It's just a few days until I hit the road. I leave in four days. I have four short little days to pack and say goodbyes to my family. Four days to tie up loose ends. Four days to soak in the sights, sounds and smells of home, the roosters crowing in the cool mornings, the grass resonating with the August songs of crickets and grasshoppers. Pakcing is a process of putting things into boxes, of tying them up and putting them into bags and bundles. But I'm not just packing up my belonings, I"m tying up the loose ends of myself. I'm bundling up and storing away images and memories of home. I'm sticking them back in a safe place in my mind, to be taken out and dusted off when need be, to remind myself of who I am and what I'm about. I'm going to miss the smell of fresh turned earth in spring, the bright fields of yellow-haloed sunflowers expectantly facing eastward, the way the sunset turns wheat fields to soft gold. I'm going to miss the sunrise painting the lake ripples waxey pink and navy blue. I'm going to miss the quiet.

Go west young woman!!

As I did last summer, I started this summer with some inner apprehension over Sidewalk Sonday School I didn't voice it much, but it was there. But we were well-recieved everywhere we went, met some wonderful people, braved heat, wind, rain, and cold, and only had two automotive failures. Overall it was a successful summer.
Now summer is careening to a close and I am preparing for another transition, a westward move. At the end of August I'm moving to Spokane Washington to be a part of the community and mission of Westminster House. Westminster House is owned by the Westminster Presbyterian church and is located in Spokane's West Central district, a neighborhood that has seen some decline in it's years. It is a neighborhood populated both by families on welfare and more affluent families who have moved to the neighborhood recently to fix up some older houses in the area. Westminster House is described by Sandy Brocoway, Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian as "a beacon of safety for neighborhood children, a place offering Bible study and a place where young adults live while engaging in neighborhood mission." (I got that from an article in "The Fig Tree" which I linked to under "Westminster Presbyterian church") I will be living there with three other young people, who I have never met. Together we will attempt to create this safe haven for local kids, and run after-school programs for the kids. I hope to teach piano lessons as part of my ministry.
I must end here as I must go and put the four inky -black kittens to bed in the barn now. Many apologies for not writing more regularly.