Yep. That’s where I’m going. Bye bye KS.

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of this. I’ve also been doing a lot of other things. Pretty helpful, huh?

I AM BACK. I definitely had a good experience in St. Bernard, LA which is a suburb of New Orleans. But I’m also glad that it wasn’t longer than four weeks, because this country boy was most certainly getting tired of living in the city (and also tired of some other things). Except for the first two days, all I did was paint. I enjoyed the painting for the most part, but it did get old. I also enjoyed living with 15 (sometimes 17) other guys, but after a while the not so large dorm seemed even “less large” and the joys of communal living decreased drastically.

Don’t be shocked, but here are a few pics from the south.

The whole group!

Jonathan Hege, Vernon Stoltzfus, and Kendall Beachy who were my faithful painting comrades.

Just so you can see that I actually did some work…

Sometimes the work was pretty stressful.

This picture is in loving memory of my friend, Jonathan Lynn Hege, (often spoken of as Hege) for whom I spent many hours with and who had a serious “hang-up” (among many other hang-ups) on this very thing.

This swimming pool proved to be quite a blessing to me since the home owner told us that we can use it as much as we like. Many good time were had!

This is a part of the not so large dorm.

Extra credit

    I am back! (And have been for a while.) As much as I enjoyed FB, there’s still no place like home. In fact, I can really enjoy life here. (Quite amazing, huh?) I will continue to be around here for about three more weeks until I will leave for New Orleans to work under Conservative Anabaptist Service Program (CASP). So why do I leave if I’m enjoying life at home? (Good question, glad you brought that up.)

This leaving and cleaving will only be for four weeks, so it will not be an exceptionally long service stint. Although I am a farmer and not a construction worker, I will try out my hand at remodeling. I have a hunch that this will bring about some interesting challenges. This is a pilot program under CASP, which means that we will be the guinea pigs that will be experimented on and used to help iron out the problems in program. YES!

Someone asked me recently if FB was what I was expecting it to be. I told them no, I didn’t know what to expect. But, I did say that my experience at FB has most certainly not been disappointing. And that is quite true, things have been going quite well here and I’ve been enjoying it immensely.

Classes have been GOOD. Anabaptist Worldview was an excellent class, but the only problem was it wasn’t long enough. Interpersonal Relationships has been really good also. I’ve really been enjoying the wealth of practical and life changing material that John Coblentz has been covering.

Another nice part is that right now I have approximately 10 cousins around here. That is great! These include Lorens, Geralds, Norma, and Victoria. Last night we were all at Geralds for supper which was good since there was actually ice cream (and for other reasons)! Don’t ask where we’re going tonight for icecream…

The atmosphere in general is great around here; there are many good discussions and many good people. The other night we were talking about the differences of CBS, FB, etc., but I won’t bother you with all the gory details on what we decided… One difference is that people around here are actually here to work and learn. That’s different.

So that’s the news from Lake Wobebon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.

Well, dear readers, I have officially moved on to “bigger and better things.” Most importantly, I will be spending five weeks at Faith Builders beginning on Monday. YAY! But presently I am residing in New Berlin, PA with my brother Floyd. Luke is also here right now which (I think) is cool! The plan is that we will work as much as we can on Floyd’s house this week. This afternoon we taped and painted violently, and I believe that we will have much more of the same (and other) in store for us for the rest of the week. The only problem is that Floyd doesn’t have internet at his house and Andy’s (the parents) don’t have wireless (although they do have high speed). (I may have to buy “Floyd” a wireless router tomorrow, so that we don’t have to share so much…)

I’m stoked about FB!!!

This past Friday night was more eventful than some, partly because we had a grand time playing wolleybal, the other part was because I had a “friendly chat” with a state trooper in town. (hence the title of the post) This event provided a great source of amusement to the other five guys in the “Macho van” and most certainly for myself, for that matter. And no, I was not speeding. I was, however, being a little stupid, which knowing me, is not that extraordinary. But, knowing me, it is out of the ordinary to be stopped for those sorts of things.

One thing that I decided was that it must be the van that’s at fault. The previous five times that I’ve been stopped were each in this same blessed van. Most of know the stories behind these “meetings with the law”, so I won’t bore you with the details. I have many great memories from the many and varied trips that I have been privileged to take in this van.  So it is not with little emotion, that I now add this memory of the incident at 4th and Adams to those other memories. This van is truly a Macho van.

Yep, that sums it up. We pretty much tore it up all week long, except for certain character building events like the “all day” visitation, etc. “So what is your granddaughter’s name…?” And also “I could ask personal questions, but I won’t… [stands there waiting expectantly in front of a non-family member, and then asks her,] So what is your interest in the family…?” And more… “Are you white?” And “Yep, he’s the biggest red-neck in the area!” Oh, and definitely can’t forget Kev’s mighty jump or quake, when he nearly fell over backwards..

My cousins come in all different sizes and shapes of orneriness and terror. One cousin that I would like to dedicate a little space on this blog to, threw massive amounts of water on me while I was innocently sitting in the sanctuary talking with other cousins. This would seem logical if I had put any water on her, but it was actually another person that I had put a small amount of water onto her lap. The chances are that this ornery cousin will not read this, and so I’m feeling free with making as many negative remarks about her as I wish. And if she does “happen” to read this, and then it will just serve her right. Three other things that I would like to point out is that 1) I am a man, 2) I have a deep voice (and I’m not afraid to use it), 3) I have vast experiential knowledge.

Another positive thing was the late night “celebration” Friday. The Hearts and the King were great (remember, I scored 88?!) And last but not least, was Kevin’s “19 and 1/2″. And than later, John’s “no, actually change that to 22!” You know who you are. We are earnestly watching and waiting…

Tour was not disappointing. In fact, it was far from it. It’s “just amaaazing” how that the combination of things, which includes those mentioned previously and other things, can lend themselves to an awesome tour . Definitely a God thing. When people have asked me what the highlights were for me on tour, I do not have any one pat answer. But one response I do have is that “Being on the bus is just like… being on the bus.” Ponder the the profundity of that statement.

I will not post any pictures of tour due to a number of reasons. One of those reasons that I don’t believe in posting pictures on this blog. (It could draw undue attention to this blog and myself.) If you want to see a few random pics, you can check out Michelle, Jon, and Mel’s sites (in the case you don’t get their feeds). I would also like to add that Romeo, whom you see on Mel’s site, experienced rejection time and time again on tour from all of his female travel mates, but now has been recovering amazingly well from that and also his major back surgery.

This Friday, the Kansas Youth Chorus is leaving on our ten day tour. This is a very positive development. I wish that I would feel more musically prepared (inotherwords, have stuff memorized). But instead of practicing/memorizing I am throwing away my last “few” precious hours /minutes/seconds of free time telling you that I should be doing that. (Oh, THIS is good) Here are a few reasons why I am anticipating this event.

1. I do not get to WORK for 10 days. Many people would say that they would not have to work, but working is a privilege, therefore, I do not get to work. Plus, I had that privilege to work about 70 hours last week. I do not tend to feel as work deprived this week.

2. I get to hang out with COOL people. Although “cool” often signifies the “in” or “fashionable” people, these people are all “cool” because they are on chorus and, what more, they are from Kansas. They are also my friends (although naturally in varying in degrees of familiarity).

3. I get to SING! Not only to sing, but also to minister to others in the process. We have four prison programs included in the itinerary which is a cause to rejoice.

There are also other things that will be quite enjoyable. I will refrain from mentioning them at this point since it may cause you to experience excessive salivation.