Tour days

Just a short update of what we are doing. Actually, we didn't do much different for work this past week so will tell you a little about our Friday tour day.
It is interesting to come up with some local business or attraction to tour in each project area we work in. Since we are on the tour committee it became even more interesting, or should I say difficult. There were many interesting places that groups before had toured but through the years with all the safety precautions many places no longer commit to giving tours. The Day Spring Card company is located here so that was a must but, no, they have down sized so no longer can accommodate tour groups. They do have a good outlet store in Siloam Springs which Dad and I visited on our own and they have good Christian goods with very reasonable prices. There is a huge Allen Cannery in this town as well which looked great for a tour but they have discontinued tours as well. So we toured the LazBoy factory. That was very interesting and not a bad substitute as all. The whole factory is set up in cubes with each cube having 4 or 5 workers. They start the piece of furniture from the first frame boards and each person in the cube does his/her thing and when it has gone full circle the furniture is a complete, ready to sell chair/sofa or whatever. Each cube has a quota and they go home when they have reached the quota. The system fosters good cooperation and workers encourage quality work in each of the cube people as it reflects on the whole cube. A defective piece must be redone and extra hours put in for all of them. We had never seen such a system but it works. Then on Saturday Dad and I went to a LazBoy Galleria. I don't know how we would pick a chair/sofa because they had hundreds of them in every possible style, color and material.
On the Ranch where we are working we hear most of the staffers saying they went to John Brown University. We had never heard about it so decided to try to tour the campus which we did also on Friday. It was started in 1919 by a man named John Brown. Ironic I know. It is Christian with a strong emphasis on mission work and ministry. The campus is beautiful and the
buildings have a stately and elegant look but not pompous. Everything is so wooded and hilly around here and the campus grounds have those same features. Interesting how they incorporate those features into the layout of the campus instead of getting rid of the natural beauty. We were impressed with what we saw.
So the tour day turned out to be fun and informative. Actually RVICS encourages teams to tour so they learn about the area and are then better able to see how the project fits into the whole community effort. Good thinking and it fits so well into the way we toured Canada and the Eastern US last summer and fall.
Tonight we went to a little church in the midst of the woods. It is small in size but large in other areas. They sing old time hymns for 30 minutes and they give it "all they got". It probably isn't so necessary for everyone to be on the same key but volume is important. They sing from the heart and sing like they mean it. Then the pastor, who has been singing lustily in his bass voice, gives a powerful message. He is standing beside a oil stove in the middle of the room that has a chimney pipe going up through the ceiling. That brought back memories as all of us can remember having such a stove in our living rooms when we were young. By the way, that stove was only used when company was coming as we didn't use the living room just for ourselves. His sermon was as heart-felt as his singing. What a great experience that was.
Dad continues to work on the remodeling of a pastor's retreat building. I continue to work in the office on the computer and if we time it right I think we can stretch the work out until we are finished here on Tuesday. Wouldn't want to start cleaning bathrooms and doing windows at this late date. Really we do have more work left than what we can do before we leave here.
Yes, our time here in Oklahoma ends Tuesday at 3:30. We are staying here Wednesday to see a few more community things and then leave on Thursday heading toward Smithville, Texas and another project. Smithville is near Austin. We will get there on Friday and start work on the following Monday. It is amazing how fast the months fly past and we move on again to another project. We finish the Texas project on Dec. 3 and our Dec. is still undecided as to exactly what and where. No project in Dec. We will get to Sioux Center for some time and to Colorado for visits and the wedding. Exact dates are still in limbo. The Lord willing we will begin a project in California in January.
We give thanks for the work we have to do, the opportunities we have and the many blessings we have received. We thank each one of you for your prayers and concerns and pray we will see all of you in the next few months. Our love and prayers go out to you and know God will walk with you through the mountains and the valleys of life. We love you all.
Mom and Dad Marilyn/Wilmer