We left you last week with the threat of snow in the forecast which turned into 10 inches of snow Sunday into Monday morning. After admiring the beauty of it all, it was back to shovelling all the walks and steps around the inn once again. Later that day, a college group from New York arrived to work at Three Springs over their spring break. All the guys started splitting wood while the girls did some spring cleaning in the inn. They did a great job doing a lot of different jobs and detail cleaning that doesn't get done very often. There were 12 students total that gave up the majority of their spring break to come and give of their time and energy to serve and assist the ministry here. They were a tremendous help and encouragement to us all! At the end of the day Monday, the kids and I finally got to put Grams' snowman kit to use, as we built our first Pennslyvania snowman. That was a lot of fun! I ended the day by getting together with around ten other men from the church at one of their homes for fellowship, a testimony from one, and a time of prayer. It was good to interact and encourage one another.
Most of the day Tuesday was spent sawing up more logs for the guys to split. Other than that, I was able to help with a hog butchering. One of the local farmers, who is also an elder at our church, gave the camp a pig of his that had gotten crippled and would not be able to be sold. Since Jeff Rush, our director, had previously worked at a pig slaughter house, he knew how to make quick work of butchering up this pig for good pork barbeque that will make lots of camp meals in the near future. It was a lot like skinning and cleaning a deer except for the skinning part, but I'll spare you all the juicy details.
On Wednesday, Kathryn and I did a lot to get ready for our weekend retreat. Kathryn did most of the floral and wreath decorations around the house as well as setting up the dining room tables. She is really creative and good with that kind of stuff and it gives her a break. (Audrey enjoyed helping put fresh flowers in each room.) I concentrated on the heating system and getting all the rooms up to temperature as well as general grounds maintenance. It's good that we are able to work together and use both of our gifts in different ways to help.
Thursday morning I attended the funeral of Kathryn Heyd, the mother of my neighbor Jim Heyd. (Jim is my neighbor whose cows have gotten out several times.) She was 92 years of age and had lived at the Heyd farm all her life. The funeral was just down the hill at the Methodist church in Nauvoo where family and most of the Nauvoo community attend. I was really impressed with the service and how honoring it was to the Lord, through the Scriptures read and also all the family remarks about Mrs. Heyd's faith in the Lord .The Nauvoo community is very close knit and supportive, and it was a good chance to support my neighbor as well as get to know others that I had not had a chance to meet yet. Pray that we will be able to make positive relationships with those that live around us to encourage and influence them for the Lord. The rest of the day was spent finishing getting the Inn ready as well as helping our neighbors collect sap from the maple trees. With some warmer temperatures (around 40), the sap was really starting to run well, and they needed the help since everyone had been at the funeral the first part of the day. I was glad to help, and Duncan was too!
Our group started arriving around 3:30 friday afternoon. They were from Fellowship Bible Church in Troy, PA, which is maybe an hour from here.
They had 13 couples attend their first marriage couples retreat, which reminded me a lot of the couples retreats from Bethany Bible Chapel, our church in Conway. Our whole family was there to greet them, help get people settled in their rooms, show them around, and help them get set up. As Kathryn, Clay and I were doing all of that, Audrey and Duncan managed to slip away to do some entertaining of their own. Kathryn found them downstairs in the gameroom playing air hockey with 2 of the guests! They had a great time with all the new people and hated having to leave when it was dinner time. Most of my responsibilities included greeting the whole group, helping serve meals in the kitchen, cleaning and setting up before and after meals, as well as just being available for any needs, desires, or problems the group may have. Everything went really smooth, thanks to Naomi our cook in the kitchen who helped me learn the ropes on what to do. The group left Saturday afternoon, and we can now say that we have survived our first weekend of hosting. Thanks to all who prayed for us this weekend! I really felt the Lord's help in many ways, and also the group seemed to have a really good productive time strenghthening their marriages and walk with the Lord.
After everyone had gone, our whole family decided to take a walk down to the sugar camp to check on Jim Heyd who was boiling and to see what was going on. Jim was glad for some company and was pleased to give Kathryn and the kids their first sip of maple syrup straight from the ladel. Even Clay got a taste off of Daddy's finger!
That's all for now.
Please continue to pray for us in several ways:
- for Clay who has had a hard time overcoming colds that lead to ear infections,
- for our family as we continue to adjust to being away from home and family,
- for us to reach out to neighbors, and to our staff and church family as we seek to develop new realtionships and friendships,
- for our ministry to our guests at Linck Hill Inn and Three Springs , and
- for our own walk with the Lord to ever be trusting, following, and loving Him more.
We would love to hear from you and how you are doing as well.
Blessings, The Rickerts
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