Gleanings Day Three

16 Jan 2013

Kaleb surprised us this morning by participating with the worship team (above)!  I guess the leaders asked him yesterday if he would join them, and he agreed.  Then he kept it a secret all night and this morning, so he had a smirky look on his face as he was up there singing.  Too funny.  We were proud of him, just the same, as that’s the first time he’s ever done anything like that.  I think he’d move here, if he could.  He’s lovin’ it.

There were two large church groups here Monday and Tuesday, but they went home after breakfast today, so there wasn’t much production work going on because of lack of hands to do it.  There is a huge homeschool group coming in later tonight, so today was a day for cleaning and prepping for the work they will be doing tomorrow and Friday.  Kaleb and I had to hunt for work all day.  We swept out the huge warehouse we’d been working in, so that took most of the morning.  Then we swept out the loading dock area and Kaleb swept out the soup mix warehouse (photo far below) as they are preparing that to make trail mix in there tomorrow.  While he was in the soup warehouse, he noticed a small bird in there so it took Kaleb and I longer than it should have to get that bird out of the warehouse.  He enjoyed throwing a roll of packing tape at it to get it to fly from one place to another, while I held open the big plastic flap door the forklifts go through.  In the end, the darn bird flew out an open door on the other end of the warehouse, but it provided quite a bit of entertainment for us this morning.

Kory worked all day repairing trays (above and below) that are used to dry the peaches in the summertime.  They are all goopy and pretty gross, but they wait to pressure wash them until they see which ones can be repaired.  He tore off broken supports and replaced them with new wood.  I think he would have rather been building bunk beds, but they weren’t ready for that job yet, either.

After Kaleb and I cleaned as much as we could clean, we helped a lady shell walnuts for a few hours.  It was glorious – sitting outside in the sunshine cracking nuts.  I so needed to feel the sun on my skin and today was the first day we’ve been here that it was warm enough to be outside.  One guy walked by and asked if we needed any music for entertainment and he started humming some song I later realized was a song from The Nutcracker.  I’m a little slow.

Kaleb was anxious to get going on some production work again so we went out to the soup mix warehouse to see if we could help with set up.  They were washing metal lids to huge barrels so I dried them and Kaleb stacked them against many different surfaces to let them further dry.  We must have done a hundred of them and the lids were huge and hard to handle, but it went much quicker with us helping.  We just had to find work wherever we could so we didn’t look like slackers.  Tomorrow will be a full production day so it was kinda nice not going at such a frantic pace today.  My body still aches.  It even hurts to bend my fingers.  Every part of me is getting a work out so I’m sleeping well at night.

We have to set our alarm clock in order to wake up at 6:30 in the morning as they run a pretty tight ship here and we need to get out of bed in shifts because of our small living quarters.  We can’t all get up at once or it would be chaos. The living quarters they provide for the volunteers are pretty luxurious so it silly to stay in our RV, but that’s just the way it worked out this time.

We’re not working as many hours each day as I expected, but it’s still a full day - set up somewhat like a workday.  Breakfast is at 7, chapel is at 8.  They have a coffee break right after chapel and by 9:25 everyone needs to be at their workstations working.  Lunch is at noon, back to work by one.  There’s another snack break at 3, back to work by 3:30 and work is over by five.  Dinner is at 5:30 then it’s free time after that.  Each work group signs up to clean in the dining hall after a meal, so we did that this morning after breakfast.  They have things pretty well under control here and everyone seems to love it– both the volunteers and the staff.  Most of the staff is Canadian and oh so thankful to be out of their winter weather back home.  Everyone sits at different tables and engages the volunteers in conversation so no one feels left out or awkward.  It’s all pretty friendly and people really do come here to work hard, so that’s nice.

Kaleb’s been glued to the ping-pong table and will play anyone that has the energy.  He bangs the ball against the wall if no one is around, so it’s nice to see him doing something other than reading or sitting on his computer.  I’ve been having him journal, by hand, each day, which he hates, but I’m sure this trip is one he will want to recall later.  Besides, he’s not doing any schooling while we are here.

Chris, Dani’s husband, was going to come over tonight to visit and to see this place, but he just called to say he can’t make it because his house was on fire today!  Actually, his water heater caught fire – it must have shorted out and then caught the wooden base it was sitting on, on fire.  It was in his garage, so that was lucky, but he wasn’t home at the time.  He said it was kind of funny because the wood was flaming, but the flames were so hot they melted one of the plastic pipes, so water leaked out and extinguished the fire!  He did have a bit of damage to his garage though, and the fire department had to come out, so he needed to stay home and contact the insurance company and figure out what to do without any hot water.   I guess I’ll do my laundry here before we leave, rather than wait to do it at Dani’s this coming weekend because who knows if they will have hot water by then.

It’s already been one week since we’ve been on the road.  So far, so good.  We feel very blessed.

Gleanings - Day Two

15 Jan 2013

Today was more of the same from yesterday, but with a few twists.  Kaleb and I were back in the warehouse this morning, ripping open packets of instant potatoes and filling up a 4’ x 4’ x 4’ bin.  Our team filled 4 today in less time than yesterday, so we’re getting better at it.  We also had the chance after lunch to work with donated rice.

I guess California rice farmers donate their “broken rice” to this place.  It’s weird to think that something as small as a grain of rice has no value if it’s not whole, and that there would even be a way to tell, but it must be the case because there were dozens of bags of 5,000 pounds of rice sitting all over the place, waiting to go feed people in Haiti.

Someone else donated brand new five gallon buckets, and I guess the contact organization in Haiti asked that the rice not come in those bulk shipments, but to be broken down in five gallon buckets so they are easier to handle and then the people can use the buckets for many things when they are empty.  So Kaleb and I worked rice processing for a few hours.

A forklift lifted up these humongous bags of rice and underneath them are release shoots that are kinda scary when first opened up, as the rice just comes cascading out in a very uncontrolled fashion.  Our job was to control the flow and keep the buckets going underneath it.  Kaleb kept the empty buckets coming and I put on the lids afterwards.   A backpacker from Germany controlled the outflow and several other young adults stacked them on the pallets.

One interesting thing about this place is that they open their doors to the world’s backpackers.  They don’t want any from the United States here, but they are listed on some world backpacking association website and young people come from all over the world to get a respite from travel and to work for free room and board.  The only requirement is that they attend chapel and that they work.  Most of them aren’t Christians, and the guy from Germany certainly wasn’t.  He took smoke breaks and he used the F bomb in nearly every sentence.  I flinched every time he swore, as I know Kaleb just isn’t used to that kind of language, but I guess now he’s heard it all. I think it’s good they use this place as a way to minister to young people though, so I guess if that’s the price to pay, so be it.

We went back to the potato warehouse after we were done with a few pallets of rice.  My fingers got sore from cutting open the packets so I switched jobs and just dumped the contents in the bin for an hour or so.  We were all busy chatting away so the time went by quickly.  If we were getting paid for that work, I’m sure we would have all complained bitterly, but it puts a different perspective on things when we are working for the Lord.

I had this ironic thought yesterday as I was stooped over for hours on end picking up cardboard that we are doing this work to feed the hungry - and sometimes shipments to go Mexico.  When I was on a mission trip in Mexico, I felt badly for the Mexicans that are stooped over all day picking produce in the fields to feed us Americans.  Strange world we live in.

The coolest part of today was that a shipment went out to Africa loaded with soup mix.  They stop all work when the truck is loaded and all the staff and volunteers gather around the truck and pray for it’s contents, that it would get to its destination and that it would nourish the body and souls of the recipients.  It’s a sweet ceremony and one that doesn’t happen every week, so we were blessed to be able to be part of it today.

Kory finished his job rebuilding some cabinets for a staff member here and just used the rest of his day to clean up the carpenter shop.  He’s awaiting his next assignment of building bunk bed kits to be sent somewhere overseas, which hopefully he will start tomorrow.

My body is still crying out from standing all day, bending over, and doing repetitive tasks, but I’m just thankful it’s holding up and able to do the work – and faster than the others working here.  They keep telling Kaleb and I to slow down, that it’s not a competition, but it makes it more fun if we push ourselves.  Now, I’d just like to push myself into a hot bath and fall asleep.

Unpackin' Potatoes

14 Jan 2013

I feel my age.  I feel old.  Every muscle in my body is screaming, “I need a massage!”  But in a way, it hurts “so good,” because what got me in this condition was serving God.   Literally, the hands and feet of Jesus.

This YWAM base is amazing.  It was the dream of a local guy over 30 years ago who saw the local fruit producers just DUMP perfectly good fruit because by the time it got to market, it would be rotten.  He asked if they could bring it to him, and he dried it – at the height of perfection for drying fruit – and farmers were happy to contribute so it didn’t go to waste.  The operation has grown tremendously over the years and now the amount of food it packages and sends around the world is mind boggling – all donated from various sources, and all labor, including those here full time, is also free.

Their attitude is that the food is just a vehicle to preach the gospel, so many different Christian organizations around the world request food from this place, but they will only ship it to them if the gospel is preached, and they pay for the shipping.  They ship a container full at a time, which costs thousands of dollars but will feed a million people.

Today, Kory ended up tearing apart some cabinets and resizing them to fit in another spot, so he was in his element doing carpentry all day.  His body held up fine, so hallelujah for that.  Kaleb and I were sent to the warehouse where pallet after pallet of “expired” instant mashed potatoes were donated.  I guess hungry folks in other countries don’t care much about American expiration dates and I’m sure it takes a long time before dried potato flakes actually go bad.  So Kaleb was working feverishly all day ripping open packs of instant potatoes (below) and dumping them into a huge cardboard bin.  They have a giant sucking machine that takes in different spices, powdered things (like the potatoes), lentils and rice and mixes them in a tumbler then volunteers scoop out the mix to put in a gallon Ziploc bag and that becomes enough soup for a hundred hungry mouths.  So, we’re doing the back work to that process, prepping the bins.  They aren’t sure they will be making soup this week, which disappointed Kaleb a bit, but there’s still plenty of work to do.

I started out squishing all the package boxes (above) so I could stuff them in the larger cardboard boxes, as the kids just threw the boxes on the ground.  So I was the clean-up crew, bent over picking up cardboard, stuffing it, then stacking it on to pallets to be sent to recycling.  Not much gets wasted around here. 

When I caught up with their production, I started helping rip open the bags.  I felt like an efficiency expert all day.  When I was stuffing the cardboard, I realized if the containers got turned sideways, the lid on the outer box would close and then the boxes could easily be stacked.  The other folks helping with this were just putting the boxes in like they stand up on the shelf, and they stuck out from the top of the cardboard box so there was no way to seal the box and stack it.  Once I showed them “a better way” they all started doing it.  It was the same with ripping open the pouches of potatoes.  Everyone was just doing one bag at a time and dumping them into the larger bin.  I just got a pair of scissors and lifted up four packs at a time and cut off the tops, then handed off the box for the others to just turn the box upside down and dump out the contents.  It went so much faster that way.  We filled five or six of these huge bins (below) today.

Kaleb was engaged all day in conversation with some college aged kids and he loved being part of their team.  He didn’t like it so much when I butted in his territory.  Oh well.  He even befriended the camp director’s son, who is about the same age, and they played ping-pong during the breaks.  It’s so nice to see him socializing!

We had a huge surprise this morning when we saw a guy from our home church volunteering here, too.  He’s been here since October and he’s the one that told us about this place.  We had no idea he was still here, as he also volunteers down in Mexico at the orphanage, so that’s where we thought he was.  It was nice to visit with him today and tell him all the cool things happening back home.

It was a good day’s work and I’m sure by week’s end I’ll either be fit as a fiddle or ready to drop.  Kaleb’s not complaining and Kory’s impressed with all he’s seen today, so it was a good choice to come here.  

A Real Day of Rest

13 Jan 2013

Hanging out with my pal Dani has to be one of the highlights of my life.  She and her husband make me laugh like no one else I know, except maybe my pal, Vestina, in Norway.  I met Dani in 1983 when I was her supervisor at my first job out of college.  She hadn’t been to college at that point, but she has since bested me by getting her AA, BA and MA.  She’s now a school administrator working with troubled kids.  She’s an excellent “shrink” as she’s able to put spins on things I’d never even think of.  She’s also a cancer survivor and one very sharp cookie.  I so wish we lived closer to each other.

We were hoping to go to church with her this morning but her church had a big shake up and split, so she isn’t going there anymore.  She reminded me we went to  “church” yesterday in Redding, so she thought that might “count.”  She was raised catholic so her guilt was coming through, but I assured her it was okay if we all just hung out at her house and skipped church altogether.

Chris and Kory were outside in the beautiful (but chilly) sunshine, washing vehicles this afternoon. Our rig was covered in rust colored sand from going over the pass.  Dani and I hung out inside all day yacking away while Kaleb was glued to their big screen TV and their dog.  He was in hog heaven when Abby was on his lap and he was petting her with one hand while holding his nook, reading a book, with his other hand.  He thought it was funny when the dog moved her head and her nose accidentally turned the page for him.

It was a laid back kind of day and Kory kept remarking it was so unusual for us to have nothing on the agenda.  But I did, and I was doing it – just catching up with my friend.   I haven’t seen her for a year when she came up to visit me for a long weekend last January.

Dani made a great fat free vegan stew for us for lunch and I made pasta for dinner for everyone but we ate it quickly so we could hit the road and get checked in at Gleanings for the Hungry – our first big volunteer stop on this trip.  It’s a Youth with a Mission base not far from Dani’s house, south of Fresno, where they process dried fruits and veggies for the needy.  In the summer, their dorms are full of high school and college kids, but in the off-season they are full of Canadians volunteering for the winter, trying to escape the cold from the north.

Ironically, there’s a cold snap going on right now so it’s a bit nippy at night – like 25 degrees, but we bought a small portable heater so we don’t have to run the furnace, and we are more than toasty warm inside.  We have a great RV concrete slab with water, electric and sewer and it’s in a quiet area – surrounded by orange groves.  This is a huge complex, but there aren’t many people here right now, so we’ll see how the week shapes up.  We’re just here to serve in whatever capacity they need us and it’s my best shot at giving Kaleb a taste of the “working life” he doesn’t otherwise know anything about. 

What’s so amazing about living in an RV is that we have absolutely everything we need here.  Food, shelter, water, a bed, a dining table, electricity, a place for everything and the ability to move around.  It makes me wonder what we are doing with so much other stuff in our house, when life can be broken down to such basic necessities and we’re able to function just fine with so little.  It’s certainly something to think about.