The Ladies

On this team were two ladies who were such a blessing to me and to everyone else. It had been decided to have almost all of the meals right there at Restoration Ranch so I had my hands full three times a day! Ginnie Rodermond and Carol Trotter made everything so much easier. And the truth be told, I don't think I washed a single dish. Those two were on top of it. And if there were no dishes left to wash they were likely to be found hand - washing clothes for the team.



Here they are trying to get ink spots out of the pants, trying all kinds of suggestions. I think this one involved warmed milk.

Bobin

Many of you who have been here are familiar with our black goat, Bobo. He is the only goat or sheep on the premises that has a name. The family that work on the farm named him and have treated him like a pet. They even told us once of how he would come in their house and get up on the bed! He's bigger now and acting a bit differently, but still playful. His form of play involves head butting and love nips so we have to warn everyone to remember how adult male goats play! The point of this story is not just to tell the rest of you about Bobo. It's to tell you about his son. Bobo has sired many goats in the two years that we have had him, but all of them have had the tawny color of their mothers. Just before the team came, a little black male goat was born. And since he looks like his sire, he got a name too! That makes two that have names. The family called him Bobin (sounds like Bowbean). Basically it means little son of Bobo.


With the exception of the one white leg, he looks just like Bobo. The team was amused to see that he very much resembled a puppy as he gamboled around after his mother. He is really cute, but we are going to have to stop naming the 'food'! (No, he and his papa will never be food, but the reason we are raising animals is to provide food!)

First Things First

All of the team, with the exception of Scott, arrived Saturday afternoon. Our faithful bus driver, Guillermo, took us to Bani where we stopped to let the 'hotel' know everyone had arrived. Then we headed off to Restoration Ranch where Marta had a wonderful dinner waiting for us. On this team were several people who had come last February with Carpenters for Christ. They had helped lay the first blocks and were eager to see what had transpired in the year between trips. While Fran and family were bringing the food out this crew disappeared to the job site! If their expressions and comments told the story well, they were amazed at all that had been done. Sunday morning we had a quick, but delicious breakfast and headed off to church in the capital. We decided to take them to our Dominican home church, and not one complained about having to climb four flights of stairs to get there!



Here's the team looking really sharp in their matching green 'Task Force" shirts.

Bonnie Goes to the Farm

Whenever Bonnie sees the suitcases come out she gets a little worried. If the trip isn't too long, one of the Burge family usually tends to her here at home. She never knows whether we're leaving her or not so she has her own way of dealing with it!



This time she got to go with us. She's a good traveler and stays in her travel bag until I take her out. Here she is, on the bus having just been removed from her bag - Christian bow and all!



I should have combed her before the picture, but then, I didn't look good all week either!

Setting Up

Part of the 'fun' of each team trip is setting everything up. This particular team decided to stay in two separate locations since a few of the most adventurous of them wanted to sleep at the farm. The others chose to stay in a hotel in Bani. Trust me when I tell you that the word hotel should be used lightly. We wouldn't want you to have a picture of a Hilton, or a Holiday Inn. Not even a Day's Inn or a Motel 6. Keep moving down the economic chain until you arrive at, "it's more or less clean; that will do". I tell you that so you won't think they were resting in luxury while the rest of us were housed either in a tent or in the bunk beds of the one room currently available at Restoration Ranch. Danny and I chose to stay at the farm in a tent so that I would be able to start breakfast before the team arrived each morning. Last year Dick and Ginny Rodermond left some inflatable mattresses here. This year some tents came along with the team. (Thank you Edgar.) So Danny set up a tent, and then the guys inflated the mattresses so we'd have something to sleep on, not just in. As things sometimes go, the batteries to operate the pump had been left at home so we resorted to another means of airing up those mattresses.


It was low-tech but it worked! Thanks guys. I slept quite comfortably. It was actually really cool to be able to see the stars and sky at night after we went to bed. The tents had a wonderful removable cover for the top that allowed you to be all snug as a bug or just screened in. It was so cold out there at night that after one night of enjoying the beauty of the sky, we had to leave the top cover on. And Bonnie, our Yorkie, absolutely loved sleeping in the tent with the two of us. Her crate wouldn't fit in there with the two inflatable mattresses so she got to sleep with 'mama'. She liked that, and truth be told, I needed her little bit of body warmth!

Team Time

Many of you are already aware the we are currently with a team out at Restoration Ranch. This update was preposted to appear today. We've actually been at ther farm since last Saturday. The team will be putting on a movie production tonight in an area near the farm. We'll be setting up a huge screen and showing the animated version of the Jesus film. Please join us in prayer for this to be a successful event. When we arrive back home next Sunday I'll try to get everything updated and some pictures on line for you. We truly appreciate each one of you and we pray regularly for you.

Bunk Beds

A few years ago the Burge family bought bunk beds for the Agape mission house, and we really liked the style. They weren't too bulky and heavy, yet they were sturdy and held up well. Last year we started looking for these beds because we wanted to show some of our friends and supporters the style of bed we were planning to use. Wouldn't you know that they were totally out of stock. And they have remained out of stock, 'but on the way' for an entire year! Just recently we stopped in again and found they finally had them. That was perfect timing for us since we had a team arriving, and four of the team members wanted to sleep on Restoration Ranch property. The last time that happened they had to sleep on cots or pads on the floor. We really wanted to upgrade their room situation this time around! So we negotiated a price and bought two sets of bunks, took them to the farm in the back of our Durango, then returned to the store to negotiate and buy the four mattresses. Believe it or not, we hauled all four of those in the back of the Durango as well!




SWEET DREAMS "FELLAS"!