Baker at bethel

Baker in Bissau Blog

  • Conference, Retreat, and Horse poop

    These last two weeks leave me confused. I don’t know when one week ended and the next began, mainly due to a conference that Bethel camp staff and I attended. It took place in the middle of the week so we left for it on Tuesday afternoon throwing my days off.

    On Sunday, I taught junior high and high school Sunday school. For which I had no material and barely any prep, though this didnt matter because no prep I did would’ve prepared me for over half my class of three outright denying christianity. I do not judge; it’s not what we are called to do, but I was caught off guard in the bible belt, and I didn’t expect that at church. I did as well as I could with this by telling them I respected their belief, disagreed with them, and would pray for them. We had teen time that afternoon, and I invited a kid from Sunday school, and he came. Teen Time is a once-a-month youth group at which I volunteer.

    Monday and Tuesday mornings went pretty normal. Monday night we had bible study. A friend and I raced and I won! Tuesday we left for the CCCA (Christian Camps and Conference Association) sectional gathering. It was refreshing to be around other interns and hear about their experiences; however, there was one stark difference between myself and the others, everyone else had a team. I’ve been enjoying my time here. Honestly, I’m not lonely, but hanging out with others my age was nice. It did throw off my week completely because it felt like a weekend.

    YA Retreat

    This week has been normal. I’m struggling to get inspiration, so I’ll tell you why this is late. This weekend, we have the young adult retreat. I’m excited to spend time with my friends and, once again, people my age. Also, I got a glimpse into what planning a retreat looks like when Roger asked me to help. I didn’t do much besides watch and suggest a few things. Nonetheless, seeing a little of what goes into an event here at camp was fun and cool.

    Before the retreat twice i had to scoop horse poop, because wild horses are coming to the ball feild to graze.

    Here are some prayer requests:

    • I’m better about cooking but I’m struggling again
    • I feel a little better, but I think I’m under the weather
    • For the kids in that Sunday school class
    • Energy, I need energy
    Sylvan House before cleaning
    After Cleaning
    us chasing them to their normal grazing grounds because they sadly ruin the ball field

  • Riverside

    I have been working at Riverside Christian School since January. I work with about fifteen elementary kids. I get to Riverside Mondays and Wednesday around lunchtime. We enjoy wonderful meals and then head over to recess. For recess we usually end up playing variants of tag and sharks and minnows. I have come to the decision that 10-year-olds are surprisingly fast, like what the heck, they are quick! After we thoroughly exhaust ourselves, we go to chapel. At chapel, we sing three songs and dance our hearts out because somehow we still have the energy to do so. Then I share from what we are reading through, Hebrews 11. As we come across stories that are mentioned we go and then read about the story in the Old Testament.

    It is the next week since I wrote that and wow it feels like a year away that I penned that paragraph. Last weekend I had long planned to head up to my girlfriend to be a plus one at a wedding. However, bad weather was predicted so in order to avoid flooding I left earlier, Thursday afternoon, to my parent’s house. Then Friday, once more bad weather was predicted, so to avoid icing I headed to her parent’s place on Friday evening after a delicious supper of lasagna. After making it to my girlfriend’s house and the wedding etc. etc., I got ahold of Cody to see if I should come back Sunday. In Kentucky there were floods and mudslides. Where I was we had snow and flooding. I stayed an extra night, but at this point I was ready to get back to my bed. Monday morning I once again got ahold of Cody and once again we postponed my return until Tuesday, but I did return to my parents since the roads were now clear. Finally on Tuesday, I embarked on my return that was slated for Sunday.

    Upon arrival at Riverside School, where Cody told me to meet him, I was encountered with the wonderful job of disaster relief. The old gymnasium had, at the highest point, three feet of water. When we started working it had about three inches of water. So after five volunteers and a dumpster arrived we managed in less than three hours to fill the dumpster and clear all of the gymnasium. This weekend/week has been all about flexibility. I am reminded of our Monday night Bible study where we’ve observed that often Jesus’ agenda changed to meet the needs of people around him. My opinion of mission work being filled with the need to be flexible is being affirmed through this crazy week. As of right now, Cody and I are snowed in and plans are once more changing.

    45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

    7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea

    20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat.

    22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24 And he went with him.

    48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them,49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out,50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded,

    Mark 1:45 3:7 3:20 5:22-24 6:48-52

  • Syrup

    I find it to be a challenging task to write this in a way that isn’t a list of things we got done. There’s a story in clearing a felled tree from a cabin and collecting maple sap for syrup. However, extracting the story is daunting. I enjoyed Monday night Bible study as we have started reading through the book of Mark. Mark starts off right in the action, similar to my weeks.

    Samuel and Tim came out on Monday to clear a multi ton tree and thus began the very sound removal of a red oak. This mammoth of a tree had fallen on an upper boy’s cabin, named after its color, orange cabin. This tree was not a quick cut away. It had from 200 lb. to over 450 lb. chunks that needed lowered over a rock cliff. Fortunately, one of Cody’s hobbies is rock climbing, so he used his gear to lower the logs down as softly as he could. I was not on rock cliff duty however, I helped with clearing the branches off the path in order to drive the bobcat up to clear logs. This job may sound small, but the oak actually knocked over a large pine and sheered several others. Therefore, there was an extensive amount of branches to clear, firewood to load and sticks to pile. With only five guys, minimal gear and nine hours to work we did manage to clear 80% of the beast with the rest looming for the future.

    Last week, and hopefully next, there was a nice byproduct to the weather and time of year. The weather was freezing during the night, and above freezing during the day, which allowed the maple sap to flow well. That is a fact which I had no knowledge of prior to Roger informing me it was syrup season. I had some intuition that we were going to collect because Roger had mentioned tapping the trees.

    What I imagined this meant, however, was a far cry from the five gallon buckets sloshing about as we carried them through the slippery thicket of the Kentucky hills. I thought of a gentle hill side in the country of PA with long lines connecting each tree and syrup flowing from the trees themselves. That was not the case. Sap is on average 98% water. Water is not syrup! To be honest with you, this water is the best water I’ve ever tasted. That 2% makes a difference! It’s like nature’s flavored water. We carried these buckets to dumping stations Roger had set up. We had driven the side by side up a tortuous bumpy path to fill a 50 gallon drum. Guess what we did next? We drove down the tortuous bumpy path, with sap sloshing behind us, all the way to the boiling station. On the best day of collecting we were able to get 70 gallons of sap which sounds like a lot of syrup. It’s really not. The rate of sap to syrup is roughly 40 gallons to one gallon of syrup after boiling the sap down. We hope that the weather allows us to continue to collect next week.

    This week’s prayer request is to find routines that energize me because I don’t want to burn myself out. Also I’ve started to get more into face care. Last fall I invested in hair care so now I’m enjoying the discovery of face care. If any of you have recommendations I will gladly accept. I’d like to close with a scripture on my heart.

    Psalm 63:7

     for you have been my help,
        and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

    collecting sap
    i just happen to like fire

  • Selfless Love

    Well about another two weeks have passed, two very cold weeks to be more specific.. Wow, how the time flies. As I’ve settled into my new home I’ve realized just how hard it is to keep up with the dishes. They haunt me at this very moment, I have a large pile up from some beef stroganoff that I had made. Speaking of my delightful beef stroganoff, cooking has also been a learning curve. The first week I made a lot of instant foods with about one meal mixed in. This was an unhealthy, choice with how busy we’ve been here at camp because it didn’t provide me with enough protein. As usual, we had our Monday morning meeting. Typically, after my meeting I would go to Riverside Christian School. However, my initial meeting with the principal was slated to happen on Wednesday so I once again worked with Roger. At Riverside Christian School I will teach elementary chapel, play at recess, and help the maintenance guy. Working with Roger, I did more jobs by myself like painting some shelves and wiring different miscellaneous projects.

    Wearing Rogers old tool belt

    Over the weekend I did some cooking. I had some grilled cheese, then started a fire, and was once more snowed in. At the beginning of the weekend, Roger and I visited a local airport hoping to find an FBO(fixed base operator). Instead we visited a weather station and got a 2.5-hour long tour. It was very educational. If you want more details, text me, I’m happy to talk about it. Martin Luther King Jr.’s day and weather

    Hike up Larken Holler

    once again left me to work at camp rather than at Riverside. However, this work week was different. We have a couple and one other volunteer with us to knock out most of the things to do upstairs. Contrary to last week I have had a homecooked meal every day and intend on keeping up the trend.

    Chili under a pile of saltines

    On a more personal level, I have felt convicted about my jokes and therefore have been calling them out as I make them to help me stop. I would greatly appreciate your prayer in that area. I also restarted a small group that has actually been really great. I’ve also been doing a great devotion on increasing in God’s love, which recently has been reminding me to try to love selflessly. My theme verse for the week is “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4

    About lost my phone in that creek getting this picture

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