Janice, Joe, and Corie

One of the best and worst parts of living in my house is that we basically have a revolving door. There is always someone new coming in and there is always a friend going out.

Our short-term volunteers make up a large part of this revolving door process. In the month of July we were blessed to have three amazingly wonderful short-term volunteers with us and I just want to share a little about them and what they have meant to our house.

Janice actually came in the middle of June to join us for six weeks. She is pretty much from Virginia, but she and her husband recently relocated to North Carolina. Although she was originally hoping to volunteer at camp, she ended up volunteering in Respite (a program that provides respite to individuals with disabilities and their families). Some of the best meals I have had here have been in the last six weeks. Janice blessed our whole house by cooking every week and spoiling us with gourmet and homemade dishes. The blessings didn't end with her cooking though; she possesses one of the sweetest spirits I have ever known. I had some wonderful conversations with her and greatly appreciate her because of it!

Joe spent the month of June working at camp, then joined our house for July to help our VISTA volunteer Erica out in the Creation Care program. He is from Michigan and will be heading into his junior year of college. Joe is just a ridiculously crazy guy with a deep heart and the spirit of a servant. In his first week Joe dug our house a compost pit (without being asked!). He also continued to amaze us by his willingness to jump in and help out whenever needed. Again, some great conversations were had in the last month.

Corie came to CAP from Staten Island, New York. She was only here for two weeks but she deeply touched each of us in different ways and we all wished that she would have stayed longer. What's great is that Corie loved her time here so much that she is considering coming to volunteer for a year - which is huge for her since she is a full-time Kindergarten teacher. Shortly after joining us, we noticed that Corie liked to knit...a lot. I think we all just assumed she was making scarves for the women she worked with at FLAC. The scarves she made, however, were for us. And she made each of them for how they fit our personality. For example, Shannon's is green and made from crazy yarns, while Joe's was not really a scarf, but more of a knit sweatband.

I wish that you all could meet Janice, Joe, and Corie. I know that my descriptions don't even come close to doing them justice. Each of them, in their own ways, drew me out of myself and forced me to think about life and God in a new way. And it is hard to ask for more than that.

Sadly, all three of them left last Friday. Our house is definitely going to miss them!!!

And yet, the revolving door continues. Already we have two new short-term volunteers here with a few more on the way, along with a couple new long-term volunteers. All the change can be tiring, but, as I said, this is one of the best parts of being here. And hey, you can always use more friends.

Peace.

This is a picture we (Jenny, Corie, Shannon, and I) took last week at Sonic. Corie had never been before and she was fascinated by the idea of a going to a drive-in restaurant. I think our waitress thought we were crazy, but we had a blast, so who cares?