JnR Journey Notes

Time is moving quickly here in Baltimore, especially with it being holiday season. It's hard to believe we are half-way through our commitment here. Jim especially has been kept busy with fix-up projects at the house. One of his main projects was/is fixing the entryway halls and stairs from the basement to second floor where there is a lot of peeling plaster and holes that need fixed and repainted. He also spent and will spend some more time on projects at the North Baltimore Mennonite Church. Ruth has been helping with these as she can, but also babysitting and making special meals. We have had wonderful opportunities meeting a lot of the people from the church over meals or meetings as well as getting to know the house residents better. Often in the mornings or evenings there are several others cooking and eating in the kitchen, so we chat about life and work and aspirations. We just concluded Thanksgiving holiday time. We hosted a meal here before Thanksgiving for 30 peopl...

43 Steps. That's how many stair steps it is from the kitchen to our third floor bedroom--a great way to stay in shape! We arrived at Reservoir Hill House of Peace on Saturday, Nov. 4, and moved into one of the 10 bedrooms in the big old house. Little by little we are grasping the purpose and mission of those who live here and what our role in it is and will be. We will take part in a house meeting Monday evening and should know a bit more after that, as well. The house is administered by North Baltimore Mennonite Church which is about 3 miles from here. RHHP housed a Voluntary Service unit (which basically has closed), asylum seekers and individuals who work at various jobs in the city who wish to be part of the community here. Presently there is one VSer from Germany, three asylum seeker men and six other young adults besides us. Sunday morning we attended the Mennonite church and met a lot of the people there. We also attended a small group gathering Tuesday evening and got to ...

The journey has begun. We were able to leave Greensboro on October 17 after going to the closing on our house. We were so thankful for the persons who helped pack the truck and others who visited or invited us to meals. At that point we were too tired to process much what had just happened, and we're not sure we've still processed everything, but it still feels like this was the right time and manner to proceed. The truck loaded and ready to head out. The first stop was Salunga, PA, where we unloaded most of the truck contents into a storage unit near Ruth's Dad's place. The next day we drove to Philadelphia and delivered items to Michelle. We spent a week with our daughter. It was so good to see where she works, to meet several of her Arab friends, to visit some of the Philly sights, to attend a church service with her...but mostly just to relax. Sunday afternoon with Michelle in Fairmount Park. Now we are at Ruth's Dad's home for a week until Satur...

Welcome to our new blogspot. We are doing this to keep in contact with many of you who we may not have time to contact personally very often. As many of you know, Jim retired on Oct 1, 2017 after 12 years of pastoring in North Carolina at Greensboro Mennonite Fellowship and helping with a house church in Graham called Outlet 1027. Ruth was involved in English as a Second Language teaching most of this time. Even though it's been a great 12 years in NC, we felt called to do something a bit different at least for the first year of our retirement. We will be serving in various volunteer locations over the next months/year? We have two assignments scheduled at this point. The first is in Baltimore at the Reservoir Hill House of Peace from Nov. 4-Dec. 23. They are a house where young professionals live who work in organizations to improve the community. They also house asylum seekers as the need arises. We don't know what our work will be yet, although it is an old historic house ...