Rainy Morning

Joy was having to look for my rain jacket before we left for Menno for church. It had begun to rain just before we left - the first swipes of the windshield wipers were muddy, then dirty water. The sidewalk going into church had drifts of dirt from yesterday's dust storms.

From what I could glean from Facebook posts, it rained some pretty much all across the state. I think the fire areas may have gotten enough to slow the massive growth of the fires somewhat and at least give the fire fighters a bit of a break.

We took a detour by the ranch after church to check on the wheat that Jeff had sown last week. We could see green in all of the outside rows, but not too far into the field. It didn't look like it had rained enough there to form a crust, so we will just have to wait and see.

We saw the film clip from MSNBC in church this morning showing Rev. Al Sharpton's interview with Pastor Duplessis of Mt Nebo Bible Baptist Church in the 9th Ward of New Orleans that Menno has partnered with over the last years. The quilt wall hanging by the Menno ladies is seen a couple of times and he mentions the support of Menno Mennonite Church (but doesn't say where it is).

I got a chuckle when I reminded folks how ten years ago I had told them they needed to get a tetanus booster before they went to New Orleans to work with Mennonite Disaster Service and that now they needed to get their ten year booster. All of the talk of it being ten years since Katrina sure brings back memories of our work with MDS. Gene talked this morning also of last week's dedication of the two houses built in Brewster this summer after last year's fires. MDS is still working on several more in the area.

We went for lunch in Ritzville with Colleen and Dennis and Earl and had a good visit. Afterwards we stopped by their house to take a look at a wonderful batch of teapots, coffee pots, sugars, etc. that they had recently bought from a retiring antique dealer. Dennis will be giving them a second chance at life by making them into wind chimes. Their jewelry is fun and gorgeous, but until you see Dennis's work area, it's hard to see how much work goes into the transformation.