North Carolina!

Off to Black Mountain North Carolina! We left Monday morning after packing up camp and eating a bagel breakfast. It was a 3hr drive within which had some good conversations, a nap, a rainbow, and a Starbucks run.
While we are here we get to partner with Excel College and the Black Mountain Home for Children Youth & Families to do ministry. They are providing us with cabins for the week and we are blessed with the luxury of showers, flushing toilets and mattresses.

Our work here mainly consists of doing yard work, gardening, moving rocks and general maintenance for both the college and BMH. It has been so sweet to get to partner with them and support them this way.

I love the rain here, you stand in it for five minutes and are soaked through but still warm, definitely not what I’m used to coming from Seattle. On our first day here we went down to the field in the pouring rain and played some muddy matches of Gaga ball and volleyball. I don’t think my clothes will ever be clean again, but worth it for sure.

On our first day of ministry the rain started coming down hard while we were weeding. When we were done we wrung out our hair and shirts and sat down for a minute. We were quickly requested again because one of the neighbors houses was flooding in the downpour. When we got there, there was a waterfall cascading down the rockery in the back yard right into the basement of the house. We sloshed through the mud and spent a good chunk of time digging a ditch and building a dam out of rocks and wood and a tarp to divert the waterfall. A great success!

The home for children is a really amazing program, their goal is to be the final home before children in the foster care system find their forever home. It has a gorgeous view of the rolling hills. Their program really makes a good home for kids, they have goats, chickens and a cow, a garden, awesome activities and sports, a ton of really cool retreats, access to learn really good life skills, and an awesome community to help teach, love and guide them. I would definitely consider coming back to work with them when I finish the World Race.

We spent the day yesterday weeding and mowing their garden and I got to spend some good time with my hands in the dirt which is definitely something I’ve missed.

For Oma and Opa: While we were weeding I was thinking of how you taught me how to garden and taught me to love the dirt. I think that will forever be something I will enjoy and find useful.

It is so filling and life giving to get to serve others, even if it’s tiring on the body it is rejuvenating for the spirit. I think that is something I hadn’t always grasped before, but it brings a lot of joy.

 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38)

Love,

Rosella