I will try to give you a quick recap of our week. On Monday I had a real cultural experience! I went to a farming auction with our executive director Jeff Rush, down below Williamsport about 45 minutes away. We were taking a trailor load of hay from Three Springs to sell at the auction. (This will be something that I will sometimes be called on to do with my CDL driver's license, so I was learning the ropes.) This particular area is a very heavily populated Amish community, which I learned as soon as we neared the auction yard. In the road just ahead of us was an Amish man pushing a little wagon with a newborn calf tied to it to sell at the auction. This was only the first of about a 75% majority of Amish farmers in all of the typical dress, hats, beards, and German Pennsylvania Dutch language, who come to buy and sell anything from eggs, firewood, hay, cows, pigs, sheep and anything else you may think of. An Amish man who bought our load of hay rode back with us to his farm about 20 miles away where they live without any electricity, phones, or mechanical farm equipment. All horse drawn methods and just hard manual labor as demonstrated as the farmer's teenage son and daughter promptly came out to help us unload the hay from our trailor into their haybarn. I got a real good sense that day that I was no longer in Conway, S.C.! Fascinating!
Each morning I go down the road about a mile to Three Springs where we meet for staff devotionals and meeting. This week I did some indoor wall climbing with our interns to help them complete some training and also to help orient me with all the ropes and belaying techniques, as well as getting to know the interns a little better. That was a lot of fun! I have been getting slowly oriented with Linck Hill Inn and all the mechanical systems there that I will need to know that involve overseeing this property. Each day as part of my routine, I tend to 3 coal furnaces that heat the inn and other 2 residences on the property. Heat pumps don't cut it up here. I find that there are alot of new things that I will have to learn, but I am very eager and excited about this new way of living in this cold farm country.
We have still been spending alot of time unpacking and getting settled into our new home. We are actually getting to start to hang up some pictures and also a few deer and ducks. It's definitely starting to look and feel like home now. Kathryn has been very involved with the children as well as cooking so that we were able to have some of our staff neighbors over for dinner two nights this week to share in a time of fellowship and getting to know each other better. She was able to go to a ladies Bible study on Wednesday morning with about 12 other ladies from Oregon Hill Grace Chapel that she said was very challenging and encouraging.
We have spent two afternoons shopping and stocking up on groceries and other household items. One day in Mansfield which is about 30 minutes away and one in Williamsport about 45 minutes away. We will become very good at making lists and learning how to get all your shopping done in one trip for many days or weeks ahead to keep travelling expenses down. It's not like stopping in at the Food Lion anytime you want.
Pray for Clay who has picked up another cold bug that has most likely caused more ear infections. We have an appointment tommorow for the doctor in Wellsboro, another 30 minute trip. Pray for Kathryn as she trys to learn how to get around up here in these mountains with these new roads.
Overall we are doing very good and are excited about the many new things that we are experiencing and learning as we Southerners learn to fit in and also share some Southern hospitality and accent. Everyone loves the way we talk for some reason!
God is good and we are reminded of how much we are depending on Him everyday as we embark on our service for Him here. We have posted a few pictures from this past week at the climbing barn with the interns and also here in our front yard as we played with the kids one day.
All for now! The Rickerts
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