CHANGES-UGHHHHHH..........!!!!

Since work has never been overly enchanting to me, I try to ease my way into it some way. This weekend is my holiday weekend from work, as I worked Monday for the required shift during the 4th of July holiday. My thoughtful supervisor scheduled 4 days off in a row this weekend to offset that day (yes, she is the best!) We decided to spend part of those days camping at the dam at Fort Thompson and working at the church on Saturday.
The basement at Lower Brule had flooded during the big rains and flooding in South Dakota, and we had mold growing as well as a soggy carpet. Spiders had claimed the basement; and we knew that we could not have children down there with conditions as they were. The sign had blown over in a big wind, and scrub trees were growing against the building too close to the foundation. Ray and Esther and I made a work-bee day for ourselves and spent several hours on Saturday fixing the issues. Esther and I thoroughly cleaned and bleached the basement and tore up the carpet. We have ideas to make it much more kid-friendly, and would like to get started with those ideas, but really need to see the basement wall fixed first. We even had enough time left that we did a good job of cleaning the upstairs while we were at it. Ray went outside and cut the 'trees' down that were pushing against the foundation, and worked on the sign. It became oppressive outside as we were working, and the clouds built up into a storm. We finally quit and left the church with the temperature registering at 96 degrees. The storm was breaking as we drove back to Fort Thompson to get the trailer and set up camp, and the temperature dropped to 75 degrees in 15 minutes. The wind was a little wild, but we got everything set up in spite of it. We pulled our 31 foot camper to the campground to stay in one last time. We have owned it for 15 years, and it served us well as we were raising our children. We are negotiating to sell it now, as we are looking to change directions in our lives. We wanted to stay in the trailer one last time before it is sold.
We are making plans to take Esther to school in Hobe Sound, Florida where her sister and brother-in-law live so she can pursue her music. We plan to leave to take her there the first week in August.
With this change, we will be making changes at the mission. Esther has been an invaluable asset to the work with the children, and this change will be felt keenly there. I will try to carry on the work, though we will need help in that effort. Please pray that God will provide the needed help. One of the mothers of our children has volunteered to help, and we are pleased with that offer and plan to have her help. Ray feels he needs my help in the adult service, as I play the piano and help any way that I can. For this reason, we will probably change the time that the children will have Sunday School. We are also feeling that we are not as effective in the work when we live such a distance away. We will probably be actively looking for work and a place to stay over that direction later this fall. Please remember these needs in your prayers. I naturally resist change, though my life has held many huge changes, and Ray seems to adjust more easily to change. Life has a way of marching on, though, and resistance will make things that could be good become bad, and it will stifle progress. So-Life, here I come: go ahead with the change! :) :)