Happy Thanksgiving!

Our team achieved the Thanksgiving Trifecta today, visiting three locations along the gulf coast for some turkey and mashed potatoes.  Two of them were at work camps, one here and one in Biloxi, the other one was at the house of a couple who had their house fixed-up by people from Camp Victor.  Actually, we had turkey dinner yesterday with Liz’s cousins in Gulfport, and we also had some Thanksgiving Dinner-flavored Jones Soda, which was kinda gross.  So in total, we had five Thanksgivings in 48 hours, it was great!

Tomorrow we go back to work, sanding and priming the house we’ve been working on.  Hopefully by Saturday or Monday we can begin painting, as long as everything goes well…

I posted new pictures for every month because I just got some pictures from Emily’s camera.  Check them out!

Life is good, God is great!

-Kyle

Camp Victor

We’ve been here at Camp Victor, in Ocean Springs, MS for the last couple of days.  We didn’t really know what to expect when we arrived, we knew we’d be doing something related to the Katrina relief effort, but we didn’t really know what that was.  Sunday night after we arrived they served dinner to us and the other groups here.  Then we met the founder of the organization, and heard his story of how Camp Victor came about and has been growing ever since.  It was quite an interesting and powerful insight into the events following the disaster.  We also got our job assignments soon after arriving, but we were still unsure of what to expect.  Monday was our first work day, so we thought we were going to head out the house we were assigned to work at, but while we were in the warehouse getting supplies, the two of the day’s seven semi trailers arrived, filled with donated materials.  We offered our services in the unloading process in any way we could help, and we all ended working in some way or another in the warehouse and distribution center, doing random things.  I used a pallet jack pretty much all day, making room for the contents of the seven semi trailers.  I also took a nap on a huge pile of carpet rolls, it was pretty comfortable.  It was a good opportunity to see some of the behind-the-scenes operations that go on at relief centers.  There are three Katrina cats that hang around the Camp as well, and two of them are warehouse dwellers, so I was having them chase random objects around the warehouse.

Today was our first day at our assigned site.  We were given a house to work on that had some work done already, but nobody knew where the last crew had left off, so we kinda went in to it blind.  We brought some paint rollers, as well as some drywall mudding supplies, which was good because we got there and found the house ready to have a second round of mud put on the drywall.  So we slopped some goop on the wall, and then started putting a base coat of paint on the ceiling.  Then we made a trip to Lowes to get stuff for putting on the primer, which we’ll probably do tomorrow. We also each got to pick a paint color for a room of our choice, so we all browsed the paint section for our favorite hue.  I chose “Champagne Tickle” which is a very, very, very light yellowish color.  It was a fun way to feel more part of the project.  Our project “leader” is really cool too.  He’s fun and easygoing, and we don’t have to worry about messing up, probably because we’re all older than he is.  The lady who owns the house was so nice to us as well.  She almost insisted on us not working at her house this week because of thanksgiving.  “God knows what I need, and I have to be patient.” We’ll definitely enjoy chatting with her and getting to know her story.

Our fall tour is wrapping up, sometimes it seems really fast, sometimes it seems really slow, but we’re all excited for what’s to come.  Each one of us is looking forward to being home for Christmas, as well as our overseas tour.  We’re getting more excited as we receive more information about Papua New Guinea, and the increased possibility of Hawaii!  We’re excited about where we’ve been, where we’re at, and where we’re going.  We head north soon, out of the cool gulf breeze into the frigid air of Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Minnesota, yay for hats and gloves.

Life is good, God is great!

-Kyle

Leaving GA for AL

We leave Kurt’s place in Atlanta, GA today.  We’re heading a little south and a little west to Montgomery, AL.  After that we go to Ocean Springs, MS for a week at Camp Victor.  We heard that there was some flooding down there after the big storms passed through this region.  We’re excited to be moving on and see new places and meet new people.  I’m a little anxious to see the condition of things in the gulf coast, but I’m not thrilled about the drive north afterwards.  Apparently it gets cold in the Midwest this time of year, but I’ve been enjoying the 60+ degree weather we’ve had down here.  I might be begging for a snowstorm in a couple of months as I sit in the 100 degree heat with 99% humidity in Papua New Guinea.  I think I may find out the true meaning of sunburn.

Life is good, God is great!  Go buckeyes!

-Kyle

Another town...

Another town, another church, another host family, and another bed. It seems like it could all get very monotonous very quickly, but somehow it never seems to get old or routine. Each church, town, and host family is unique and amazing in its own way. It becomes harder and harder to pick my favorite booking as the days go by!

The past couple of days have been phenomenal. We got to meet some amazing Christians in Weddington, North Carolina, as well as eat some fantastic Mexican food. Being back on the road is so great; I look forward to pushing on and going new places. For instance, we get to go hang out with my brother tomorrow, which I am extremely excited about. However, I hate to risk getting so excited about the future that I forget the task at hand, but that excitement helps you get through the not-so-amazing times. All in all, life’s been busy, and therefore very fast. It’s hard to believe that in a month we’ll be home for Christmas break! God’s work isn’t so hard after all!

Laip stap gut, Papa God stap gut tumas!

-Kyle Scobie

Moving Again

Life on the road has been interesting, to say the least.  Actually, until yesterday, we hadn’t really been “on the road” for three weeks.  Being in pseudo community-based mode in Virginia and then going back out on the road for the remaining tour makes things interesting.  I forgot how to sleep in a moving bed, I forgot how to live off of junk-food, and I also forgot that what it meant to not really have a concrete schedule that extends beyond the next morning.  However, I find myself to be a fast learner, so I imagine that it should be easy to re-learn some of those old habits.

I look forward to moving on though.  It was nice to be in one spot for a week or two-and I look forward to VBS season next year-but it’s also good to move along and keep moving.  When you’re in one place for a long period of time, it can be easy to settle in, get comfortable, and relax too much.  It can be all too simple to get a little lazy and lacking in the ministry department.  I have to give huge props to the community-based Lifeline team, because I have a feeling they have already found out how much of a different ballgame it is.  Not only do they get to plant some pretty important seeds, they get to be there when God does some gardening!  That’s one job that we as Christians can be thankful that we do not have, gardening.  It can be hard to be just a planter, but it’s a lot easier than pullin’ weeds and pruning vines.  Getting dirty, stained, and pricked by thorns is not a fun job.  It reminds me of a sermon I heard from Vicar Bugg at Gloria Dei in Hampton.  A couple of disciples ask Jesus for the best seats in Heaven, the seats at His right and left hand.  Jesus responds by asking "Can you drink from the same cup that I drink?"  Can we pull weeds, trim the hedges, and take a few thorns in the fingers, or worse, the head?  Can we drink the Cup?  Can we wear the Crown?  Only Jesus could wear the Crown, only Jesus can prune the vineyard.  We only have to scatter the seeds.  However, that doesn't mean the fields in which we sow are pleasantly filled with warm spring air and singing birds, but that's a different sermon.

Life is good, God is great!

-Kyle Scobie

Well, it’s been almost two weeks, so you’re probably wondering why I’ve been absent from my website.  Well, busy doesn’t begin to describe the past two weeks.  Never mind the fact that I didn’t have internet last week to do anything.  However, I’m back now and I hope that I get back into a consistent mode of posting journals.  I’ve already updated the pictures and videos (there’s even a video with sound!) so check those out if you haven’t yet.

We left Gloria Dei in Hampton, Virginia this past Tuesday afternoon and drove across town (a whole 20 minutes!) to Newport News (more like "Neewpert Neews" if you live here though).  We’re working with Reformation Lutheran Church for the week (which is almost over, weird).  It was hard to leave Gloria Dei; we had so much fun there, but it’s good to move on and see new things.  We get to go to Ocean Springs, Mississippi in a couple weeks to help with relief efforts, and we found out yesterday that we also get to make a trip to Liz’s church in South Dakota right before our mid-winter training, which is right before Christmas break.  She’s especially excited, and so are we, because we’ve never done anything in a Southern Baptist church before.  I’m not really looking forward to the winter weather we’re apparently going to be traveling into, but come January we’ll skip winter altogether when we head out to Papua New Guinea.  As we move closer and closer to the time of departure we’ve been learning more and more about the culture and language and some of the things we’re going to be experiencing.  For instance, we discovered that the word for helicopter in Pidgin English, the language we have to learn, is mixmasta bilong Jesus Christ, and the word for quiet is i no gat nois.  So we’ve had some fun with our new language learning.  We learned some other interesting words and cultural tibits, but I don’t think I should post it up here.  So if you really want to be amused, I’ll e-mail you with some of that.

Here at Reformation Lutheran we’ve been involved and kept in the mix with the regular activities of the church fairly well.  We had a potluck the night we got here, and the following evening as well right before our concert.  It was the first concert we’ve had in six weeks, so we were glad to finally do one, but we were also a bit nervous about it too.  It ended up going really well.  The church also has an all-day childcare, so we’ve been hanging out with pre-k kids the past few days, which is exhausting, but extremely fun at the same time (I still want to be a teacher).  We also did a spiel with the confirmation class last night.  Today we’re going next door to a nursing home to do a little program for the residents there.  We’ll also help with the services on Sunday, and we’re going bowling with some college students Monday night (Yay for PEERS!).

Our host homes this week are really cool.  Josh and are have been staying with this family with two high school boys, but they’re going out of town for the weekend, so we’ll have our own house for the weekend.  Tara is staying with a doctor who has a HUGE house (multi-million dollar huge) on the James River.  He’s got bathrooms everywhere, security cameras everywhere, and the doorway to his room is a sliding wall with a keypad.  He also has two pop machines in his house.  I’m glad I don’t have to clean it.

So now you’re all up to speed on my life.  Actually we’ve done a ton more than that, but I’m no in the mood to write a novel any time soon.  As always, feel free to send me an email at any time to leave a comment or ask a question.  Also, check out my pictures, October has more than 200 pictures now, and I added some to September too that my teammates had taken.  Check back soon for November, that’ll start filling up fast I’m sure.  Until my next post;

Laip stap gut, Papa God stap gut tumas! (Life is good, God is great!)

-Kyle