Indian Hills Camp

Our second SOWERs project is at the Indian Hills Camp in the San Diego area.  Children would absolutely love this place; I wish our grandchildren could be here.  It's like a theme park for the gold rush days in California, with a western "town", teepees, covered wagons, and miners' shacks, which all have bunks inside them.  Different groups use the camps on the weekend, even in the winter, and schools have their Grade Six students do hands-on activities about the gold rush.

Terry and Dennis, whom we had met in Florida, are building gangplanks and steps to this play fort perched high on a rock.  I'm painting a porch with two other women.  It's peaceful work, with the birds singing, and the sweet smell of blooming narcissus, along with the occasional conversation.
One week has gone by already, and it hasn't been very warm.  One morning, the temperature was only a couple of degrees warmer than Red Deer, which was plus 1 Celsius!  The green trees and grass amidst the rocks makes up for the cool weather.

Joshua Tree National Park

a Joshua tree, arms upstretched as Joshua in the Bible

 

Entering the park from the south, Terry and I started our hike near Cottonwood Spring.  We walked through sandy washes and between huge, odd shaped boulders.  Clambering up the rock pile that was Mastadon Peak was our only real challenge.  From our vantage point we were able to see the Salton Sea to the south-west, visible briefly through the low hanging clouds.  We'd been there just a few days ago.
By the end of the day as we drove towards the north entrance, occasional raindrops were replaced by real rain.
"I'm glad we hiked first, and are driving later!"  I told Terry.

Three days later the rain had stopped down in the Coachella Valley, and the sky was clear.  We were eager to explore the other side of the park. Our seven day pass allowed us to go back for another visit.   As a precaution, though, I had put on six layers of clothing.  On the mountain plateau that was the park our hoods went up, and our hands were jammed into our pockets.  Light dustings of snow appeared here and there on the desert floor.

and the wind blew briskly.

 It was not too far above the freezing mark.  "Go and see the Barker Dam,"

recommended the park ranger.  "There might be water in it after the rain."  The only water we saw, however, was a puddle on the trail and a couple of inches in an old horse trough.

 

It was hard to imagine the dam holding a full reservoir of water, with water birds on the shore.

  The next trail led to an old mill that once crushed gold filled ore.  Old cars and the foundations of  houses were nestled among the bushes.  One interesting bird we saw was a Spotted Towhee flitting through the bushes.

Our picnic lunch was eaten inside the vehicle, as it was not warm enough to sit outside comfortably.
Next stop- the Keys Viewpoint, 5185 feet up in the Little San Bernardino Mountain Range.  We didn't linger long, just long enough to pick out Palm Springs and the rest of the Coachella Valley.  As one tourist put it, "OK, I get the idea, let's go!"

What a great park to explore.  I wish we could take our grandchildren there.

Reunion

This is Bongwol, the friend we made at YWAM Lausanne.  We enjoyed a delicious Korean lunch in Buena Park, a suburb of LA. Afterwards, we strolled through the Korean supermarket; I marvelled at the amazing samples they were handing out. Strange looking pickled things, mostly. I didn't have any.  I did buy some curly green kale and baby bok choy- the freshest specimans I've ever seen! We also sampled little Korean pastries (cocohodos) at a nearby cafe.  These were molded to look like a walnut, filled with red bean paste, with an actual walnut half inside.  Fresh off the press, and addicting!

Bongwol asks, "Alice, do you know what this is?  It's a machine that peels chestnuts!"  We giggle, remembering the automatic potato peeler in the kitchen at YWAM.

Farewell, January project

Our project at Coachella Valley Rescue Mission is over!  Cam and Terry have finished their beautiful shed.

Betty and I have done a lot of filing in the office, mostly consisting of taking old files from previous years out of drawers and putting them into storage boxes. Then labeling new files for this year.
It's been fun; I enjoyed this change of pace, as I've never done this on a project before.

The most interesting thing the four of us did was to help at a fund-raising golf tournament at a fancy golf course. First, Betty and I filled "goody bags" for the golfers.  The morning of the tournament, our job was: "hole- in- one verifying superintendents", ie, we watched to see if anyone got a hole-in-one.  I stood near the tee box, while Terry was under a tree watching the green.
The prizes were cars, $10,000, and vacations.  Alas, no one quite made it, although there were some close ones.  It wasn't a bad task; I sat in the shade on my golf cart, and enjoyed the sunshine when golfers approached the 6th hole, where we were stationed.

I don't know much about golf, but I did see some interesting birds.  A pair of Roadrunners walked by, coming close enough for me to get a good look at their markings, and the way their tails bobbed up and down.  If I had moved, they would've taken off in a flash. After a delicious lunch (see previous post), we said, "That was a fun day of 'work'!"

Communication Breakdown

Here we are at our first SOWER (Servants on Wheels Ever Ready) project of 2013! We're working at the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission in the Coachella Valley of California, south of Palm Springs.  This is a beautiful new facility, finished just last year with a capacity of 150 clients resident in programs, and about 60 people every night in their emergency shelter.

We thought we were going to be able to park our little trailer next to the facility, as our friends did last year, but the city has outlawed that idea.  Now we, along with the friends who introduced us to SOWERs, Cam and Betty Clarkson, are parked about 12 miles away near the San Bernadino Mountains, in someone's "backyard."  The view towards the cities of the Coachella Valley is great, and it's very quiet at night.  One night Cam saw a javelina outside around 3:00 am.  A javelina looks like a pig, or more accurately , a boar. All Terry and I have seen is a dead one as we walk around the desert.

Betty pauses in the middle of a bite.

However, we don't have WiFi!  Neither does my phone work there in the hills.  We even replaced the battery. All of a sudden I felt cut off from the world.  Terry is still able to check our emails on his phone when we came into the Mission every day, but it isn't the same as having the freedom to reply right away. I couldn't use the computer in the evenings, either.  Nor could I find another e-book to read, since I didn't pack any "paper" books to read.
Frustration!
I finally solved the problem by staying at the Mission after lunch instead of riding home with Betty at noon.  My phone still does not work, but I can call using Google on the computer. 

The story of the socks

"Take these socks," said Ester, from Denmark.  "They look nice and warm."
 I wasn't sure; I had so many pairs of socks already, and these looked too thick to fit inside my shoes. 
"You'll need them to keep warm when you get back to Canada," she persisted.
We were at a girls' staff gathering at the YWAM base in Lausanne, Switzerland.  The staff had evidently been told to bring an item to put onto the "gift table".  We were supposed to select something to keep, as a way of being blessed. At first I didn't really get it.  After all, no one had mentioned to me about bringing anything.  Was I still supposed to choose something?  There were candles, scarves, hats, toiletry items and miscellaneous "stuff".
"All right," I finally said to Ester, and took the pair of socks.  They were wonderful, soft socks made of  white wool.  I love wool; it's so warm and cosy.
Later, on another occasion, I was staring down at Ester's feet as we all sat in a meeting.  She was wearing a pair of socks much like the ones I had picked out, but worn-looking.  Was it Ester who had generously given up her spare pair of socks just to be able to bless someone else?  I was impressed, but still hadn't found an occasion to wear the socks.
Until we arrived home to Canada.
We were taking our little travel trailer down south to Arizona, at a time when no one else was travelling in RVs. (recreational vehicles) It was the end of December.  Normally, we would travel in mid-October, when the weather is usually still conducive to clear highway travel. When we went to where the trailer was parked in our friend's field, it was -24 Celsius, with a wind chill of -34.  Terry had to connect the trailer to the vehicle, while I stood on a small ladder we had brought to sweep off the foot of snow on its roof.
Finally we were on our way.  The roads, mercifully, were clear.  It was hard to imagine it being so cold outside, as the sun shone all day.  That evening we reached our destination--the parking lot of the Walmart store in Great Falls, Montana.  This is one place we knew we could spend the night in relative safety.  We didn't want a fancy campsite, in fact wondered if campsites were even open.  Since we had no water in the trailer, we were going to get a quick meal at Walmart at their Subway, and then go to bed for an early start the next morning. 
However, the furnace didn't work!  What was wrong?  We had plenty of propane.  Was the battery dead?  My resourceful husband ran the car to run the furnace to heat up the trailer a bit. We put the duvets inside the car to get rid of their icy chill.  After about 15 minutes, we turned off the engine, took the warmed covers and climbed into our bed, fully clothed.  We both wore our tuques (knitted hats) and I kept on the cozy circular scarf Annie had knit me for Christmas. The socks!  I remembered the bulky wool socks that were too thick for my shoes. I dug them out, and slipped them over my regular socks.  They say you can't get to sleep unless your feet are warm.  To my surprise, I slept all night, carefully keeping my nose under the covers.
I don't know if the socks were really from Ester, but I think about her every time I wear them now.  Sometimes I kick them off in the middle of the night, but what a wonderful way to get cozy at bedtime. 
Here in the Indio Hills, California, it is not that warm, and I have been grateful for my wool socks.

Korean students

 YWAM Lausanne includes about 25% Korean students and staff.  Since the founding of this base more than 40 years ago, many young Korean Christians have come to take courses and in Discipleship Training Schools.  Lectures are given in both English and Korean in at least one of the quarters of the year; and even in Quarter 4, in which Terry and I are volunteering, and in which the focus is French and English, the students are helped from time to time by having the announcements and teaching translated into Korean.  There are courses in basic English given throughout the year.  The Korean students have varying levels of proficiency in English, but one thing is certain--they are all improving. 
As one of my volunteer opportunities, I was asked to tutor five students.  Four of them have individual times, and one other joins into a group discussion once a week.
JungMo wanted to improve his English because he is involved in leading the worship times.  He wanted to be able to pray aloud in English.  After our first lesson, I encouraged him, "OK, now you can pray in English!"  He was a little taken aback, but did so.  Then he was so pleased that he had overcome this hurdle.  The next step with JungMo is to pray in English before worship time, in front of the whole group.  I challenged him to write down a list of Biblical words.  We've been using our time together to discuss each word and how it is used in a sentence. 
HanSol, sometimes called Hans Solo by his friends, was interested in learning to preach in English.  We discussed the story of the Prodigal Son, and I learned a new perspective on this well known parable as he expounded on his views.
ChangGyu and I reviewed English grammar quite intensively, mostly having to do with the various past tenses, and the irregular past participles of verbs. One day he told me of his adventures with the ambulance and the insurance company, after he fell 3 metres onto some rocks at the lake.  We worked on polishing his story, and he made a speech to one of our small groups. 

ChangGyu

AeYoung and SuHyun joined in a discussion group once a week.  We drilled for a few weeks, for example, picking up slips of paper which  required an answer of more than "yes" or "no".  Then I asked their advice on restaurants in the city.  The girls said to ChangGyu, "We saw you housekeeping in your room."  They were intrigued that ChangGyu and his wife had a little fridge in their room.  "I have a fridge, too", I said.  "I just put my food on the windowsill." Laughter.
What do you want to talk about next week?" I asked them.  Their response was unanimous.  "Jesus!"
We spent the next few weeks going over the topics that had already been introduced in various meetings. I wrote down some questions to get them started, and they quickly photographed the questions with their phones! It wasn't boring, because they had to come up with personal applications to the ideas presented.  Originally they may not have understood everything that had been said. It was interesting to hear their individual stories. 
The first discussion was about hearing God's voice, then we talked about difficult times in our lives, finally we explored in more detail the ways God had provided for us.

SuHyun and AeYoung

.

JungMo, HanSol, and ChangGyu

When the students realized we were actually leaving early the next morning, there was a steady stream of knocks on our bedroom door, as they came, one by one, to say goodbye, offer a box of chocolates, letters and cards, and say, " Please come back!"