I Am Oriented and Trained

My first week in and I am very excited. We started training and orientation on Sunday the 20th and completed it all Thursday night. What an amazing week! There were so many "best parts" I am feeling so full. There was a man who came and taught us the history of this area and that was very interesting. It truly helped me understand how things have changed here throughout the years and how some of this came to be. We had a commissioning service on Thursday night at a church that had been built by Father Beiting and some of the volunteers. We all sang a song together to start the service and I would like to share the lyrics with you.

Will you come and follow me, If I but call your name
Will you go where you don't know, And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, Will you let my name be known
Will you let my life be grown, In you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind, If I but call your name
Will you care for cruel and kind, and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare, Should your life attract or scare,
Will you let me answer prayer, In you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see, If I but call your name
Will you set the prisoners free, and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen?
And admit to what I mean, In you and you in me?

What an awesome song and it was a really powerful moment. Each new volunteer went to the front of the church and signed a commitment paper and then our supervisor signed it also. When this was all done, we all lit a candle and held them high as the send off to this new journey. It was great and of course I had a hard time keeping it all together in the service.

I am so happy to be here and I know that I am where I am supposed to be. I have never been in a place before where I feel so many people gathered together in the name of Christ to do His work. It is hard to explain, but I have had some amazing conversations with quite a few people and am very moved by the faith I have seen in action in so many people. CAP really keeps the focus on Christ and how we should live our lives. We share dinner four nights a week and then have devotion after. It is a great community building experience and helps me grow in my faith also.

I will begin work on Monday. My supervisor will be picking me up here at the house and then I will drive the truck to see if I pass the driving test. Marilyn failed the first time so I am a little nervous but what the heck, we'll give it a shot.

All is good and I hope everything is well with all of you. Until we meet again, God Bless.

If it's Friday, I must be in Kentucky

Well, I am here. What a journey so far. Thank you to my family and all my friends who have been so generous in getting me on my way! The lunches, dinners, and surprise party were awesome. I am very thankful and humbled by how all of you have made me feel so loved and appreciated. And for anyone who was thinking how well I was keeping it together thru all this, well it all came out on Thursday morning when I was saying good-bye to my Mom. Holy Moses, get the hoses! I was a flood plain and didn't stop until I was a good way down the road. My poor mom! But all is good.

The drive down was way long!!!!!! I was delayed in Milwaukee which made me later than I had wanted to be at each city which of course caused me to be stuck in traffic. No problem though, arrived safe and sound to my destination of the Jackson Volunteer House in McKee. It is way back in the woods and quite the winding road. Not a good thing to be doing the first time in the dark. Yikes! But, the house is great and the volunteers are awesome!

I am very excited to be here and start this amazing new road in my life.I will attempt to post once a week and get some pics on soon. The mountains are absolutely beautiful and I look forward to sharing them with all of you.All for now - God Bless

My Final Day of Work

So here it is, my last day of work at Industrial Fluid Solutions. It has been an interesting adventure; working with the owners to help a young company grow. Thanks for the good times, and also thanks for the challenges. It has helped me to grow as an individual and learn what I can accomplish when given a task that I have no clue how to begin. I feel totally confident that Laurie, my replacement, will do an outstanding job for Chris and Paul. I wish them all the best.

Now, the way cool thing about today is that on the way here I was listening to WPFF, my favorite radio station. Here are some of the lyrics to the song that was playing:

HERE I AM

Sometimes your calling, comes in dream
Sometimes it comes in the Spirit's breeze,
You reach for the deepest part of me,
And call out for the things of eternity.

But I'm a man, of dust and stains,
You move in me, so I can say,

Here I am, Lord send me,
All of my life, I make an offering,
Here I am, Lord send me,
Somehow my story, Is part of your plan,
Here I am

What a great song! And what a great message. We are all a part of God's plan and He has chosen all of us to work in our part of the plan in the way He wants us to. So whether we show up every Sunday to teach Sunday School, or come every Thursday to work in the kitchen for The Gathering Place, or go and visit a friend who is sick, we are all working as a part of God's plan. Each of us has a role as a member of the body of Christ to reach out to all and show them the love of Christ. I happen to be very fortunate that God has planted in front of me this opportunity to go and serve Him and his people in the Appalachian Mountains!

I look forward to sharing this whole adventure with all of you.

Working with you in His service - Jane

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Here we are at the end of the day, Wednesday. Now; 2 more days of work and counting. I talked to Marilyn last night in Rockcastle County and she is absolutely loving her time there. She informed me that some of the volunteers from all the houses got together for a cookout last Sunday. I am curious if they had brats and hard rolls. I think probably not. Something I will need to bring along and teach everyone the right way to "fry out" and have a "double". I would think a taste of Sheboygan cuisine would be welcome.

I am very eager to get to the mountains and begin this journey. I was told the view from my volunteer house if fabulous, so I am excited to see it all.

This is a bittersweet moment in my life. I cannot wait to get on the road, and yet it is hard to say good-bye to all of my wonderful friends, my family, and so many dear people from my church family at St. Paul's. I wish that all of us could experience a time when you can say good-bye for now, tell people how much you care about them, hear from others how much they care about you, and be able to return in a short time to be with everyone you love again. It is an amazing feeling.

The other part of this preparation time that has surprised me is how good it feels to get rid of so many belongings. LJ Booth wrote a song about clutter. One line from the song is "what you think you own, owns you." I totally agree with that thought. Not that I had a castle filled with who knows what, but even just lightening the load a little makes a huge difference. I stood in my apartment looking at empty shelves and cupboards, no furniture, my air matress on the floor, and nothing in the frig and I had never felt so liberated before! Really felt quite good and "clutter-free".

Off for now. Need to get a few more boxes and make that final trip to Goodwill.

Have a blessed day in the Lord!

On the count down

Hello All,



Well, three more days of work and I will be done at Industrial Fluid Solutions. The time is going very quickly now and I am trying to get everything moved out of my apartment so I am ready to hit the road. I plan to leave on the 17th of September to make the 9.5 hour drive to McKee, Kentucky.



The first day that I officially start is Sunday, September 20th. There is a 4 day training and orientation where all the new volunteers will meet at Camp AJ to get our instructions and find out all we need to know about the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP). I have a friend there already, Marilyn Gierczak. Mae and I worked together at Advocates of Ozaukee. She was my Executive Director at the time and we have remained friends since we both left the organization. I am happy that she will be on this journey at the same time.



I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to take this leap of faith. For a long time I have wanted to take time off to serve, and now it has become a reality. For the next year I will be working in Clay County and living in Jackson County. The volunteer house that I will be living in is located in the Daniel Boone National Forest! Can it get any better that that? It is located in part of the Appalachian Mountains, so I will definitely be in some beautiful countryside. I am eager to get there and see the beauty of God's handiwork.



I will try to drop a note at least once a week and post some pics so you can all share in this journey with me.



May God Bless you all and keep you safe until we see each other again.