Philippi Service Adventure

Last Friday Marcos and I drove up to the airport to pick up three of the four Service Adventure girls for this year. Tara and Ruth came in on time but we had a bit of a hold-up when Eva missed her plane in Chicago. Luckily she came in a few hours later and we got back to Philippi at 2am. Then on Saturday afternoon Hannah’s family drove her here and we had our whole group together!

This past week has been mostly dedicated to orienting the girls to the Service Adventure program, the rules and routines of the house and generally getting to know the area and each other. After a few days of running around to the different job placements and learning about policy we took a break and spent half of a day at Audra State Park. Then on Saturday we got to go camping and hiking at Seneca Rocks.

At Seneca Rocks

Between all of the play was some hard work though. The faucet broke in the kitchen and the girls got a taste in home repair when they had to replace it. They learned that the hardest part of putting a new one in is getting the old faucet out. They also got the shovel the sheep barn up at the farm as a service project. They are really a hard working group of girls, I was very impressed. It has been so much fun getting to know these wonderful girls, and I can tell that this will be a really great year!

We have been back from orientation for about 4 days now and in those past 4 days we have moved all of our things into the upstairs apartment, unpacked, drove to Akron, PA to visit a friend leaving for Uganda and did more unpacking. It has been a busy time but we are happy to be here and settling in. We had a wonderful time in Albuquerque getting to know the other Service Adventure leaders and learning how to “fearlessly” lead a group of young people in a year of community living.

Leaders Orientation in New Mexico

Now we are axiously getting ready for the girls to arrive! Three of the girls get here on Friday the 15th and the other one drives out the next day! So in about a week and a half we will have a full house! (Wow that was a paragraph of exclamation marks). So for the next little while I will be preparing the unit house for the girl’s arrival, preparing a budget to live on and planning a week of orientation for the unit.

Marcos Working in Our Office

With all of this to get done we ask that you keep us in your prayers as always. Remember the girls and their safe travel and arrivel and our busy lives as we prepare for a really great year.

Marcos and I arrived safely in Philippi West Virginia on Saturday evening. We were so grateful for the warm welcome we received from the church when we pulled in. They had all of our worldly possessions unloaded from the truck in less than an hour. So now we are settling into the unit house before we leave for orientation in New Mexico on Wednesday.

Unit House

It has been beautiful here in Philippi – maybe a little on the humid side – but beautiful none the less. We are starting to get to know more names and sites around town and we are really looking forward to next month when our unit kids arrive! So thanks to you all for your prayers for our move. Remember us as we settle into our new home and start to organize the house and make plans for this year.

If you were wondering our new address is:

26 Beech Ave
Philippi, WV 26416

and our phone is 304-457-4652

(We will be looking forward to all the nice packages you all will be sending )