Can’tThinkofA Title

How’s that for a beginning?

I have had this blog rummaging around my brain for a few WEEKS but without a catchy title so I haven’t posted.  I need to post it.  So here goes…

(have no fear, nothing is wrong!)

If you don’t know Phil well, I’ll give you a nugget about him.  His heart is for missions.  And his heart is towards giving.  He loves to serve and help others.   He has talked a few times of going on a mission trip but realistically it isn’t possible.  He can’t be gone.  Of course, spring & fall are out.   But he can’t be gone in the winter as his dad doesn’t do cold and he can’t be gone in the summer because there are crops to monitor & spray, catching up from planting, wheat to combine, straw to bale.  You get the picture.

{I think his last mission trip was to KY back in 1990… he finished off that trip by falling 20′ off a ladder and landing square on the top of his head.  Inches from a brick edging around a planter and inches the other way from cement steps.  After an ambulance ride & a visit in the local (??) ER, he was prounced “fine” and very bruised.

I unearthed this picture a few weeks ago…

we were just getting ready to leave for KY with the youth kids and K was just 4 1/2!)

So back to this year……

His heart jumped a bit when it was announced that our church was doing a short-term mission trip to the town where our church is!!  He asked some questions and long-story-short…. HE IS IN!!

The “powers that be” 😉  know our situation, understand farming, and know that if we have an emergency here at home or it snows very much (also an emergency here), he’ll need to come home, plow out or whatever, and then can return.  BUT because he won’t be 20 hrs of a car trip away or in another country, he CAN come home if necessary.

The “trip” is over JP’s Christmas break from classes so he will be able to handle chores while Phil is gone.

It is all working out so well.  Phil has gone to 2 meetings about the work and several of his friends are going too.

Would you like to know what he’ll be doing?

There is a ministry just 1/2 hr from here that serves pastors & their wives.  We have seen first-hand the weariness that happens to a pastor  & his family with all the demands on time and time and time.  There are statistics to make your hair curl of the sadness & stress that a pastor carries.  This place is like a SUPER-DUPER bed & breakfast where the couple can come and just rest & recharge and it is all free for them.  The ones that oversee this are a former pastor & wife and know the life.   And they have super caring spirits that are just balm to a soul.

The “house” is in need of an industrial kitchen and another bathroom to open up a 5th bedroom for guests.   So the work team has construction type jobs they’ll be working on.  There is also a possibility of helping with some local needs in the town & surrounding area.  Time at a food bank as well as flood repair from our July flooding are needed.

Phil has paid his way to go on the trip, covering his lodging & meals.  He is looking for supporters to sponsor him for $10 an hour as he works.  He is working 2 blocks of time for a total of 6 standard 8 hour workdays.   The sponsorship goes 100% to the cost of supplies for the building project.  As I said, his trip is already paid.

Phil really doesn’t have many of his group that read here. If you are his friend that reads here or his sister and are interested in sponsoring an hour or more,  you can send a check made out to Deer Ridge Ministry and mail it to Phil or contact me and I’ll give you the address to send it directly.   His circle is rather small so you two are it!   😉

Please pray for him as he serves in this way and for all the work here at home to go smoothly.  I’m so glad JP is able to do chores and put Nina in the barn at night for me!  🙂