Tuesday Night Outreach and a Lesson Learned

Tammy and Rachel have been volunteering time at Hosanna on Tuesday nights. It seemed to start out primarily as a night devoted for outreach to Hispanics in the community but it's grown into much more than that. Earlier in the day, a time is set aside for people to drop off items no longer needed but still of value. The goods are set up in the gymnasium for the hundreds of people who will be attending the evening service and those in need are encouraged to take whatever they can use. There is also a meal served in addition to free hair cuts and nail painting. Painting nails is what Tammy and Rachel have been doing. They've got a table set up with hundreds of bottles of nail polish and people both young and old line up to have their nails done. It's quite a sight...especially the little ones as they're so excited to have somebody do their nails. Last night I offered to be the tattoo artist. The boys aren't so interested in having their nails polished but they do appreciate a stick-on tattoo. That's my job...and removing old nail polish from little fingernails.

An older man approached Tammy as we were there and asked if she did toenails. We sort of thought he was joking but he wasn't. He had shoulder surgery and finds it difficult to clip his toenails. We didn't have a clipper so Tammy offered to take him into a back room and file down his nails. He was so appreciative. It's a very good thing that Hosanna does this outreach. Lakeville is a thriving community and for most of us in our busy lives, we too easily forget those who are struggling to get by. I've been wanting to give more of myself and I think this is an area where I can put myself out there and make inroads to other areas where I can be used.

Leaving church I asked Rachel if she wanted to drive the truck home as she'd recently gotten her learner's permit. Tammy said she'd follow us home so I backed the truck out and let Rachel take over. Rachel got in and without thinking put the truck in reverse and stepped on the gas with Tammy no more than a car length behind us. I was able to reach down and slam the gear to drive reversing our direction with no more than 18" to spare. A tense moment but one which gave a good lesson in how quickly things can go wrong. I told her to shake it off and learn from it. Like I said in a previous post, I don't think she's going to be a natural at this but she'll get it eventually.

I took Rachel to the Mall of America one night last week so she could take some photographs for a class she's in. She's becoming quite the budding photographer. She's been developing her own film and working with different styles of photography. Their next unit will be pinhole photography. I've heard of it before but I'm not sure what it is. I'll know soon enough once she begins working with it.

I came home from work yesterday with a very strong desire to lay down for an hour but I resisted because I really needed to get out and ride...more snow is on the way. I'm glad I did. On the return leg, I was able to hammer along averaging 25 mph over an 11 mile stretch with a nice tailwind to aid me. My bike's a filthy mess and we're expecting 12-20 inches of snow before it stops snowing tomorrow night so I figured now was as good a time as any to take my bike in and have it overhauled. The folks at Flanders told me it's a 2-3 day turn-around.