April 28 Sabbatical Update

Well let me take a few minutes to tell you what we have been up to. It seems like we have gotten quite a bit of R&R but as I list our activities, you will be able to tell we have enjoyed a variety of experiences! Let me just do it chronologically!

FRIDAY was our first full day in Roanoke. We were able to enjoy a walk on one of the area trails. (There are so many trails in the area, I think we could do an hour walk every day and never duplicate one!) Then we spent a good portion of the day stocking our pantry and picking up a few things that we had forgotten, or didn't know we would need. The furnished apartment is set up for a corporate rental, so it does have quite a bit in the way of kitchen supplies, linens, towels, etc.

SATURDAY was our first service project - the first of many! We spent about 4 hours working on a trail building project. There is a volunteer team that has worked for years in the construction of maintenance of area trails. Some of them have also worked on the granddaddy of all trails - the Appalachian Trail - which also runs nearby. This one was on a natural area preserve about 10 miles outside the city on Poor Mountain. This preserve hosts the world's largest known population of a globally rare shrub called piratebush. In fact there are more specimens of piratebush on Poor Mountain than all other known populations combined!

Fortunately our fellow workers were experienced and trained us quickly. The existing trail (up and down the mountain side) eventually just gives out. So we had to hike that trail to its end, at which point our work began. (NOTE this is on the same day as BARK, so we were participating vicariously - just a long way from Bellville!) We were basically using tools to smooth out the trail with just a slight slope so water would not puddle, and also making sure there was no berm on the downward slope side, again so water would drain well.

After the morning work, we hiked back to the parking lot for lunch! We also received t-shirts for our work. Since we have evening plans, we forego the afternoon work, but learn that some of the folks meet out there every Wednesday to make progress on the trail.

You can read more about Poor Mountain AT THIS SITE.


SATURDAY EVENING - after cleaning up and rehydrating, we went to participate in part of the day's events at the "Sounds of the Mountain" festival of storytelling and music. We have always enjoyed hearing some of the great story tellers, and it is an Appalachian art they are trying not to lose! This is an annual event held at a church camp run by the Church of the Brethren.

By the way, it is quite hot - the highs have been over 90 degrees. Some years it does not hit 90 until June here. Just earlier in the week (just before our arrival) it was down below freezing, and some parts of the area even saw some snow! To give you an idea, the low here on 4/21 was 21 degrees (we just missed that as we were still driving in), and the high on 4/23 was 90 degrees! So much for our usual bragging about the changing Texas weather!! It should be cooler again soon - but it is still nice for us, and even on the days where it gets over 90, the lows have been dipping into the fifties!

Rather than tell you about each musician or storyteller we heard, I will list them below - and if you click on their names - you can find their web sites:

Gypsy Moon Tellers

Anthony Burcher

Lynn Ruehlmann


Kim Weitkamp she was our favorite!! We would LOVE to get her to Bellville!!

Odds Bodkin - quite a name huh!

Joseph Helfrich - a folk singer and "multi-instrumentalist"

Donald Davis - he was hilarious!

SUNDAY - Wow it was quite an experience to sleep to a normal hour and get up to a leisurely breakfast. It has been 16 years since I was at a church with only one morning service, so early Sundays have been a staple for me for a long time!! Even when we attend church on vacation, it is usually part of a mix of a day of sightseeing in activity. (Once we actually flew from Houston to San Francisco on a Sunday a.m. and had time to check in to our hotel and take a cab and make it to a 10:30 a.m. service!!) So today was the most restful Sunday I have had in who knows how long!! We did make an 11 a.m. service at an area church.

I had "met" the pastor online a couple of months ago and she was very kind in suggesting options for a place to stay so I decided to visit her church. As part of the church service, we heard testimonies from a team that had just returned from a mission trip to West Virginia, to one of the poorest counties in the U.S. They also showed slides. Pastor Liz was so kind to take us to lunch after worship, and we swapped many a story over lunch at Panera!

We got our walk in also! Trying not to miss a day! (This is a challenge for Betsy right now - she is taking a med for sinus that causes joint pain - so the ups and downs hurt even more than usual.)

MONDAY - Today we toured the Roanoke Rescue Mission - wow, what an operation - it is a Christian outreach ministry with over 60 years of work in reaching out to homeless folks. (Roanoke is a longtime railroad town, and that tends to go along with a presence of homelessness - men especially.)

I don't know where to start. It is the largest shelter in the state of Virginia, and they accept no federal or state funds. They do not even accept United Way funds, and so they manage to structure their operation without having to water down their Christian ministry. They have the overnight shelters for men and women with no place to go - and 3 meals a day, seven days a week - no strings attached. They get so much food donated that the cost per meal averages 12 cents a plate. We are going to do volunteer work with part of our time here, and this looks like a great place to do it. You can check them out further at this site.

We ended Monday with a nice dose of high culture, as we went to the performance of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. I always enjoy symphony, but hardly ever take the time to go. The major work was the Brahms Requiem, presented in conjunction with two guest soloists and about a 150-voice chorus. There was also a short work by the Brazilian composer Villalobos, presented by a soprano soloist and eight cellos.

Roanoke is quite a compact metropolitan area (compared to Houston at least) so it as nice to go to an 8 p.m. symphony concert and be back in our apartment before 10:15!

FINALLY - I am doing reading also. The book I am working on now is one I have recommended before - but (I am embarrassed to say) - have never actually read! It is the book BOUNDARIES by Cloud and Townsend. I will post more after I finish it.

TTFN