The Scrawl

I think coming back to the houses and seeing all the work we did already really rallied us to push ourselves today because everyone worked really hard. I split my time between both houses to catch some video footage so I can give you some fairly accurate updates that hopefully don’t have too many holes in them.

At the first house, we sanded down the kitchen ceiling we mudded yesterday and added another coat so we could sand that, too. Finally, we taped the trim we laid down and primed the ceiling for a future paint job. Considering how many hours people have put into this ceiling, I hope the task of painting falls to us; everyone who did the “grunt” work deserves to put on some finishing touches.

The adjacent laundry room got the most attention today. We needed to disconnect the hot water heater, severe (saw through) the steel pipes, take out the door and put in a new door, take out the washer and dryer, shore up part of the floor, lay down plywood, finish the floor off with… I forget. Some sort of wood that is named after a woman. I think it begis with “L” (sorry, I’m still learning all of the technical carpentry terms). Speaking of terms, Steve C. introduced me to my new favorite verb, “wang.” He told me it’s the word carpenters use if they don’t have another word. For example, when he marked off a circle on a piece of plywood and asked me to drill holes in it’s diameter so we could cut it out, he asked me to, “Wang out a circle.” Later, when Kent had me do the same thing to a piece of drywall at the other house, he asked me to “wang” it, too. Apparantly, I really know how to wang.

The laundry room was labor-intensive because it was full of little projects that had to be done in a particular order. We couldn’t shore up the floor until we moved the hot water heater, which we couldn’t move until we took out the door, and so on. Pete S. and Kelly M. became quite the power tool team, while Kristen H. lead a squadron of young women in the kitchen. Steve C. and Dave S. lead Pete, Kelly, Trevor N., and me in working on the laundry room. Unfortunately, when reinstalling the hot water heater, we found some old pipes were broken and the family would go without hot water for the evening. Definitely not ideal, but hopefully fixable as soon as possible this week.

After lunch, I moseyed on down to the other house to get some video footage of the rest of our group hard at work. As you’ll recall, this was the house needing a window boarded up, finishing work on another set of windows, and new vinyl on the bathroom floor so the toilet could go back in. Today had two new projects added to the list – install a new door and mount a new drywall ceiling in the bathroom. By the time I arrived, Chris S., Leah K., and Kelsey W. had filled in many of the holes, dents, and crags of the closed-up window and had done finishing work on the other windows. Pastor Kent was working on the bathroom while Ken S. and Jerry M. worked steadily on a new front door. I helped get some drywall on the ceiling before we called it a day to go grocery shopping for tonight’s dinner, burgers on the grill.

Highlights of the day include dissecting a long-forgotten pack of Juicy Fruit gum found underneath the hot water heater (yes the rumors are true – I ate a tiny, tiny bit and lived to tell the tale), Molly N. lying on top of a refrigerator to get a good angle to paint the ceiling, Steve C. teaching Pete S. and me how to use power tools like circular saws, Trevor N. having to walk six blocks to a Shell gas station to use the bathroom after we shut the water off in the house, Dave S. working with his head underneath rotting steps as people kept walking on them, Pastor Kent making crepe-thin pancakes with the last of the batter, Texas resident Ken being able to point out some window frames we neglected to drywall because in Minnesota we’d be used to wood, Jerry explaining to me that after seventy-plus years of life the arthritis might be starting to kick in, Kristen H.’s meeting and talking with Mrs. Perez – the owner of one of the homes – and telling her, “Your mother has a good daughter,” Chris S. finding a new disciple of random singing in Kelsey W., yesterday’s nailgun exploits for Kelly M. matched only by today’s power-sawing through steel pipe, Molly D. getting a mysterious drywall handprint on her tummy, Leah K. and me moving a ladder a mere three feet approximately three-dozen times in thirty minutes, and Piper C. responding to one of my stories with, “Yeah I know, you’ve told us that story before.” My apologies to her parents, but for her insolence, she will be remaining in Texas.

Tonight we head to Beaumont for the Crockett Street dance. We’ve decided to take a little “horizontal time” after dinner to rest up before going out tonight and I think I’m almost looking forward to that more than the street dance. Also, I’ve learned from the local newspaper’s website that discharging firearms within city limits is a misdemeanor with an up to $4,000 fine and a year in jail if one is caught, so I’m glad we didn’t bring any guns with us because wow, the temptation to ring in the new year with a bang is tough to say ‘no’ to, you know…

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P.S. If I have time to retro-actively post photos in other days’ posts, I will, but I don’t have time today. However, here are new photos of today’s activities courtesy of Piper:

Sanding the new drywall in the laundry room so we can move the hot water heater later in the day.

Kelly power saw's through steel pipe as Pete sprays the whole mess with a can of DW-40. The pipe still ends up smoking as the saw bites through it.

Molly D. shows us how to prime a ceiling with grace, class, and quiet dignity.

Piper poses with the new table created to lift the hot water heater up off the floor to keep the new floor clean and add some storage space.

A group of us prepare to do some final mudding in the kitchen, laundry room, and beyond.Some irresponsible adult decided it would be a good idea to give Pete a circular saw. Luckily, we all survived.

Like the Day 2, Part 2 post, the Day 3, Part 2 post is being written the next day, but covers Day 3 events, so hopefully my mind’s eye is clear.

Last night everyone returned tired and hungry. Chris’s chili hit the spot and my request for the grocery-buying team to get a bag of oyster crackers topped it off, well. Steve C. and I find more and more ways to be “twins” – we’ve worn nearly the same shirts at church before a few times, then both wore Minnesota Twins shirts, laughed at / told similar jokes, and we both made it our business to dice up some white onion for our chili. Rather than say I’m frightened how much I’m like a gentleman a few decades my senior, I’ll instead propose that this must help Steve feel younger and leave it at that.

After a few showers and some time to rest, I led a brief worship service kicked off by Molly D. and me playing a guitar / ukulele duet of “Weave Me the Sunshine” and “I Like Bananas.” With The Message translation of Romans 15:1-2 as the backbone of the worship service, I spoke about our group and how we should be proud of what we’re accomplishing, as well as our courage to take a chance and travel to Texas over New Year’s to try something new. We remembered those back home who considered the trip but ultimately ended up not coming along; we promised each other not to return with an attitude of, “You missed out,” but rather, “We missed you; we hope you come with next time.” We broke out into our small groups to discuss what brought us on the trip and how we would help each other be strong throughout the rest of the trip, then wrapped up with a sing-a-long of “Lean On Me.”

The group dispersed after worship. Some chose to rest or read (most of the adults) while others joined Molly D. and me for more singing during a guitar / ukulele jam, though she was awesome to yet again let Trevor N. and Pete S. borrow her guitar to play a few songs, too. The youth room was locked so we didn’t watch a movie and weren’t able to get access to our Great Dalmuti cards, so the evening was low-key with light music playing and plenty of conversation. While I wish we had access to the room (we will on Wednesday), I’m glad for the break from things like movies and were able to have conversations.

Highlights of the evening included Kristen and me telling old camp stories to youth while Kent told even older camp stories to Kristen and me, bad jokes at dinner, Dave S.’s brother, Ken, giving everyone light-up, football-shaped plastic premiums from Hewlett-Packard (his employer), seeing Kent put the lights over his eyes and Piper C. taking photos of Alien Kent, telling youth about the comments we’ve had on the blog, seeing Kelly light up at the sight of her new fleece blanket and air mattress, a certain youth admitting while they weren’t sure they wanted to attend the trip that they’re really glad they came, and my meeting Miss Shirley, the church custodian, who will (hopefully be able to) let me into the church once a day to blog. An elder sweetheart with what seems to me to be genuine Southern courtesy and mannerisms, Miss Shirley is a lively woman living in a camper trailer in the church parking lot after hurricane season. As I say, hopefully our schedules will click for the rest of the trip so blog updates can continue.

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Hey, hey, hey! I’ve even got some photos from tonight, too:

Alien Kent and his new eyeballs.

Nate, Trevor N., and Pete S. jamming out in jammies.

Molly D. and Nate playing worship music as Piper C. and Kelsey W. stand behind them to sing along.

Our group has worked hard today, it’s unbelievable what everyone’s put into these two homes. I’ll back track a little bit here but I wanted to get that out of the way.

Breakfast was cereal and bagels, plus a few fun surprises as everyone received a carptenter’s pencil, hot beverage to-go cup, and Home Depot tool pocket apron thing (you know what I’m talking about). Nate showed up just as adult chaperone Dave’s brother, Ken, who lives in Texas, showed with his tools in-hand to help us out this week. Ken brings our group up to sixteen (seventeen, if you count the Tom Tom GPS). We grabbed our gear and Nate lead our vehicles to our two worksites.

We arrived at the first home and Nate showed us all of our projects. Because there were not only more projects but more room we decided to put most of the group to work on that home (floors / walls / ceilings / water heater) while a small group of Pastor Kent, Jerry M., Ken, and Kelly M. went to the other house (bathroom / windows). I’m the only one who initially visited both so I could shoot some documentary footage, then Nate drove me back to the first home. On the way, I asked him about the neighborhood in terms of socio-economic levels and he said we were in a “medium” neighborhood but on the low side. He said there are worse neighborhoods around and that was powerful to hear, considering how much work there was to do in the neighborhood we’re working in today.

When I returned to the first home, people were already busy. Molly N., Molly D., Leah K., and Kelsey W. were scraping and sanding wall materials. “Drywall” Dave lead the charge in laying down a new faux-wood panel vinyl flooring for the bedroom, with Trevor N. and mother-son Team Stone helping out every step of the way. Steve C. taught Kristen H., Piper C., and me how to put “mud” on the ceiling – a sort of spackle coating to smooth out the ceiling’s nails and seams. Everyone was in high spirits as we worked, and conversation ran just as steady as floor was laid out and walls were sanded down.

Lunch was a tasty picnic on the porch filled with conversations of school and what they teach and what they don’t teach, plus tossing grapes at Pete so he could catch them in his mouth (a natural talent, for sure). We reached a point in the work that left room for only some members of our group to be of much service, so I drove a gaggle of girls to Target to pick up blankets for a few folks who ended up too cold last night. By the time we returned, it was time to do crown molding and primer painting, while my wife, Kelly, who had moved to the first house after lunch, was busy smashing nails into brand-new floor trim with the loudest nail gun I’ve ever heard in my life. She had a big smile on her face as she worked with the nail gun, too, confirming my theory that I can safely buy her power tools for birthdays, Christmas, and anniversaries and she’ll be happy (I still like getting The Simpsons stuff).

The work is hard and dirty but there isn’t one complainer in the bunch and everyone is doing a phenomenal job. Ohio Nate stopped by, took one look at the new vinyl bedroom floor we laid in, and praised us for an amazing job – something he says he rarely gets the chance to say. This really boosted our spirits and has us working even harder as a result. We’re hoping to finish up a few more pieces of important work so tomorrow we can disconnect the water heater and get that moved / fixed and turn this unfortunate house into something wonderful.

Other highlights include Piper C. slicing away with a hacksaw to make sure trimmings were the perfect size, Steve C. teaching Pete S. how to use his circular saw, the awesomeness that is Pete and my matching Kum & Go gas station t-shirts, Kelsey W. disagreeing with the concept lemon-flavored water (and also repeatedly accidentally saying we’re in Florida instead of Texas), Kristen proclaiming she had to “man up” and get over working near cockroaches, the first house accidentally taking both auxillary bags of fun lunch stuff like chips and Oreos, Ken bribing the first house with a 12-pack of Mountain Dew in exchange for a saw, Trevor and I desperately trying to lay down pieces of extra vinyl for Team Stone to set heavy furniture on before the dropped it, killing a mosquito and wiping it on Molly D’s shirt, Molly D. saying “Oh, absolutely!” in the most Minnesotan accent possible, and a gentleman driving by our group and stopping to let us know, in a perfect Texas accent, that, “What y’all are doing is tremendous, thank you so much.”

I’m heading back to the worksite after this blog post while Chris wraps up the finishing touches on tonight’s dinner, homemade chili. I believe tonight we’re breaking up into small groups to process the day and talk about tomorrow’s work, plus maybe a movie, definitely some more Great Dalmuti, Molly D. and I want to have a guitar / ukulele jam, and hopefully I’ll get word from Barry that we have the ability to post photos on the blog (and hopefully I find a way to get into the church library to blog again!).

Just in case I’m unable to blog tomorrow, we’re heading up to Beaumont, Texas for the Crockett Street New Year’s Eve party. It’s a street dance with live music, BBQ, jumbotrons to watch festivities in NYC, and more. Sounds like a blast, and many of our suburban youth have never been to a street dance before, so there’s some uniqueness to it.

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P.S. I’m passing your comments on to the group, so keep them coming!

I’m blogging this in the middle of the afternoon on Day 3, but the content pertains to wrapping up yesterday’s events, so we’ll call it even…

Picking up from my last post, we lucked out for dinner. We’re in cattle country and that means the steaks are thick, juicy, and cheaper than hamburger! Everyone helped themselves to a great steak cooked on a grill outdoors by grillmaster Steve C. as well as some salad, broasted veggies, and some brownies made by the couple temporarily housed in the church, Chris and Steph. I tried Itaian dressing for the first time and was think I found a new tangy favorite.

After dinner, the group broke up into three segments. Many of the adults retired to their books, chats, or even sleep. Two adults however, Kristen and my wife Kelly, joined the girls to watch Stick It, a movie about gymnastics which I gave a chance for a few minutes because Jeff Bridges plays the coach but I couldn’t stick it out for long (to each his her own; this one just wasn’t for me). In the meantime, the third segment, youths Trevor and Pete and I, had a guitar / ukulele jam session, playing Trevor’s favorites (“Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin), my favorites (“Strange Apparition” by Beck), and ironic favorites (“Since You’ve Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson). It was around that time we were all brought back together to get the lowdown from (the other) Nate on what we would be doing in the morning.

Nate’s forty-five minute presentation was both fascinating and heart-wrenching. Over 85,000 homes in the Port Arthur and surrounding area were damaged in hurricanes in recent years and just when it appeared clean-up for Hurricane Rita was going well, Hurricane Ike hit. These are folks without much hope, people not on the news and without Katrina response-level aid. Nate told us UMCOR has been rebuilding homes as fast as possible with 20-40 volunteers in the area per week and our job would be directly reated to two homes – one needs new floors, ceiling and wall work, steps, and to have its water heater moved. The other home needs a former window-turned-hole in the wall to have its air conditioner removed and be patched up, its other windows to be finished, and new tile laid in the bathroom so the toilet can be put back in so family can live in it once again. Our group was enthusiastic to ask questions to our laid-back UMCOR liason, and he is excited to work with us. Nate is employed in mission work year-round in Texas, though he’s from Ohio, and he made a connection with Trevor, as they’re both originally from the Cleveland area.

After Nate’s presentation, the girls finished the movie, many of the adults went to bed, and the guys wrapped up the guitar / ukulele jam. The youth and I got together to play a few hands of The Great Dalmuti, a card game that rewards royalty and punishes peasants which, if it sounds odd and out of the mainstream, completely is and yes, belongs to Pastor Kent. This game has been a staple at past youth outings like Camp Du Nord, the boundary waters, and Confirmation retreats, and it only seems appropriate to bring it on a mission trip. The highlight of the game was watching Leah K. go from the Greater Peon, the lowest position of play in the game, for two rounds in a row to the Greater Dalmuti, the highest position of play in the game, for two rounds in a row. The look on her face when from bored frustration to triumphant glee in no time. Then, it was bedtime since Nate arrives at 8:00am to take us to our work site.

Other highlights of the day include playing with cute puppy Mischief, taking those wonderfully soothing showers, the girls picking me up a pink bath scrubby, meeting the men’s group from First UMC who are staying here tonight, too, after a weekend of mission work, and of course, did we mention the steaks?

We love your comments. Keep them coming! I found out from Barry the blog underwent it’s overhaul and the lack of picture-posting ability is likely due to that new coding. Hopefully we’ll have it fixed by tomorrow night.

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I tried blogging from my cell phone last night to no avail, so my apologies if anyone is waiting with baited breath for an update.

Yesterday morning, the Excelsior UMC church service featured our group getting sent off in style complete with prayers, votive candles, a prayer shawl, and the passing out of work gloves, which I know will come in handy. Nan was wonderful enough to make sure we had everything we needed to make some delicious sandwiches so we could take off and get a few hours and miles between us and home without worrying about stopping for lunch. Everyone arrived at church before me, by the way, which is just how I roll, of course.

The drive down was smooth sailing, though Chris might tell you a few tales of insane drivers weaving in-between semi trucks across four lanes of traffic and well above the posted speed limit. We traveled in two vehicles – Nate, Kelly, Chris, Jerry, and Kent took “Ruby,” the Excelsior UMC / Camp Kowaken minivan, and adults Steve, Dave, and Kristen with youth Trevor, Pete, Kelsey, Piper, Leah, Molly D. and Molly N. took the 15-passenger white van. They had another guest, Tom Tom, to act as our sixteenth group member.

I drove Ruby the first four and a half hours or so to Des Moines and traded up, making sure adults were rotating driving duties. I was on again for the 3:00am-7:00am driving shift, as well, and I kept myself awake singing along to Eddie Vedder songs in the CD player while everyone else slept. Meanwhile, in the other van, Dave and Steve alternated driving the youth were asleep by the time we passed through Faribault – roughly forty minutes into the trip. They also woke to say ‘hi’ to each new state on the journey, though the seats didn’t lend themselves to quality sleep at all.

After a drive down mostly Interstate 35 and a few side highways, with a stop at a restaurant, gas station or two, and IHOP, we arrived in Port Arthur just before 2:00pm this afternoon. I’m blogging from the cozy confines of the Procter Baptist Church library while the rest of the gang unloads their gear, stretches the canvas of their cots as taught as possible, and takes some much-needed showers. We’re staying in a large gym on the side of the church and the girls have already claimed several pieces of furniture to set up all of their stuff, while the guys have kinda thrown their stuff in a corner, more worried about finding outlets for cell phones than comfort. We met some of the church staff and another volunteer group from a Texas UMC group who are staying overnight, as well. There’s also a couple staying here, too, Chris and Steph, along with their cute little puppy, Mischief.

Highlights so far include Molly D. buying some stylin’ pink plastic sunglasses, watching a server cough over a big plate of butter in a restaurant kitchen, attempting to get Pete to eat chicken fried steak at every meal, sing-a-longs, naps, stories and jokes, huge plates of chocolate chip pancakes, and I almost paid $3.99 for a cup of ice. The action was probably in the other van; my van was full of adults only and we’re pretty boring, don’t ya know (that said, I did learn the iPod-to-radio hook-up didn’t work so Steve’s choice of smooth jazz lead the youth to don their headphones).

As I say, we’re chillig out for a little while, and hoping Nate (not me, another Nate) stops by tonight with directions on what sort of work projects we’ll take on tomorrow morning. We’ve set up some small groups for work / discussion, and half the group has gone grocery shopping. If I have more to report, I’ll try and blog again tonight.

Speaking of blogging, I’ve been informed that my access to the church library will vary. I may not have access after Tuesday, but tune in just in case. Some staff may be in and out of the church to let me in but with the New Year’s Eve holiday, I can’t say for sure. I also seem to be having trouble with uploading photos but I’ll see what I can do.

Don’t forget to give us a comment so I can pass it along or subscribe to the RSS feed.

-nm

Write about a character who helps a stranger. Keep said character’s emotion at the center of the piece, meaning, what you write should center more on how the character feels about helping this stranger than what they’re actually doing. Give this exercise fifteen minutes of your time. If you’re feeling extra creative this morning, take an additional fifteen minutes to write the story again, but this time from the stranger’s emotional point of view.

Write it up and see what happens,

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Welcome to the first installment of Mission: Texas. Fifteen of us leave this morning for a mission trip down to Port Arthur, Texas to fix up houses and do relief clean-up from Hurricane Ike.

Seven youth and eight adults are traveling in our church’s Dodge Caravan and a rented 15-passenger van with a trailer in tow. We figure with rotating drivers and stopping only when necessary, we’ll make it down to the Beaumont / Port Arthur area in approximately twenty hours or so. The route will take us south on Interstate 35 almost the entire way south.

This morning is filled with farewells. We’re loading up our gear, packing sack lunches of sandwiches courtesy of a youth’s mother and chips courtesy of youth programming, and having a send-off during the 10:30am church service. We hope to depart as soon as possible after the service and put a few miles (and hours) between us and Minneapolis.

I’ve never been on a mission trip and neither has my wife or the youth in attendance, but many of the adults going have experience and I’ll likely rely on them to help me learn the ropes. As for my wife and me, we’re hopeful putting ourselves in the thick of service to others serves to strengthen our relationship further. We’ve both commented on how we want to be more helpful to others and how giving money isn’t something we can necessarily do, so hopefully time and talents will serve just as well. We usually do fairly well on road trips – a mark of a good couple, if you ask me – and we’re both excited for the journey ahead.

More updates (and photos!) to come this week, pending internet access throughout the trip. Your comments, prayers, and encouragement is welcome at this blog and will be shared with others on the mission trip.

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Merry Christmas, dear reader.

Books I received as gifts:

Best American Short Stories 2008 guest edited by Salman Rushdie

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Books I gave as Christmas gifts:

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

1957 by Pradt & Dexter

1954 by Pradt & Dexter

21 Dirty Trick at Work by Phipps & Gautrey

Multiple Blessings by Jon & Kate Gosselin

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King on audio book

Barrelhouse Magazine – Roller Derby edition (for my wife)

I’ve never owned my own copy of O’Brien’s book, though I’ve read it, and will enjoy having a copy I can annotate at my leisure. As for the latest Best American edition, I’m excited to see some great writers: T.C. Boyle, Alice Munro, Toby Wolff, Nicole Krauss, Jonathan Lethem, and – hooray, hooray! – Kevin Brockmeier. This last author’s story is tops to be read first.

What books did you give / did you receive for Christmas?

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Our new satire of The Office is available. Catch The Youth Room: Christmas Special at YouTube or watch the below video. I highly recommend watching it in “high quality” to catch detail.

This is the third episode of The Youth Room that the Youth Forum has made and our fifth short film overall in my time working with them. You can see episode two and one, as well. I welcome and appreciate your honest ratings and comments, as well as your subscription to my YouTube channel.

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National Novel Writing Month has come and gone and for my seventh year straight without a “complete” novel of 50,000 words. The highest word count I’ve ever had was somewhere over 15,000 words. That’s way short of the overall goal but it’s still certainly plenty of writing. And now, dear reader, my grand total for this year’s novel-writing attempt:

Day 13 Goal NaNoWriMo Word Count: 50,000/50,000 (100.0%)

Day 13 Actual NaNoWriMo Word Count: 8,520/50,000 (17.0%)

Word Count Difference: -41,480

Writing Sessions: 7

My Story: Fun and quite unfinished.

My Outlook: …*sigh*…

That’s definitely one of my lowest numbers in my NaNoWriMo history. Thousands of people wrote more than I did in thirty days. That’s a lot of accomplishment I’m not necessarily a part of and that’s a bummer. At any rate, I did what I could with the time I had and that’s okay. I can say without hesitation that November, 2008 was one of my busier months this year (a handful of jobs will do that to a guy). Am I disheartened? Not really. Am I proud? Well, not as proud as I would be if I’d tried to give this more time and attention. Am I concerned that Luke Rolfes called me out on not finishing? Yes, it keeps me up at nights (not really, but it’s nice to get a shout-out on someone else’s blog). Regardless, I’m doing it next year and the year after that. I enjoy NaNoWriMo as an exercise and challenge. Plus, I legitimately like what I wrote. It’s the beginnings of a fun little self-aware satire that really could become something if I give it some time and effort (at least, a whole lot more than I gave it in November).

I’d be interested to hear from you, dear reader, if you attempted NaNoWriMo and of your end results.

-nm

P.S. – Earlier this month I promised the following blog posts before the year is out. It’s nice to cross off a few of them as finished, and I have projections for the rest:

• Wrapping up last month’s NaNoWriMo. (Today!)
• Wrapping up my first semester teaching at NCC. (Tomorrow morning!)
• A link to my latest short film (now in the editing stage). (Tomorrow night, I swear!)
• My top ten favorite blog posts of the year. (I think this will happen in January, just in case I have a flash of brilliance or two in the next eight or nine days.)
• Finally, my long-promised recommendation of Five Books for Boys. (Expect this on Friday.)
• Thoughts on Oprah’s Book Club. (This may also have to show up in January.)
• Pros and cons of books as gifts. (Covered in last week’s Friday recommendation.)
• A Writer’s New Year’s Resolutions. (January 1, 2009.)
• New writing prompts and recommendations. (I’ve been on track, lately.)
• A new Scrawlers contest! (Done and over – stay tuned for more in 2009.)
• And, depending on how often I find myself with internet access, some daily blogging about a mission trip I’m co-leading down to Beaumont, Texas over the last week of the year. (Forthcoming…)