LOVELY DAY THE SUN IS OUT!

The sun is out!!!!!!  Everything is so wet, and there are mushrooms everywhere!  And, I mean everywhere.  They are popping up out of lawns, roads, the garden, and more. 

Kevin called this morning happy to say that they are well and that they are happy that the weather has cleared up for them to hunt.  No moose yet, but they did see something. (Cody, Seth, Kevin, Jonnie, & Craig)

The Milliron guys and Kelly went to the Fish Lake area.  Thomas, Brad, May, Kath, and Bradie went out somewhere in the Fish Lake area too.  Tony, Chris, & Tommy are packing the meat out of the Fish Lake area since we have three moose out there.

Tomorrow morning, Bro Wayne will be here to preach.  Since we have to cut and package meat immediately after service, we are supposed to come in work clothes.  I think we are sitting at tables for church too (rather than setting up for service). 

Kelsey, my niece, has moved to Fbks, and she started school last week.  The first step towards getting into Paramedic school. Her dad helped her find a used car, and she has her driver’s license now, and she’s living with her mom.  We were so excited to have Kelsey come out and visit us this weekend. 

Rob is enjoying his riding lessons in Delta. He was on the horse for a whole hour and I think he got a bit stiff in the end. He continued though because there was another student there - a young girl - who was making the whole thing more interesting for him. He certainly does better when somebody else - other than the instructor - is with him. The therapy assistant has returned to college so I am hoping somebody else comes to help out with Rob. Two people is better in this situation but the instructor does very well handling it all...she has a very nice, calm, funny but firm manner with Rob. Only 2 more sessions to go...

I took Annie again with me so she could entertain the instructor's little girls with her bunny. Turns out the girls were being too rough with the bunny this time, so Annie fled to the car and spent the rest of the time sitting there with the window down, sketching and enjoying her alone time. 

Later on we went to IGA and she was browsing the bulletin board adds, saw some bunnies for sale, so we went out there and now we have another one (total 3)!...totally white one...very cute...

  

Marilyn H has her sister, Donna, visiting and her sister in law, Peggy.  Peggy's husband (Marilyn's only brother) passed away recently...Donna looks excellent for having gone through like 5 rounds of chemotherapy. 

Jim Dandurand’s daughter, Brittany, is arriving next Monday to visit us for two weeks. 

Joey Casey is in Washington with his grandparents and aunt and uncle, and he’s working with his uncle.  Someone they know, a young man, was crushed between a tractor and a railroad car.  He is in very bad shape – everything smashed and crunched.  It was requested that we pray for this man. 

Some of the younger girls are taking re certs for ETT. Annie included...this is creating some ruckus with the work schedule folk...can't be helped, needs to be done IMHO. 

Also, in the last email, I meant to include an email address for Emerson & Elaine Eads if someone wanted to send them an encouraging note.  Here it is: eads77@hotmail.com

I hope you’re enjoying the sun as much as I am.  Have a great weekend. 

HWYC DAY 8 COMING HOME!!

LAST ONE ON THE TRIP FROM SARA,,,

<<

I did it again!  I was looking at my watch that is still set on Alaska time so when we planned to get up at 7 am, we really all got up at 8 am.  I heard Amanda and Kathryn bustling about and wondered what the rush was.  I guess I’ll change my watch next time!  We ate, cleaned the house, and loaded up in record time, but we wanted to go into Whitehorse to get a few things.  We needed mayo for our lunch, bandages for Bethany’s foot, cough drops forLizzie, and some goooood coffee.  So, we “hit” the bank, Starbucks, Tim Hortons, and Walmart. Because of the coffee break, by the time we got to Haines Jct, we needed to stop for the bathrooms.  We stopped at a po-dunk Chevron where only one bathroom worked and where the owner yelled at the kids for picking up things they didn’t buy and where the gas was super expensive. 

Now we are approaching the border.  This section of road between Haines Jct and the border is totally hideous.  We are bouncing all over the place;Lizzie’s head keeps hitting the top of the van; no one is sleeping anymore!

The kids are begging us to not stop for lunch – just to eat snacks all day, since I promised them that we’d eat at Fast Eddy’s before coming home.  So, that’s our plan so far. 

We heard from home that Tony did NOT get a moose yet, but that Tommy and Andy had each shot a moose. 

After the border, I’m going to see if the kids want lunch meat, cheese, and pickle roll ups.  So this will be all for now.  We had fun, but now we’re looking forward to getting home! 

Sarah

>>

HWYC DAY 7

FROM SARAH:


<<As mentioned at the end of my last email – on our last day of camp the kids had trouble settling down for sleeping.  The girls finally settled into their beds around 2:45 am (and we were going to get up at 5 am).  That last night the kids had been at Jenny and Ethan Coy’s home.  


There they had conned Jenny and Fara into telling their “falling in love” stories.  Jenny and Ethan have been married 15+ years, while Fara and Eric were just getting together when we came down in 2007.  (BTW, Fara and Eric have an 11 mo old completely red haired girl-hair and eyebrows.)  So after the love stories were told and after it approached midnight, the boys are girls all convened to the tabernacle where I was – the girls were staying upstairs while the boys are in another building.  There were all these emotional goodbyes, and no one wanted to leave.  I had to get pretty stern to make the boys leave for their rooms.  


Then, it was another matter to get the girls showering and quietly going to bed.  See, upstairs and downstairs in the Headwaters tabernacle is several very older people’s apartments.  I was very worried that we were going to be bothersome to these people.  Every time I thought I had the girls going to their various rooms and settling in, I’d find them convened in some corner or bathroom, talking and giggling again.  See, the Whitestone kids and our kids were finally hitting it off and getting along; now, they didn’t want to separate from each other.  It was simply ridiculous.  Finally, peace descended.

Whitestone stayed in the area yesterday because they were going to the Blueberry sing along. 

The girls were up before 5 am, but we had to get all the guys up when we finally realized that they weren’t getting up on their own.  Packing our “box” did not go so well.  Seth and Kathryn usually get on top of the van to screw and unscrew the lid and to hand down or pull up the luggage while tall folks like Melissa and Cody and Tom handed up the luggage.  Our lid wasn’t on right so Thomas made us take the lid off and rearrange.  We finally pulled out of Headwaters at 6:30 am. 

The kids slept well for most of the day, catching up for their very busy days at camp. 

At camp, Seth Jepsen, Kevin Jepsen, Seth Rotundi, Russell Stendal, and Caleb Guillard really hit it off famously.  They’re all 18 yrs old.  Oh, and I think Johnny Selveggio was in their group some too.  Johnny and Russell convinced these other boys that v-neck t-shirts are cool, so they all found v-neck t-shirts and were wearing them.  It doesn’t sound like much, I know, but my Seth who loves yellow refused to wear this yellow v-neck t-shirt that he was given for graduation.  

Seth R and Russell were going to Whitehorse on the same day as we were so they took Seth and Kevin in their car, and they had to stop in Watson Lake to drop off Justin Bauman.  Because we had space in our car, Micaela Rotundi rode with us till Watson Lake. 

We found a pull out at Smith River.  We quickly made up sandwiches, and the kids ran with their lunch in hand to the nearby waterfall to eat. The next stop was Watson Lake.  We were able to greet Rick’s parents and use clean bathrooms before continuing on to Whitehorse.  The Troyers had planned to feed us some soup when we pulled in.  As we neared Whitehorse, some of the girls begged to go to the hot springs again.  Once at WH, we had an hour and a few minutes to get to the hot springs before they closed.  Thomas stayed at the WH house with some of the kids while I sacrificed myself (NOT!) to take the girls to the hot springs.  That hour of soaking was soooo well worth it. 

We ate supper when we returned; the others had barely left us any!  The kids stayed up playing games with Russell and Seth till the wee hours of the morning.  I crashed on the sofa so I could sorta hear them, but I was beyond staying awake.  Tom had long since fled to his room to sleep.  All during camp Thomas had to share a king sized bed with Jimmy Fant.  J 

At WH, the Troyers were totally gracious to us – feeding us two meals and letting us have the run of the place. 

I do want to mention that on the way from Headwaters to WH, Seth R with his carload of boys would start out behind us, but pretty soon, they’d whip around us.  This happened all day.  Finally, I asked them what they were doing.  Well, while we ate snacks in the car and stopped to eat sandwiches, they were stopping at little cafes to eat meals.  One of their last stops and then catch ups, they had bought bread and they got in front of us.  Then they started throwing pieces of bread madly out their windows.  Keep in mind that they were a car load of boys and we were a van full of girls save Tom and Cody.   

So, that was yesterday.  Sarah

>>

HWYC LAST DAY!

MORE FROM SARAH:


<<

Hi – today has been such a long, full day that it seems like it should’ve been a couple of days.  We began breakfast at 8:30 am, started church at 9:30 am, ate lunch at 1 ish, played games and/or danced the afternoon and early evening away.  For the later evening, the kids played volley ball by the bonfire then they went to Ethan and Jenny Coys for more fellowship.  After 5 pm, most of the kids from the surrounding areas went home.  The only ones left are those of us who have to travel long distances to get home – so really, it is mostly Whitestone kids and us hanging out together at Headwaters. 

The people here have been so utterly gracious that it seems impossible to explain how wonderful they’ve been.  They’ve let piles of young people run all over their community and let them run in and out of their tab numerous times.  They’ve fed us splendidly.  Tonight, even their leftovers were kindly laid out, and they just kept pulling food out of nowhere for the kids.  They really have been incredible.   And, they enjoy the kids which is amazing to me esp when many of the kids the adults don’t know at all.  Many of the older folks come to all the meetings and they sit and watch the events.

Tomorrow we head home again.  We hope to leave here by 6 am.  I don’t know how we can when the kids don’t seem to have their things packed and there is stuff positively everywhere.  We hope to get into Whitehorse sometime tomorrow night.

Many of the girls are still up, wandering the halls, doing who knows what, talking, laughing, and being girls.  Soon, I’m going to bed and leave them to get in trouble on their own accord (they could get in trouble for being too loud).

You probably won’t hear from me again till we get home since I can’t seem to find an internet connection at Whitehorse. 

Later, Sarah

>>

HEADWATERS RANCH YOUTH CAMP DAY 5

MORE FROM SARA...

This morning I got up very late since I never changed my watch from Alaska time.  I wondered why the girls in my room were up before me showering and primping!  I finally figured out why.  So, after breakfast we had a shortish service.  Steve A was the preacher.   Afterward we grabbed our sack lunch, loaded up in vehicles, and drove out to where our hike was to begin.  At a certain point in the hike, we stopped to eat our lunch.  At this point, any lame or halt or fearful stayed at the lunch area while the rest of us hiked down to the waterfall.  I ran ahead and stopped at a certain point so I could photograph the people coming down the steep hill.  I ended up verbally coaching several while I stood there and photographed their        anguish. 

After returning from the hike, we had a group picture, and then the kids broke into various groups to play till supper time.  Yesterday, during the game day, there were a couple of different contests.  I don’t know if any of our kids were in on any of the winning teams or not. 

Then we had supper and another meeting.  Michael McCord preached a very inspiring word.  Then they had the commitment time. 

I did want to say that I thought last night’s meeting was pretty special – it was sorta a long meeting, but it was special.  Jimmy Fant (from GA) came up with his grandson, Caleb, shared/preached; then Bro Earnest preached. He went on for a bit because he’s usually pretty short, but it was excellent.  I wonder if that was “taped” (cd these days). 

Tomorrow is a later breakfast, a last service, lunch, then splitting up for games and such.  I’ve been running the song machine thing during the praise services, then working on pictures during the services (while in the back) so that we can put together a really bad slide show by the end of the camp. 

My girls were so tired tonight that they talked for a very little while, then dropped off to sleep like good children!!!!

Oh, and I’ve heard from home that we’ve gotten four moose – Tony, Chris Toby, Chris Ray, and Meg Geyer (35”). 

More later, Sarah

On the First Day God....

 On the first day, God created the dog and said:
'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past.  For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'
The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'
So God Agreed.
On the second day, God created the monkey and said:
'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh.  For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'
The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years?  That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'

And God agreed.
On the third day, God created the cow and said:
'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.'
The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years.. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?'

And God agreed again.
On the fourth day, God created humans and said:
'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life.  For this, I'll give you twenty years.'
But the human said: 'Only twenty years?  Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'

'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'
So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves.  For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family.  For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren.  And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.
Life has now been explained to you.
 

HEADWATERS RANCH YOUTH CAMP DAY 1

MORE NOOS FROM THE YOUTH CAMPERS...

FROM SARAH JEP:

Everything went as planned last night – we arrived in time for registration and name tags.  After awhile we rode on a wagon to the fields for a hot dog and marshmallow roast.  We hung around to eat and fellowship for an hour.  Then we rode the wagon back to the tabernacle for church.  As mentioned our crew was to lead worship.  We actually just stood there in moral support for Thomas who did most of the leading.  But, some of the girls suggested songs which Tom let us sing. 

Bro Dan preached for awhile on “grow in grace” then we had myriads of announcements.  Also, the kids were assigned to be in teams and they had to break up into their team groups to make up a team name and slogan.  That was a lot of fun.  Seth and May are part of a team captain on different teams. 

In my room at Mark Coy’s parents’ house, I have Julie Bowerman, Abbie Rotundi, and Sonja Gutner.  Sonja gets up early to do chores at her farm which is nearby.  Because of that, all of us are now up because we couldn’t go back to sleep. 

All our kids are hither and yon in various rooms.  May is keeping track of the ones in the tabernacle for me.  I will go over early to make sure they’re all up.  I didn’t get to see Bethany’s foot when they looked at it, but it seems to be okay – needing to heal.  She was trying to figure out how to take a shower and not get it wet. 

Today is a busy day of breakfast, meeting, snack, relay races, lunch and I’ve forgotten what else.  I can’t seem to connect to the internet so you might not get anything sent this morning. 


DAY 3

This morning we had breakfast between 8 and 8:30 am.  The Headwaters people ate in their rooms or homes and didn’t have devotions since we probably were throwing them off by coming in at 9 pm last night. 

Afterwards we loaded up bringing Mark Coy, Elizabeth Porter, Adrielle, and Ashley (in a different car) with us.  We first drove to Shepherd’s Inn.  The only people we saw there that we know was Geraldine Whitmore (sp?) and her mom Louise. Too bad we didn't see anyone who knew Pat and Gri Buongiorne from the long gone days of their time at the music school there...

We walked the circle around the back of the Inn before piling back in the cars.  We headed off to Blueberry.  Rebecca met us as we came in, but her boy, Benjamin was our tour guide.  We walked around some before having lunch.  After lunch, we spent most of our time in the butcher shop with Bill Vanderhorst.  He really is our hero!  He talked to us about how to cut meat, told us how to make jerky, showed us some pictures and his equipment, and gave us some sound advice on life. 

We then took off for Hilltop by going through the fields behind Blueberry, Evergreen, and Hilltop.  On our way, we stopped at Blueberry’s barn to check out the animals and the barn’s upstairs dance floor.  

At Hilltop, we pulled up just when Whitestone was pulling out.  We had a good time meeting and greeting them.  Once they left, we went into the Hilltop tabernacle to visit the people that live in that community.  We had snacks and fellowship and some of the kids played ping pong.  Our visit there was way too short. 

Now we are heading back to the Headwaters Ranch.  We were asked to be back by 5:30 pm for registration and attaching of name tags.  Dinner is at 6:30 pm,  I heard that dinner is a cook out in the fields.  Then we have to rush in for a service.  Dan Ricardelli told Tom and I that our group was leading worship, most likely.  So… we’ll see what happens.  :)

Alot of our kids are pretty excited about seeing the Montana kids here soon.  The excitement is palpable.

We’re back at Headwaters so I better get.  More later, Sarah

END OF DAY 2 HEADWATERS RANCH AT LAST!

We reached Headwaters at 9 pm.  The kids and adults alike were getting extremely weary of the car.  Jenny Coy and Fara Bell had some food out for us.  Jay Coy and Jenny helped Bethany clean and bandage her foot.  It’s going to be okay, but it is a nice couple of gashes. 

We have sorta figured out our sleeping arrangements.  Tonight the girls could sleep in one or two rooms since no one else but us is here so early.  Tomorrow, they have to go to their assigned rooms which means they’ll be all spread out with other girls their ages. 

I’m staying at Mark Coy’s parents house.  I’m in a room with a double bed.  Three girls will arrive tomorrow to share my room.  I’m their “dorm mother”  J  Mark has three boys in his room, I think.  We don’t have to share a bathroom with the boys, thankfully!

I forgot to mention that we stopped at Mae Moore’s home on the way through Watson Lake to say hello. 

Tomorrow we will breakfast between 8 and 8:30 am.  Sometime after that we will do some touring of the surrounding area.  I don’t have it very well planned out, but I do know that we’ll go to Blueberry for lunch and to Hilltop for a short visit in the afternoon.  We have to be back here by 5:30 to register for camp and to begin dinner at 6:30 pm.  Supper will be followed by a service. 

I’m too tired to think of too much more.  Have a great tomorrow.  I don’t know when I’ll write again. 

DAY 2 THE TRAVELLERS...

More noos from Sarah

In 2007, when Thomas and I did this trip before, when we arrived at the Tahkini Hot Springs, there was an internet café there – not so this time.  I was all prepared to send letters out then, but I couldn’t.  L  At the Whitehorse church where we stayed the internet was passworded.  The boys (Russell & Seth) who are staying there claimed they didn’t know the password, but I could borrow their itouch if I wanted to.  I decided to only write Richard. 

When we arrived in Whitehorse, we were greeted by John and Betsy Troyer and Seth Rotundi and Russell Stendal Jr. who live at theWhitehorse (Sonrise Center) church.  We ate pasta and salad with them.  That was very nice!

After supper, Thomas decided to stay at the church to catch some sleep so I took all our kids to the hot springs.  Russell, Seth, Andrew, and Elizabeth Porter came too.  We sooooooo enjoyed the hot springs!  Thankfully, everyone was tired after that.

This morning we were packed and in the van by 6:30 am; the kids quickly sacked out again.  The Troyers supplied us with muffins, dry cereal, and milk for breakfast; we brought our own hearty granola 

The roads were very nice till the Muncho Lake area where  the road is narrow and curvy.  It has literally poured on us off and on all day.  Again, we had a hard time finding somewhere to stop for lunch.  We finally came across a place called whirlpool rapids.  And, as before, there were no tables so out came the trusty garbage bag/table cloth.  Seeing there weren’t any bathrooms at our great picnic place, everyone ran to the woods before climbing into the car. 

It was here that Bethany slipped on some rocks and slashed the top of her right foot by the ball.  There are several slashes, one being much deeper than the others.  Seth and May kicked into action, cleaning and bandaging the wound as best they could with our primitive supplies (using all our drinking waters to rinse the wound).  We’ve doped Bethany with ibuprophen, and she seems to be ok for now. 

Anyway, we still have about four more hours in the car.  We will call Headwaters from Ft. Nelson; I think they will have something for us to eat there. 

The travelers are all well behaved – I know! What did I expect?  The walkie talkie thing is working out well for us and the car that’s traveling with us. 

We finally saw some wildlife, but Tom wasn’t inclined to stop to let me get pictures.  We saw some buffalo, caribou, Canadian geese, ravens, sheep or goats, and a deer (just for Kevin).  One buffalo was so close to the road that I could have petted him from my car window if I hadn’t been so busy trying to get a picture with my lens cap cover on.

More later, Sarah

FIRST LEG OF THE YOUTH CAMPERS JOURNEY TO CANADA

This from Sarah Jep:

Hi,

Well… we didn’t start out quite as early as we wanted to this morning, but it wasn’t the kids’ faults.  They were all there, bright eyed and packed and fed.  We had to strap on our special “box” onto the top of our van for luggage.  It’s a very special box made out of plywood with a pointy nose for better aerodynamics constructed by my not so construction adept brother.  Wendy and Griselda helped me load the foodstuff while Seth and Garth helped Thomas load the box. 

We were supposed to meet Melody Reed at the highway, but they drove on in and met us by the tabernacle.  Melody has a car load of folks – Andrew Tasson, Elizabeth Porter, Ashley Johnson, and Adrielle Fouse.  We have walkie talkies so we can discuss stops and such things. 

So, we pulled out of our driveway around 7:30 am with a very excited bunch of kids.  Having Bethany and Kevin in our group has really mixed things up a bit.  They are not “bad”, by any means, just FULL of life and energy!  The back row of girls regaled us for awhile by singing their favorite country songs in their chipmunk’s voices. 

We looked over the roster for camp, and we figured that the ratio of boys to girls is 1:1.4  J  The boys liked that; the girls not so much.

So… we stopped at Tok for gas and bathrooms and again at a place right before the border for gas and bathrooms even though I forbade the bathroom stopping!  At the border, everything went very smoothly!  The woman went through our paper work quickly and let us go.  This same woman didn’t want us stopping at the border building to use the restrooms so we went into Border City for that.  We stopped at a Fas Gas place but they would only let those who bought something use the restrooms.  That weeded out who really needed to use the restrooms. 

Then we traveled for awhile until people started complaining of hunger pains.  And, we did exactly what we did last time.  We got to Burwash Landing and started getting frantic to stop and eat.  Finally we pulled over at rest stop that sports the pull-out itself and bathrooms.  I laid out a huge plastic bag and we started making sandwiches.  We barely finished eating before it started raining on us.

If we had waited just a few more minutes to eat, we could’ve pulled over at a couple of different nice picnic pull outs near Kluane Lake having bathrooms and picnic tables.  So, I’m writing this so we can hopefully remember this if we ever do this again! 

We stopped again in Haines Jct mostly because the car traveling with us needed more gas – we still had plenty.  Now we are approachingWhitehorse. 

In Whitehorse, John and Betsy Troyer have offered to feed us a spaghetti supper and to put us up in their church/hospitality house.  We hope to swim at the nearby hot springs afterwards. 

I’ll write more later.  Sarah

>>>>>

SOUNDS LIKE EVERYBODY IS OK AND SURVIVING THE LONG CAR/VAN HOURS...

thanks SARA AND TOM...GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND YOUR AWESOME LOAD...WE MISS YOU ALREADY (well...just a teensey bit... haha!!

The farm is empty w/o you and seems full of older foggies and little kids and mothers...

It has been raining non stop and one wonders how the hunting parties are doing. Pat tried his cell phone on us y'day but only got that the team got there...and then the connection crackled out...hope they get some sunny days PLEASE LORD! so they can get some elusive moose...to fill our freezers....

more another day...