

Today we went down the River. It was fun, but there’s not a lot to write about it… we went down the river. That was it. When we Got home (6:00 PM) We went over to Anita’s house for burgers. It was definitely Paul’s favorite meal in Riggins. Afterward I came home and made some bread for my parents to try the next day. Very tiring day overall.

July 19

Well let’s see. Tuesday My Dad and I started the day with a hike. We went to the Top of School Marm. It just about killed my dad, but I was fine. Coming down from the mountain however, we decided to slide on our backsides (faster… and my dad could barely walk) and I managed to hit a cactus with my hand and backside… so that was fun. After we got back down the mountain I went and printed the directories for Jeannie and Anita to fold. We’ll be handing them out on Sunday. We ran out of toner while we were printing. If only someone from empire office supplies had called to ask me about my toner needs. (point for the Friends reference) After printing for most of the day I headed back home and got changed for dinner at Buck and Jeannie’s, and then ice cream at Bev and Ernie Knight’s house. All in all it was a busy but fun day.

July 18

Today was a pretty good day. Woke up a bit late, because I had such a late night at the Hacklers, then I went to the church and printed out the prototype church directory. Tomorrow we’ll print and assemble. I went back home after working at the church and We decided to head to Grangeville early… very early. We were going to visit a ghost town in Grangeville, but it turned out that it wasn’t a ghost town. We killed time by driving up to Kamiah so I could show my parents where the other team hung out and worked and what not. Then we went back to Grangeville and killed another 45 minutes walking around in shops. After that we went to see Cars 2 at the theater. It was a very good movie. I highly recommend it. Afterward we came home and hit the hay. Tomorrow we’re going to hike school marm, then do the directory, and we have dinner at the Fitch’s. Pray for safety on the hike and quick and effective work in the afternoon!

July 16

Let’s see… what happened on the 16^th? We spent a little bit of time orienting the family to Riggins. We took my parents up the river to see the Smid’s ranch. They really enjoyed the drive up, and it was nice to see Carl and Patrick again. After driving back we went down to the Thibodeaux’s and hung out a bit. For dinner we went over to Doug Crump’s house and had salmon. It was delicious and it was cool to talk to Doug again with my parents there. I spent some time playing with Paul while they talked to him about the war and his life. It was a pretty great day.

July 17

(I'll post July 16th tomorrow. Just forgot to write it. sry...)

Well, today was pretty full. We had Church in the morning, which went well. Momma and I did the song “At Your Feet” as a special and it went well. The remainder of the service was good too, and I think Paul did well for the most part. After church we went up to Brundage and rode the ski lift to the top of the mountain. It’s crazy how much can change in two weeks. Most, all the snow was Gone and there were a LOT of plants there that had somehow appeared very recently. The trip was fun, and Paul had a great time. We raced back into town to go to the Hackler’s fundraiser dinner, where I performed a few songs along with a few other friends of the Hackler family. The Hackler Kids did very well and it was cool to hear Canaan play piano, since everybody had talked so much about him. Also, Caleb’s beat boxing and Jordan’s sign language were great. That went until about 9:00 PM then I went to the hackler house and hung out a bit. Did some magic played some music, chatted and roasted marshmallows. All in all it was a really fun night. Tomorrow the Directory prototype will be printed. Hope it goes well…. We’re also going to drive to Grangeville and see Cars 2, which will be fun. Can’t wait!

July 15

Today was a fun day. Woke up and did a bunch of manual labor around the house to get ready for my parents and brother to show up, which they did at around 4:00 today. That was really it. My parents came and met the Thibodeauxs… everything else kind of pales in comparison. Goodnight.

July 14

Hello. This has been a boring-work filled day. I spent most of the day sitting in my office and copying and pasting documents… I got all the way through R in “The Great Lyric Migration”. That’s the name I’ve decided to give the job of moving the old lyrics into the new system. Good right? I also picked out my set list for when I lead worship on the 24^th. That’s pretty much it. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was very tedious and time consuming. My parents come tomorrow. I’m excited. Anyway… I going to bed. Really tired for some reason… don’t know why. Hope I’m not getting sick, cause that would stink.

July 13

Today was fun. We went golfing this morning in Grangeville and I hit a bucket of balls afterward, and my drive is really starting to straighten out. After golf we came back to the church and I made it through the J’s in the lyric system transfer, then there was a church board meeting, so I went and joined in, giving an update on the directory in the process. After the board meeting I went back to my office and played guitar and … finished my last song! The album is done, and it’s going to be legen- wait for it. dary! Legendary! I’m so excited to record them all when I get back to Texas, then get them copyrighted. Oh, also, when I got back home I tried my pie. it was very good. I now know how to make a delightfully edible pie. That was pretty much it for the day today. Not very exciting… but also very exciting.

July 12

Today was great! Went to the church fairly early 8:30-9ish. And started working some more on the transferring of the music library. I got all the way through the H’s today and will be starting on the I’s tomorrow. After a little while I went and gave Pastor Jim a lesson on facebook. I just gave him the basics of what it’s for and what you can do, but he got called away to pray with a parishioner who is have surgery on an abscess tomorrow, so I went back to my office and tried to write some more music. I got started into a song then Pastor Jim had his golf lesson on the field so I went along for that. It was fun as well as funny. Just imagine Doug Crump, Anita Williams, Mrs. Judy, Bev and Erie Knight and Pastor Jim hitting golf balls into a football field and grumbling after every shot (except for Doug who smiles and exclaims excitedly after every shot). If you know those people, you should be laughing. If not, trust me... It’s a funny sight. I got some good practice on my swing while I was up there, and Pastor Jim, Doug, Anita and I might go golfing tomorrow, so it’s a good thing I did. Fingers crossed that it happens. After that excursion we came home and had ribs for dinner (yum) then Mrs. Judy taught me how to make two different kinds of pie crust, and we whipped up a cherry pie put in one of them. It looks scrumptious, but I won’t be able to taste it until tomorrow, because it’s going to Doug’s house. He said we could have a piece with him when we take it over there though, so I’ll let you know how it turned out then. After we finished the pies I sat down and had a sudden burst of inspiration, and finished the song I had started earlier in the day. For anybody keeping count, that means I have only one more song to write for my album, and it’s half done already thanks to the response I’ve gotten from people on facebook. I also looked into copyright laws, as well as trade mark laws with the help of my good friend Matt Norman, and found that it’s only going to cost me $35 to copyright my album… which means yay. Look out music industry; Stephen Curto is about to break into you! On a different note, I’m very anxious to see my parents. Please pray for safe travel for them, and for some good times while they’re here. Also, I’m going to try to plan another youth night at the church in the next week, so please pray for a positive response on that. Good night and God bless.

Doesn't it look delicious!?!?!?

July 11

Today was pretty slow. I woke up late and we all went out to lunch to say good bye to Estella (Pastor Jim’s sister) After that I went to the church and did a little bit of work on the directory, but there’s not a whole lot I can do since Jeannie is out of town and I can’t move ahead with the printing until she proofreads it. I tried to work on my music, but I just couldn’t come up with anything good today, so I just moved around some songless lyrics, but didn’t really change anything. After that I came back home and did some laundry then headed off to bed. Like I said… slow day.

July 10

Today went pretty well. Started the day off at the church at 9:00, where pastor Jim requested that I play the song “Grace Like Rain” with the worship team… 20 minutes before the service. It’s a good thing that used to be my favorite song and I knew it really well by memory, otherwise it would have been a train wreck. After that I went back to run the computer for the remainder of the service. Bruce and I talked about the next few Sundays music wise. I’ll be doing a special with my momma next Sunday (Yes! They’re coming to Riggins this Friday! I’m excited… to see Paul I mean. :-P ) Then I’ll lead the whole worship service on the 24^th (my last Sunday here. :’-( )with the regular worship team, minus Bruce. After church I headed back to the Thibodeaux’s who took a trip up river to have a picnic with Agnes’s family, so I decided to make good use of the time and… again… practice making bread! I made a pizza, a pan of rolls and a white loaf, all of which were excellent. I think it was my best batch yet. Then at 6:30 (yes making bread took up all the time from 1:00 to 5:30. I mix by hand!) I drove out to the Rupp farm where I met up with Arnie and Katie. Before that I hung out with all the other Rupps (Corey, BillieJo, Phoebe, Ila, and Jesse) helping them pick some cherries and eating some of their delicious watermelon. Then Katie, Arnie and I picked up Bruce and went to Grangeville to see Transformers 3. The movie was meh, but the company was excellent. I’m really happy I got to hang out with them a little bit socially before my time here is up. I’m hoping to make a few more trips up to the Rupp farm next week… fingers crossed. Well that was my day! As always, be praying. You should know what for by now.

July 9

Today was pretty great. I had the day to myself to do whatever I wanted, so I slept until 11:00 then went to the church and started working on music… kept rolling with the old to new system transfer. After an hour or so, I decided to work on some of my own songs, and I rolled out a totally new one. It’s really good; I’m so excited. It’s definitely a concert geared song, cause there are a bunch of parts where you can just hear a crowd singing back to you. With that addition, my “Unbroken” album has seven of its nine songs completed. Also, thanks to some help from all my facebook friends, one of the remaining two is half done, so I’m getting really close. God is so good, and he really worked through Pastor Jim encouraging me to take some time out to work on my music, and the product of that encouragement is coming to fruition. I hope it will bring glory to God. There was also the praise team practice that I sat in on which went well. Bruce and I talked a bunch before practice, and we talked about music, and copyright laws and all sorts of things. Then I showed him how to work the new program. That went well. Well that’s my report for today. The thing you should get from it? God is good. (course you should have already known that.)

July 8

Today was fairly work-filled. I went to the church at 9:00 and started working on the directory again. It’s about one hour of work away from being ready to print. It’s going a lot better than I thought it would. I’m also working on copying all of the songs in the old computer system into the new one. (A task I’ve been working on since we set up the new computer) Since there are about 250 songs in the system, it’s a pretty long process. I sort of do it in the background while I do all of my more mentally taxing work. I took a break for lunch at 1:30 and then went back to the church at 2:30, when Jeannie Fitch called to have me move some furniture. They’re getting new carpet in their living room soon, so we cleared out both sofas, 3 tables, 2 lounge chairs and a ceiling high cabinet. It went pretty well considering it was Buck and I who were moving everything… and he’s not the youngest, or springiest guy in the world. After that I went back to the church and did some more song moving. After a while I came home for dinner and met Pastor Jim’s sister, Estelle. She’ll be here for the weekend. She seems pretty nice, and she used to live in the Fort Worth area. I went back to the church to do a little bit more computer work, and to write a letter to a friend, then came home around 9:30. Pastor Jim, Mrs. Judy, Estelle, and Lucky were playing Pinochle tonight, so I learned how to play it too… finally… and found that it is basically a really complicated way of playing 42 but with cards. It was a good day and I feel like I got a lot done. I’m going to teach Bruce the new program tomorrow… we’ll see how that goes. Please just pray. Not for me or for anything here, just spend whatever time you would normally spend praying for me here talking to God a little bit, particularly if you don’t do that very much already. God bless.

July 7

Went to seniors breakfast at Cattleman’s this morning. I now have a money envelope that all the ladies can add to whenever they want, so they don’t have to argue over who gets to pay for me. Afterward I went to the church for a bit, but there was little for me to do there, so I went back to the Thibodeaux’s house and did some house work. Watering plants cleaning the kitchen… stuff like that. This afternoon, Pastor Jim, Anita and I went to New Meadows to play golf. It was both my best and worst game at different times. I got a totally legitimate, no mulligan birdie, had some really great drives, and shot a bogey on an over 500 yard par-five, but also failed miserably on other holes, and lost eleven balls total. Anyway, it was fun over all. I’m going to try to get a bowling trip together, so please pray for a good response. Thanks so much!

July 6

Today was a fairly interesting one. Decided to make it one of work. I pressure washed outside the church for an hour, as well as spent a lot of time working on the lyric system for the church, as well as the directory. Both of these are very slow tasks that are going to take a good amount of time. At lunch-time I experimented some with some bacon. I made cinnamon bacon, peanut butter bacon, and a cream cheese bacon fajita. All of it was pretty good. The cinnamon bacon in particular was really good, and something that I will be making again. The other two tasted pretty good, but need a little work before I would make it for somebody else to eat. For the rest of the day I worked on music. I practiced some of my hymn arrangements, wrote a new song, and fleshed out some of my older unfinished ideas. I now have six songs that are finished and ready to be recorded, and three more that are well on their way. My album will hopefully be finished by the end of the summer. Going golfing tomorrow with Anita, Doug, and Pastor Jim. Ill let you know how that goes tomorrow.

July 4

Happy birthday America! I had a good day today. Pastor Jim and I started the day with washing the van and the Toyota. After the carwash… wooah woah woah woah yeah, the carwash yeah… we went downstairs and planned the remainder of my stay. We set some spiritual goals, physical goals, and some free time goals, as well as planned a few activities for when my parents arrive. I also had decided that I would be taking a group of whoever wanted to go to McCall to see the fireworks there. I texted/facebooked everyone at about 10:00 and was very discouraged the whole day, as no one responded until 4:30. We were leaving at 6:00. During that time span, I did a little bit of pressure washing, practiced guitar, updated some of the music projector systems, and cleaned up the downstairs kitchen. Eventually some people responded and we went to McCall. In the end, we had a full van load. Mark, Raymond, Megan, Josh, Mccoy, and Jessie ended up being the group. It was a lot of fun. The fireworks were really great, and we had some fun fooling around in McCall. I hope everyone else had a good time. We’re going to go to Zim’s hotsprings soon. Anyway, thanks for the continued prayers. I’m going to bed, and posting this without proof reading because I am just that tired. I’ll edit it tomorrow, so for now, please forgive me for the numerous typos and grammatical errors. Gnight!

July 3

Today was pretty slow. Another day of my body catching up with me. I went to church, and helped Pastor Jim with his powerpoint, then ran the projector for worship. After the service I took pictures for the directory for the last time. I’ll be inserting them into the directory over the next few days. After the service I went back to the Thibodeaux’s house and we had lunch. I practiced making bread again, trying to do the recipe from memory, and slightly failing. It needed more salt and sugar than I had included. But it wasn’t too bad all the same. After that I went to take an hour-long nap at 4:00 because I was so tired, and woke up at 3 am. It was an interesting night after that, but eventually I got back to bed and woke up at 9:00.

July 2

Well, today the team left. I got up at 8 to see tm off, then went downstairs in the church to do some work in the youth room. I spent a few hours working, sat down at noon to take a break and didn’t wake up until six pm. Yes. I basically did nothing but sleep all day. Tomorrow the work starts up again, today was catching up on sleep lost while the team was here.

VBS Week Reflection

Well, this is the last night with the team. It’s bee so great it’s hard to describe. We’ve grown so much closer as a family of believers, and there were sooooooo many instances this week where you could see the spirit moving. Joshua Long, accepted Christ. His sister Megan had become a Christian the first time the team came, and Josh had always scoffed at Christianity, and shrugged it off when anybody asked him what he believed. His newfound belief is inexplicably the work of the Holy Spirit. We’ve had such a great time here, and I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen because now I have a core group of people to annoy into hanging out with me. :-P I’m going to focus on a more personal ministry. Maybe take somebody golfing, or play some one-on-one bball out side of a school, when a couple of guys who were up to no good… sorry. Couldn’t resist. Please pray that this movement of the Holy Spirit is not fleeting. Satan will be coming in the team’s place and we have to fight. We know that the battle is ours if we trust God and reject Satan. Pray for strength, on my part when he comes, and pray for receptiveness on the parts of all the people who I will be talking to. Thanks so much for reading and for your prayers. God is so good.

VBS Week

I realize I haven't been posting in the last couple of days... honestly there is just too much to write. There would be 5 page long posts every day if I tried. If you'd like to get a taste for what has been happening in Riggins and Kamiah please read http://idaho2011.blogspot.com/ This is the team's blog, so you can have sample platter with that, then talk to me in person if you want to hear more stuff. Thanks for reading, I'll go back to my usual posting patter on Saturday.

June 27

Today was really cool. We had VBS at 9:30, and everybody was great at helping me practice the motions for all of the songs I was learning. I would say that I got 75% of the motions correct without too much glancing at Leah trying to check if I was doing the right thing, which, when you consider that I learned all seven songs the night before, is pretty good… in my opinion at least. After VBS I took a much-needed nap for about an hour, then went to Back-Eddy’s for some lunch where Mark and Mccoy were hanging out. Sam Runyon and I talked with them a bit, and it seemed like they were getting along pretty well. I hope to see both of them around a little more often. After the canvassing we chilled at the church for a little bit. I made up a new song to go in the Moses Musical I’ve been working on for forever, as well as how to change the modes on the synthesizer in the sanctuary. At 6:30 we went up to the football field to play games, and there were a bunch of new people who hadn’t come in the last two years. That was really great to see. I hope they all come back. We played kickball and ultimate frisbee and I learned that I enjoy ultimate a lot more when Jordan Tiff is on my team. He knows my style way too well, and when we’re on the same team he can place a frisbee in the perfect spot for me to cherry pick down field. When we’re not on the same team, he knows the perfect spot to stand to stop me from cherry picking down field. After the games we gathered on the bleachers and Jordan and Leah shared their testimonies. Then we went home had showers and had family time. It was a good night spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally. Praise God!

June 26 (for real this time)

Let’s see, what happened yesterday… Church with the VBS team. That was fun. I lead worship and it went very, very well. Thank you to Kelsie, Leah, and Jon for working with me and being patient with my incessant practicing. (point for the vocab word) After church we headed out to the fish hatchery for the all-church picnic. We had oodles of food, as well as some fun times. Pastor Jim told me that morning that I would be doing a magic show at the picnic…. Fun surprise… It went ok, I just wish I had had a chance to practice the routine I did beforehand. I was a bit rusty. After that we did a three-lEGGed race. It’s a race concept that I created for the picnic that is a combination of a three-legged race and an egg race. So the partnered contestants had there inside legs tied together, and they also had their inside hands tied together holding a spoon with an egg on it. It was a lot of fun. After the race as a payback for the punishment I had just put upon the participants (three-lEGGed races are really hard) I allowed an “Egg Stephen Session” to ensue, in which all the kids lined up firing squad style and I was their target. It was actually really fun getting egged. The sad part was that Jordan Tiff’s wry egg got my martin case, so now it has a nice big egg splat stain on it. The guitar is safe though don’t worry. I could hear many a guitar fanatic holding his breath. After the picnic, and after I finished scraping all of the egg of my face (ba dum chhh) we headed back to the church to get ready for VBS. I got to do some freehanded drawing, which I realized that I really miss doing, and drew a statue of liberty that was nine feet tall. It turned out very well. Then I set to work learning the VBS music, had dinner, family time, chatted then headed home to Doug’s. It was about midnight last night when I realized I had no clean undergarments, so I got to wake up at 2 am 4 am and 6 am to move my loads of laundry through the cycles so that I would have something to wear today. That was my night.

June 26

too tired. will write tomorrow.

June 25

Today was a bit blah for most of it. I came to the church and did a few odd jobs… fixed the copier tray, played around with opensong, set up the stage for the worship service, things like that. At about noon I drove out to the Cornforth’s house (they live 20 miles out of town) and picked up Mike’s djembe for music practice. Then I went up to the football field and practiced hitting some golf balls by myself. I’m really doing well with my slice, If I’m concentrating on the right things the ball will go exactly where I want it to. After that I came and hung around the church until… wait for it…. THE TEAM ARROVE… arrived? Arivved?... they got here. We fed them cleaned them up a bit then practiced music and ran through some logistics for tomorrow. Can’t wait for the remainder of the week. It’s gonna be great! Please pray for us. You know what.

June 24

Today was another day of work. Started the day at the church working on finding a new program for the lyric projection. I actually found a really great free program called opensong. It is pretty amazing… you can tell from using it that it was designed by a guy who ran the projector at his church and knew all the problems that usually come with presentation software. Once I played around with that for a bit, everyone else showed up at the church and we started putting the basement back together. I moved a bunch of benches, the piano, and some pews and did some vacuuming. After all of that I went over to Buck and Jeannie Fitch’s to help with more computer stuff. They got some spyware that impersonated their security center, so it took me a while to figure out what was going on. Eventually we got it off of there and got some antispyware software installed. It took a lot longer than it should have. After that little excursion I went and had dinner with the Shoemakers. It was delicious and I met the Peytons, who are from Fort Worth originally, so I got to “talk Texas” with someone. That was real fun, and I learned a lot about the small town dynamic. After dinner I came back to the church, packed up my stuff and went home to Doug’s. Tomorrow night the team will get here and I’ll get to practice for Sunday worship with them. Please pray that all goes smoothly with their travels from Seattle to here.

June 23

PAINTING! (That was the answer for what I was doing tomorrow/today which was yesterday’s tomorrow but today’s today… confused yet?) Let me clear it up… we painted today. Much like yesterday we spent most of the day painting. Painting benches and walls was our mission, and the mission was accomplished. Also interspersed with all the painting, I got a hair cut… actually I got lots of hairs cut, not just one… as well as mowed the volleyball court again and fixed our last table. After all of this was done Pastor Jim and I went up to the football field and hit some golf balls to unwind a bit. It was fun. After that we came home to Doug’s and had the most delicious salmon I have ever had in my life. No joke--the best. Can’t see my feet it was so good. Anyway today was work filled and fun filled. Great day all around. The team leaves tomorrow morning, so again pray for safe travels and the will of God to shine through their actions this week, and every other week for that matter. Can’t wait to see them. :-)

June 22

Today was rather interesting. We did a little bit of painting then a little bit more painting… then a lot more painting. Then for a change, we painted with the dark blue paint instead of the light blue paint. After that we did some glaplainding… which is a word that I made up that means painting. I was a little bit aggravated with the paint because I worked really hard on coming up with a method of taping off a line on the wall so that the paint wouldn’t bleed under the tape as it had done with all the other methods we tried. My test piece worked great and the paint sat in a beautiful straight line on the wall, then when we tried it large scale, the paint bled like Bella swan at her birthday party at the Cullen’s house in the second book of the Twilight series, not very much. (two points for the twilight reference. Three different girls just fell in love with me. :-P ) But it was enough that the taping would not work, so I was upset. Anyway, that little failure turned me off of painting for the remainder of the day, so I went upstairs and worked on music for Sunday, because we (the vbs team) are leading the worship service this week. Anyway that’s about all I did today. Paint. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow…

June 21

The day started VERY early (6:30) due to the fact that Buck Fitch had had an idea. He convinced pastor Jim to rake all of the excess trimmings around the volleyball court into the middle and burn it, so at 7:00 we did just that. However, the morning dew prevented us from burning all of the grass. We really just gave our clothes a nice smoky scent and covered the town in what looked like a low flying cloud. We decided to let the heat of the day dry out the court and attempt to re-burn it in the afternoon. After this little expedition, we went downstairs to start the wonderful wall-painting week! My time doing the actual painting was short lived, because I spent the whole day repairing more benches, tables and bookcases. I rebuilt 7 benches, 1 table, and 1 bookshelf. I spent a total of seven hours working in Mr. Spicklemeyers woodshop. It was really fun, but also a lot of work. I must have spent an hour scraping the top layer of paint off of the table that I fixed. After this I went back to the church to do a little bit more painting, then received a call from Jeanie Fitch saying that dinner tonight was at her place, with Doug and Charlene. So at about 6:30 I showered and headed to the Fitch’s. They said that the afternoon burn went well but they want to go over the court with a harrow, so I expect they’ll be doing that in the next few days. After dinner I looked at Jeanie’s computer and helped her with an error message that was popping up then went and packed up my stuff to move back into Doug’s house. I’ll be staying with Doug until July 2^nd. We’ve got more painting to do, so please pray for speedy but good work. Also, the rest of the team will be coming up from spring. They fly out this friday, so please pray for safe travels, as well as awesome work while they're here. and lastly, pray that our eyes will be opened to God’s grace, which is so evident in all of our lives if we simply look.

June 20

Today I got a bit of a late start, because Pastor Jim was out having a father’s day breakfast with Mrs. Judy. At about 10:00 I went to the church where we prepped the big room downstairs for painting. This meant hauling out all of the furniture (including a piano… bleh) out of the room then laying down plastic on the entire floor. The room is about 60’ by 30’ so this took a while. We also had to cover each individual light fixture with plastic which was surprisingly the most time consuming of all the prep work. After the prepping was done, we went to have lunch. After lunch we went to the woodshop where I spent 4 hours fixing benches and bookshelves that we had hauled out of the room. Some of them are pretty dilapidated, so it was quite a bit of work to repair them. After those few hours we went back to the house to Skype with my parents. That was pretty much my day. Tomorrow we’ll do some more painting, so please pray for our sanity. :-)

June 19

Howdy! Church today went well. I started by whipping up a powerpoint for Pastor Jim’s sermon, then set up the lyrics for on the projector for worship. I also practiced “Inside Out” for the offertory song. The service went well and Pastor Jim’s sermon was very good. He seems to be more organized when there is a powerpoint on screen. After the service Mrs. Karen and I took pictures of people in the congregation. We’re going to put people’s pictures next to their information in the church directory this year. After that I went back to Pastor Jim and Mrs. Judy’s house (they weren’t home) and made some pizza dough from scratch, and then a pizza from that. This was when I took a nap and slept through the time that I had intended to call my dad to whish him happy father’s day. When I woke up I called home to see how the day went and talk to my dad, who happens to be the best dad in the world. Then Pastor Jim and Mrs. Judy got home and we played crazy rummy and watched a movie before heading to bed. Tomorrow we start the painting endeavor. Goodnight!

June 18

Today was one of work… in the rain. We started by riding the quads up the switchbacks behind the Smids’s ranch to scout out rocks that could be used in a fire ring. The fire ring was to be built at the “creek house” (long story… essentially, an extra house on the Smids’s property) down next to French Creek. After looking for about 2 hours we broke for lunch, then headed back out with the tractor to pick up all the rocks we had found. Most of them were about the size of breadbox and weighed about 120 pounds, which is what made the work hard. To cap that all off, the place for the ring was in a patch of sand. It’s already been established that it was raining, so the sand was wet. Let’s just say big heavy rocks, wet, sand, rain, and a not-very-well-thought-out-fire-ring-plan lead to a long, tedious and painful day. However, in the end we got the rocks arranged in a very nice looking manner. It really reminded me of Stonehenge… and the druids. No one knows who they were… or what they were doin. But their legacy lives on… hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge! Bit much? Ok… well that was the main accomplishment today. After that was done, and I had doctored all my scrapes and bruises, Linda and I drove back into town for music practice. I found out that I’ll be doing the offertory song, and I think I’m going to play “Inside Out”. Pray that it glorifies God. Pray for recuperation, and for good painting in the coming week. Thanks so much!

HIKE PICTURES!

Thumbs. All packed up and ready to go.

My second rock stack.

Me playing around on the "swing-zip"

Purple pancakes, and the purple corn it's made of.

A better view of the "swing-zip"

Linda, Patrick and Carl. Patrick is Linda and Carl's Son-in-law.

June 17

Today wasn’t so much busy as full. Carl, Linda and Patrick took me on a four-mile hike out to where a man named “Thumbs” lives. He is so named because he has an extra joint on both of his thumbs, so that they are the length of his ring finger. He really just has two extra ring fingers that happen to be opposable, and where his thumbs should be. He also lives four miles into the mountain, accessible only on foot, with his two llamas and cat. He’s definitely the textbook definition of a mega hippie, but with a degree in biochemistry. Anyway, we hiked out there to where he lives (right along Wind River) where the bridge to his land was destroyed. We looked for a place to cross but there wasn’t any place safe, so eventually Patrick shot one round off and Thumbs came running out of his cabin. He rigged up a half zip line, half rope swing to get across where the remains of the bridge were. He got across to us and talked for a while, then asked if we wanted to take the “swing-zip” back across and get the tour of his place. He eventually convinced us to go once he got a new rope to string across in addition to the one that was already there, so we helped him set that up then clambered across. That was lots of fun. After we got across the river we got the full three-hour tour…three-hour tour… of his land where he grows a variety of purple vegetables, lives in a cabin that he hasn’t cleaned in the last ten years, plays the bag pipes, and contemplates the absolute truth that the government is constantly trying to kill you and steal your stuff. He was a major talker, I suspect due to the fact that he only sees other humans about once a month.. or less. He showed us a purple pancake he made and the purple corn he made it with, which was interesting. After we got familiar with the place he mentioned that he was heading into town today and we decided to hike back with him. He spent an hour packing up the supplies he needs for a two-day trip in a backpack concocted of burlap cloth and ropes of varying thicknesses. During this time I made a “boyscout/hippie rock stack” (for lack of better words) to add to his collection and went and played around on the “swing-zip”. Then we hiked back! 8 miles through poison ivy and a tour of a “hippie commune of one” made for an interesting day. Plus dinner was great. MEAT!

June 16

Today was fun. I went to breakfast with the widow’s row and afterward I went to Mrs. Anita’s house where we made scrapbooking boxes. I really just went because Mrs. Smid was running it and I was riding with her up the mountain to her ranch. It was fun all the same. Afterward we drove up to the ranch, and it is absoutely gorgeous up here. We went riding on the quads down to where Carl is installing a hydro-electric system to run all of the power up on the mountainside. It’s such an intricate system that I was having a little bit of trouble following it. After that we did a little bit of work on wiring, then went shooting. I shot a 44 magnum… the most powerful handgun in the world. ;-) Then we had dinner and now we are sitting around talking. It’s fun and it’s a great mix of work and play. I’ll let you know tomorrow how our hike goes!

June 15

Today was a little bit unfulfilling, but in the best way possible. I was going to go and work on some benches- refurbish and paint them- but as I was walking out the door Tammi Woodsley called me to have lunch. I was delighted and went to eat, and then went and helped her with her computer (I’m becoming known as the town computer whizz) so I spent an hour talking with her and cleaning up her programs in the process. After that I was going to go to work on the benches again but Lucky called to remind me that dinner was at her house tonight, and it would be in an hour. It was just the wrong amount of time, because if I had gone out to the workshop and started working, I would only have about ten minutes before I’d have to pack up and get back for dinner, so instead I took a quick nap. Dinner was delightful. Mrs. Lucky, Mrs. Lorry, Mrs. Charlene and Doug were all there and afterward we had a good old-fashioned chat. They told stories and gave advice; it was a wonderful time. I left there around 9 o’clock, which was when I got a call from Buck and Genie Fitch, saying that the RAM they had ordered arrived earlier that day, so I went over there and installed it for them. Finally I went back to the Thibodeaux’s house, where Pastor Jim and Mrs. Judy were unpacking from the their trip to Seattle. I chatted with them for a bit and told them about what I’ve been doing, then I headed off to bed. All in all, I didn’t do the thing that I initially wanted to do, but I did get to develop some relationships, which is pretty priceless in comparison. Tomorrow is breakfast with “Widow’s row”, then I'm going up to the Smids's 30 miles up the river for the remainder of the weekend. I don't know if I'll have wi-fi up there, so if there isn't this will be my last blog post until Saturday. TTFN.

June 14

Today was fairly busy. I started the day after an interesting night (See previous blog post for reasons). I got up at around 9:30 after going back to sleep at 4:00. I had breakfast and went to the Mareck’s house to help Patrick put up a fence around his garden. He’s a cool guy. He started a rafting company here 20 years ago after a fruitful career as a structural engineer. His wife Sherry is also very nice, and it’s funny to watch them because they are both very strong willed, so their compromises rarely involve a compromise. I’ll leave it at that. They have a cute little dachshund puppy named Ruby who looks like a rat, and an old bird dog named Kipp who is near the end of her life. After helping them with their fence I went to Anita Williams’s for dinner. We had a good time, ate some pizza watched Jeopardy and played gin. She is a very fun lady. Well I’m going to bed early tonight to try and compensate for my weird sleep schedule last night. Toodles…. Yes… I just wrote “toodles”… sue me. I’m tired.

June 13

Today I had a day of relaxation and me time. I slept in until 11:00 at which time I woke up and worked on making bread again. One huge bag of flour only costs $5.00, so I’m getting a lot of good practice for my money. ;-) I made some cinnamon rolls, and a loaf of white bread. I then made the stupidest mistake I’ve made since I’ve been here. I accidentally settled down to watch a movie at 6:00. I fell asleep at 6:30 and now it’s 2AM and I’m wide-awake... Yeah. Well given what I did today (yesterday) there’s not much to report. I’ve got a bunch of work lined up tomorrow (today) so I’ll let you know how it goes.

June 12

Today wasn’t too bad in the morning. Church was fine, and Pastor Ed gave a very good sermon. I came back home afterward and practiced making bread, which turned out ok, but not quite as light as I would have liked it. I then took a nap so as to be awake for the youth night at 6:30. The youth night was an absolute disaster; although I don’t know if something that doesn’t really happen can be a disaster. Nobody came except for Mark Stokes, who showed up at 6:45. We watched a movie and chatted for a bit. I gave up at about 8:30. It was very depressing, to have blatant proof that I’m not having much of an impact on any teenagers here. I’m going to email the events list out to everybody in Riggins that I’m facebook friends with and hopefully somebody will show up for our hike on the 18^th. Please be praying for my spirits, that I don’t get discouraged. Please pray for the spirits of the kids here. I need some sort of breakthrough with them that will only be achieved through prayer. Please PRAY. That’s all for today.

June 11

This morning I went to the church at 9 and spent some time in the word, and playing guitar. After about an hour I edited a few of the slides in the lyric bank of the sound booth computer, which was very slow work. I did that for a bit then went and had lunch at home starting a load of laundry in the process. When I came back I had a message from Mrs. Fitch who was having some computer problems. In the end the solution was just to get more RAM so I helped her order some. After that I went back to the church and changed into my grunge clothes and started “weed-eating” the outside of the volleyball court. “Weed-eating” is in quotes because it was much more like mowing than “weed-eating”, mowing grass that was hip high. It took me 4 hours to mow a 20’ by 20’ area. I’ve still got about that much again left over to do, and hopefully I’ll get it done by Tuesday. Tomorrow is the next, and possibly last, Sr. High movie night. If it gets a good turn out, I’m going to tell people about all the other events I have planned and I’m a bit apprehensive about how they react to it… so please pray for that. God bless.

June 10

Well my first day without a boss went pretty well. I went to the church at 9:30, and spent an hour on the phone with Dell… I’ll leave it at that… After that little expedition (ok… I guess technically I’ll leave it at that…) I went to lunch with Mrs. Pauline. We went out to Pinehurst, a little place about 15 miles out of Riggins, where the Hacklers, who I mentioned in my post on May 18^th, run a trading post and restaurant. It’s a cool little place, and it was nice to see the Hacklers and where they work. It was also really good to get to know Mrs. Pauline a little bit better. After lunch I went back to the church and did some pressure washing. One of the things Pastor Jim wants me to do while he’s away is get the church parking lot pressure washed. I did that for about an hour when Bruce Bovey and Carl Smid drove up and unloaded a bunch of gear. It turned out that they were going to be hanging the house monitors from the ceiling. I spent the next 4 hours climbing around in the church rafters helping them to get that job completed. They look great, and having the monitor stands out of the way really keeps the stage looking less cluttered. Once that was done I headed home to grab a shower before the Jr. High game and movie night. There were three kids who came, and it was a good time. We played Wii then watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. I actually feel a lot more comfortable having the Jr. High youth night, because I am enough older than them to be an authority figure instead of just a friend. It makes it a lot easier to guide the night where it needs to go when I’m not just one of the teens at the event… and I still have a lot of fun. Afterward I cleaned up, then came home. I’ll probably make the volleyball court my project tomorrow, unless it’s raining, in which case… I don’t know. Pray for guidance, peace of mind, and a fun Sr. High Youth Night on Sunday evening. That’s when I’ll be telling people about all of the other events that will go on this summer. Pray it goes over well. Thanks for reading, and praying.

June 9

Boy am I tuckered out. Woke up at 7:30 to go to the widows’ breakfast where every old lady told Kate (one of the owners of “Cattleman’s”, where the breakfast is held) to put my breakfast on their ticket, none of them hearing the one before them offer and find that it was already taken care of by Bernice. After breakfast I went to the church and started calling places that I will be taking the youth through the summer. I spent about an hour working on that before pastor Jim took me out to show me the pressure washer. After a while of doing odd jobs and random tasks around the church we went to Pastor Jim’s house for lunch. Once we were fed we talked about paint schemes for the rooms downstairs. Later we went back to the church where I did some work compiling a list of furniture prices for chairs and tables to replace the ones in the basement. It took a while but I eventually got a good list together and it was right as I finished that we went to Doug’s for dinner. Pastor Jim, Mrs. Judy, Doug, and I had ribs, which were delicious. It was a fun evening but after dinner it was back to work. The Thibodeaux’s are leaving for their grand daughter’s christening in Seattle, so I’ll be house sitting for them for four days while they’re gone. The remainder of the evening was spent learning the ins and outs of their house, so I’ll know where everything is and how to water the lawn… things of that nature. It will be my first chunk of time at the church without Pastor Jim supervising me, so please pray that I stay motivated, and don’t blow anything up while they are away!

June 8

This morning I slept in a bit, because I had gone home so late last night. I didn’t go to the church until 9:30 where I did a lot of office work. I was working on organizing all of the events I’m planning on doing with the high schoolers. Hiking trips, camping trips, Zim’s Hot springs, bowling, beach days and other things. I was setting dates and times and looking online for various rates and fees and what not. After that I went over to Mrs. Katie’s house and installed more RAM on her desktop. Afterward she took me to lunch at Cattleman’s for payment. It was nice. Once back at the church, I was put to work painting cabinets that Pastor Jim had been fixing up. That took about an hour, and once done I went back to work planning events. I also drew up a sign up sheet because we are going to redo the church directory with new addresses and pictures, so the congregation needs to sign up for picture times. For dinner I went to Buck and Genie Fitch’s house. We played games and listened to music afterward and I went home around 10:00. It was really fun. Tomorrow holds pressure washing… we’ll see…

June 7

Today was pretty cool. Started the day by going to the church to have a devotional with Pastor Jim. Afterward I came over and met with Mrs. Judy. She taught me how to make bread, which is something I’ve always wanted to do in the back of my mind but never really had the presence of mind to mention. I made a cinnamon loaf, a white loaf, and dinner rolls from scratch. It was tons of fun and now I’ll be baking up a storm in my apartment next year. In return I taught her how to organize the photos on her computer and explained some computer basics so she doesn’t feel so lost every time she sits down at her desk. After that I set up her new computer (which came with the new one for the sound system) and had an unpleasant surprise during. The computer did not come with the WLAN driver installed, as the last one did, and I tried to download it myself, but had the wrong driver, so I spent an hour on the phone with 3 different support people from India, registering the computer before they would let me ask the simple question, “Which is the correct driver?” In the end I got it all working, and got all of her pictures on the new one. After that I experienced a small town church board meeting. It was cool because, all of the people who were helping out at the yard sale, and fixing lights, and doing trash dump runs were the people on the board. I think that simple fact epitomizes the small town church. The board members are the ones out doing the service labor. After the meeting I went back to Pastor Jim’s house and worked some more on the computer, then we played crazy rummy late into the night. It’s really late now, so I’m goin to bed. Planning on starting the painting downstairs tomorrow. I'll put pictures up tomorrow.

June 6

Today was pretty cool. Monday is my day off, so I slept in until 10:30. After waking, I spent a few hours cleaning up the RV and stripping the bed and what not, because it was my last day at Mrs. Williams’s. I’m staying with Doug Crump, one of the coolest old guys in the world. He’s survived three bouts of cancer, was at Iwo Jima, and is the core of Riggins. He opened the Chevron Station, and now his son is Mayor, and his grandson runs the station that he started. He’s also a great grandfather. I came over and settled in at Doug’s at 3:00, then went and had dinner with Dan and Kris Catherman. They are also really cool people. Dan works at the Chevron Station as the small motor mechanic, and he’s a self-proclaimed “junk man”. He invented his own machine for mining gold, and he built himself a sauna, and a smoke house and some other stuff. He has the imagination and heart of a young man, and I really think he’ll be a key in youth ministry around town after I leave. After dinner I went to the church and had some devotional time, after which I worked on the paint designs for all the remodeling we’re going to do downstairs. Then I came back and visited with Doug before heading off to bed. Can’t wait for the rest of this week. It’s going to be fun. Tomorrow Mrs. Judy is going to teach me to make bread, and I’m going to teach her how to organize her photos in her computer!

June 5

Just got back from our second youth game/movie night. It was ok, not as good of a turn out as last week, but there were some people out of town, and some car trouble. We had five people, two of which weren’t there last week, so it was good and bad. The only problem is that I have a bunch of food that didn’t get eaten. I’m going to plan our next one with a bit more head notice so that more people can plan on coming. I’m also getting a little bit further on my Jr High game night, which I’m hoping will happen some time next week. I did however forget that Pastor Jim and Mrs. Judy will be leaving town on Thursday and won’t be back until Monday, so it might have to be postponed… but I’m going to see if I can do it even though they won’t be here. Earlier today I ran the computer for the service, and we are trying to figure out who can take over the computer once Jon, the high school graduate who has been running it, leaves for college. After church Larry and Joyce Barnard took me on their four-wheeler up cow creek, and we had a picnic on top of the mountain. It was so gorgeous, and a lot of fun. We got back around 4:30, which is when I went shopping for out youth night food and prepared some snacks and things for the night. Please be praying for a good turn out at our next few game nights/get-togethers, as well as someone to come forward from the congregation who can take over the roll of church techie. As always, God bless and thanks for your prayers.

The view half-way up the mountain. Pretty huh?

Larry and Joyce Barnard on the way up.

June 4

Today Pastor Jim and I went to the “Big Water Blow Out” in the morning, which is when all of the rafting companies come and give rides down the river for pretty cheap, and it goes really fast because there’s really high water this time of year. We didn’t go down the river, but we went and saw the tents and merchandise they were all selling. Afterward we went to the church and had a planning session for what we want to do with the Sunday school rooms in the basement. We’re going to be doing a lot of painting and refurbishing in the next week to get them ready for VBS week. We also picked up some pressure sprayers that dispense weed killer. We spent the afternoon spraying the overgrown sand volleyball court with poison. After about a week we’ll go and pull all of the dead weeds and till the sand in the court to get it playable. Once we were done spraying, we went inside and talked with Bruce, the music minister, about the new computer/projection system. Then I tried to put the magic TV Cabinet on ebay, and as it turns out… ebay is stupid. Evidently craigslist is the way to go. I’ll be doing that tomorrow. That is, in between four wheeling with a member of the congregation, and having our second youth night. Pray for awesome times in the next few days!

Pastor Jim after we played golf in Boise.

The kayakers we saw on our way into Boise.

These were class 5 (the highest) rapids

My toyota... in the day time. Those are paint chips... not bird.

June 3

Today was a little slow. I went to the church at 10:00 and worked on the senior retreat brochure to completion. Then Pastor Jim and I went to Lucky’s house and sang to her. It was pretty fun. We played some of the old classics… Come Thou Fount, In The Garden, Blessed Assurance and a few others. I also worked on an arrangement of It Is Well that I think I’m going to record next chance I get. After that we had dinner at Pastor Jim's, courtesy of Mrs. Judy, and I watched an episode of Scooby Doo with Matthew. Then I went back to the church and set up the new stuff that I had bought for the Wii while I was in Boise. That was all we did today. I’m planning the next youth night hang out, so I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

June 2

June 2

Well today was fun. We started the day by packing up Pim and Pam’s house and left Boise around noon. It wasn’t a bad drive actually. I slept for half of it. We got to Cascade and picked up Pastor Jim and Mrs. Judy’s grandson, Matthew. That boy sure can talk, but he’s funny and a cute little kid, and fun to play pretend with. When we got back to Riggins Matthew and I played for about an hour while Pastor Jim unloaded the car and Mrs. Judy made dinner. After dinner Pastor Jim dropped me off at the motor home and I’m getting ready for bed now. I’m planning another teen night soon, so be praying for that if you could, as well as general boldness on the part of the few Christian teens here in Riggins. I also have a few middle-schoolers interested in arranging a game night for their age group, so pray for the younger teens to come out of the woodwork and have some fun when that happens. Thanks so much for reading, as always. God bless.

May 30, 31 and June 1

May 30

Today there was pretty much nothing going on. I slept in, woke up at 11:00 and packed; we left for Boise at 3 o’clock. We Got to Boise at around 7:00 and grabbed a pizza then went to Pim and Pam’s house, which they are lending us for our time in Boise. After eating we went and saw a dollar flick, “The Adjustment Bureau”, then came back and got some sleep.

May 31

Today was one full of shopping. Mrs. Judy and I went out in the morning to get shoes. I Bought new sneakers, and hiking boots. We also went to Gamestop, where I got some stuff for the Wii. At around lunchtime, we went and picked up Pastor Jim, and had Chinese buffet for lunch. After that I had my first Costco experience. I wasn’t too extremely impressed simply because I couldn’t get past the membership thing. But it was an ok place. After that it was just a bunch of running around Boise for different errands.

June 1

Today was fun. Pastor Jim and I went to play golf with an old friend of his named David Minnick. He was a really nice guy, and we had a lot of fun. After golf we met up with Mrs. Judy. And went to Costco for lunch. Cheap food. Large portions. Good combination. Afterward Pastor Jim took me back to the house and I took a “nap”. I guess I didn’t realize how tired I was, because I slept for four hours. I got up at 8:30, played cards with Mrs. Judy and ate dinner, then headed back to bed. It was a very fun day. Golf and sleep. These are a few of my favorite things. :-)

May 29

Today was awesome. Started the day bright and early at the church. It was a bit hectic because I was doing music at the last minute and running around resolving techie problems. Jon, who usually runs the powerpoint, wasn’t there today, so I was left to figure out how the Open Office presentation system works in about 15 minutes. After that I stayed at church for a little bit to figure out the ins and outs of Open Office so that this morning doesn’t happen again. Then I was planning stuff for the movie night. I don’t know if I ever mentioned it, but I’ve been planning a High School aged movie night at the church for the last week. It went really well. We had about nine people and it was just good clean fun. Played some Wii and foosball, talked a little bit, ate some burgers, then watched “The Patriot”. My only grievance was that all the people that came were ones that I had invited, so I didn’t meet anybody new, and it also means that the people I know were a little bit wary about inviting other friends. I’m hoping that we’ll get some more people at our next get-together, because this one went so well. I think it will be something people tell their friends about eventually. Fingers crossed and head bowed.

I’m headed to Boise tomorrow for some supplies, and some time off. We’ll be there until Thursday morning, and I don’t know if there will be internet access, so don’t be surprised if there is no post until Thursday night. As always, thanks for reading!

May 28

Today was rough. Lots of work. It was the last day of the yard sale, and there was a little bit of rain off and on all day. I got put in charge of the grill, making burgers, because Pastor Jim had some counseling to do. Afterwards there was a lot of tear down, and throwing away some of what we didn’t sell and running tables back to people who had leant them out, ect. ect. There was another yard sale going on down the road, and I bought a pair of snake skin boots that were easily $150 when they were new. It was exciting. Once we were done packing up, I had dinner with Pastor Jim and Mrs. Judy, and I helped count the money from the yard sale after dinner. We ended up with a profit of $1378.21 . With a good possibility of about $1000 more after we sell a magical 64” TV and an antique stove on ebay. I say the TV is magical because it “appears as if from nowhere” by rising out of an oak cabinet by itself. That’s all I got, and I’m really tired. So I’ll see ya’ll later!

My Boots!

The toyota. I'll try to get a better picture tomorrow.

Mrs. Williams and I. She's the one who's RV I'm currently staying in.

May 27

Today was fun, as well as a lot of hard work. We set up for the garage sale at 8:00 am today, which meant a lot of lifting again today. We went and picked up some other really big items this morning that got donated at the last minute. The sale went alright, but I wish we had gotten more traffic than we did. Then, at around 3, it started pouring down rain, so there was a lot of running around and covering stuff with tarps and all that jazz. I got a little break in the middle of the day because of the rain, in which I took a nap. Then it was off to the high school graduation ceremony. I did the math, and based on how many kids my class had and the amount of time we took, it should have taken the Riggins class around 6 minutes to graduate… it didn’t quite happen that way, but it was a pretty good graduation all in all. I got to hear the book “Oh The Places You’ll Go” read to me… twice. My jokes are making it sound a lot worse than it was. It was a nice ceremony. Afterward I had my first contact with some youth. I went and hung out with Mark and some of his friends. They could definitely use a Christian influence, but they are a group of kids that have potential. It’s hard to describe… they just need some help. I’m just praying God will show me how to provide it.

May 26

Well today was pretty full if I do say so myself. I started today with the senior’s breakfast, just like last Thursday, and I’m kind of in the mood to buy myself a meal… but I’ve been assured that won’t be happening any time soon. After breakfast I drove my car ( :-) ) to the church where Pastor Jim and I planned the day’s pick-up schedule. We picked up a dryer, a refrigerator, saw horses, plywood, 10 foot boards, a desk topper and something else which escapes me at the moment. Tomorrow we have a TV cabinet that’s got to be at least 300 pounds, and an electric organ. Just to make my mom angry I had Pastor Jim lean each heavy item onto my back then I carried it like a backpack for two miles all by myself, did a lap around the church, and held a “wheel” yoga pose afterwards. Just in case that wasn’t enough, I had Pastor Jim hit me in the lower back with a sledge hammer a couple of times every hour. I’m taking very good care of my back!

After all the pick-ups were done, we went to Yuna’s house and played guitar and sang hymns for her. She is very weak and can’t come to church, and you could tell that it meant a lot to her to hear some of the old songs she loves. When we were done with that we went to the awards ceremony at the high school. It was kind of funny. Since SRHS is such a small school, there’re only so many kids to give awards to. A graduating class of ten leaves the choice of seniors who have achieved a lot somewhat to be desired, and when the valedictorian of the class is a track star, math whizz and student body president… the award giving get’s a bit one sided. I felt kind of bad for the other graduating seniors, but it was an enjoyable night nonetheless. To end the evening Pastor Jim, Mrs. Judy and I played crazy rummy and now I’m getting ready for bed. The yard sale is tomorrow and the day after, so please pray for clear weather… it’s a 40% chance of rain right now. Thanks for reading. God bless.

May 25

Today has been a great day. I started today with yet another meal with a group of elderly people, this morning being the old guys from around town: Buck Fitch, Doug Crump, Pastor Jim, and a few more men that I didn’t know. Doug wasn’t there today because he went to Boise for a doctor’s appointment, but it was fun all the same. I’m hoping to start hanging out with some more teens, particularly after graduation this Friday. After breakfast, Pastor Jim and I cleaned up the Toyota Camry station wagon, which will be my car while I’m here. It’s pretty awesomely old and junky and I’m excited to drive it around town. It needed a new battery, an oil change and a new tire though, so it won’t really be drivable until tomorrow. After that we went to the church and did a little bit of Bible study and devotion, which was really good. There was some good discussion between pastor Jim and I. When that was done Pastor Jim and I had a PowerPoint lesson. I taught him how to make a new slide, how to change the background, insert photos, videos, and text, and format a heading. We’ll probably do transitions next time. Afterward I went to dinner with Mrs. Williams and her brother and daughter. We went to Back Eddy’s. It was fun, and the food was pretty good too.

The yard sale is this Friday and Saturday, so the next couple days will be labor-filled as well as logistical as all get out. Can’t wait though. Also, I put up a WBQ… first time in a while… so you should check it out! Ok. Good night.

May 24

Today I got to sleep in a bit. We didn’t get moving until around 9:30, which was nice. It rained pretty much all day, so we did indoor work. Mrs. Judy and I worked on signs for the yard sale and VBS week. I also went to senior’s lunch, because Doug Crump wanted to buy me lunch, so that was pretty fun. The remainder of the day was spent in the word, playing with old computers, and playing guitar with pastor Jim. Definitely one of my chillest days so far. Hopefully I’ll have more for you to read tomorrow.

May 23

Today was a bit of a different day. I started it with coffee and a weekly planning session with Pastor Jim and Mrs. Judy. After that I went to help Buck Fitch out with what I thought was a little loading job. It turned out that it was a very very big loading job. Buck had bought a shop full of big shop machines from another man here in town. There were table two table saws, a large belt sander, two big drill presses, 3 huge shop vacs, and a lot more. We got them all out of the shop and into the huge trailer of one of Buck’s friends named Ray. We worked on loading the trailer from about 10:00 am to about 2:00 pm. Then Ray left with the trailer and Buck and I made a run with a load of smaller things in his pick-up to his storage facility in rapid-river. In the end, we finished the “tiny loading job” at 5:30 pm. After that I went to Pastor Jim’s house for dinner, guitar, and a game of “Crazy Rummy” which is basically a combination of canasta and gin rummy… (it was really laid back like this, because Monday is Pastor Jim’s day off)… it was an ok game, but I’m not very good at it yet. We also got some rain for the first time in a while and according to the weather app, we’ll keep getting it until the yard sale. Pray for good weather on Friday and Saturday please!

That’s all for today. My feet are sore, so I’m gonna go lay down with a glass of water, my computer, and a home-made cinnamon roll.

May 22

Today was a good day! Started the morning bright and early at the church, and set up the new copier… you might have noticed a trend in me setting up electronics for the church… and made copies of the bulletin for Mrs. Katie to put together. Then we had the high school class down in the basement, and I met John Joyce, who seems like a nice guy, as well as saw Mr. and Jill Folwell. It was a nice class, and we had some good discussion. The main service was great and I got to stand up and be introduced to the congregation. After church I went out to lunch with the same group that I had gone to breakfast with on Thursday. They were just as talkative as ever. I went back to the church after lunch and finished up with the new copier (we had some paper tray issues that I was resolving) as well as the new computer for the soundboard. I also finished connecting the Wii downstairs to the internet in the church and “tested” it… all part of suffering for Jesus.

Pastor Jim and Mrs. Judy had gone to see their son today afterward; so all of this was by myself in the church. Once all of that was done I came back home to my RV. I’m hoping to have a group of teens come over to the church and play with the Wii sometime, I just need to meet some more young people around town first. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes!

May 21

First of all, might I say that we are all still alive! It’s nice to know that God’s word is upheld, since it’s pretty obvious that the world wouldn’t end today thanks to Matthew 24:36. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” So if somebody claims to “know that the world would end today” then that scripture wouldn’t be true… so there’s no way that the second coming will actually happen on a day that someone predicts!

Ok enough about that. Today was interesting. I spent most of my time at the church for a change. We got up early today because we were cooking breakfast for the men of the church. It was the last Men’s breakfast of the year, but it was fun nonetheless, and I got many compliments on my ham frying ability. Afterward Pastor Jim and I did some office work, as well as some physical labor. We moved the parking stops back into place since we had pulled them out to grade parking lot. (They’ve had some problems with water flowing into the basement.) After that was done I went back to the office and set up a new computer for Mrs. Judy, and once that was done we made a run with a load of trash to the dump. That was pretty much it for the “working day”. This evening Pastor Jim and I went up to the football field and hit a few golf balls. He’s helping to fix my slice. I invited Mark Stokes, who joined us even though he couldn’t play (broken hip). It was a fun evening. Tomorrow is myfirst Sunday at the church, so if you could pray for a good morning and that we’ll learn lots I’d appreciate it. Thanks for reading!

also here are a few of the pictures I've promised.

The Garage sale sorting... LOTS of boxes... I did all the lifting, and the lovely old ladies inside did all of the sorting.

Mowing Ray and Freda's lawn while they're out of town.