whew

It's been a whirlwind of activity this past week. The retreat last weekend went well, with five guys here from Emmaus Ministries and two staff people, our biggest group yet. We used the story of the demoniac, the same one we did last summer ("Welcome!"). A little rowdier group this time; it took more attention to keep us together in the discussions, but everyone participated eagerly. The campfire was fun. One of the guys likes to sing, so he got Pete to play a bluesy riff on the guitar and roped Heather into improvising some poetry, and he picked up a line or two from that and sang a refrain under her spoken words. I was impressed. He also sang a solo on Sunday morning, and got rousing applause (quite an unusual occurrence during church here).

Then we barely got the beds stripped before Heather and I left with the vegetables for Chicago, then continued on to Michigan to pick up over a hundred bushels of peaches, apples, and pears. Which required us to haul a big horse trailer behind the truck (not an easy feat through city streets). Sprung a coolant leak, too. But a Reba Place friend got us to see their mechanic (free), and he said we could make the trip as long as we kept adding water. So we did. And we got to visit Chico and Tatiana in Ford Heights, too, and brought them bounty from the farm.

The guy at the orchard in Michigan gave us several samples of his fruit to try, including white peaches and yellow plums. Pluots, too, which is a cross between a plum and apricot. Very good.