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“See you later.” Mark (not his real name) just walked out the front door. It’s Sunday, and he’s going to do some exploring on the property and maybe take a drive into Salem. Mark is our third lay man guest, and he’s here for a week. He is also our first guest to stay in St. Martin’s, the two-story cottage that we plan to have as a dorm for men working guests.
Yes, unlike most of our other mission houses, we allow people to stay with us as working guests like Combermere does.
Yesterday, Mark and I spent a few hours setting up this cottage, upstairs and down. Now it’s ready to sleep up to four people with room still for two more beds upstairs.
Another young man, who lives about three hours away, has been here a couple of times for overnight stays. He connected us with a lawyer in a firm where he works, and with that lawyer’s assistance, we have been incorporated into the State of Missouri as a non-profit corporation.
Becoming a federally recognized charity is the next step and that is going to require extensive work both by him and by us.
A few weeks back, another young man was here for two days. He visited in between selling his home in Pennsylvania and going to Chicago to join Focolare, one of the new ecclesial communities.
This man arrived with a stack of books and a head and heart full of knowledge about edible forest gardening. I have been poring through the books he left behind and getting organized for spring seeding and planting.
A prefab chicken coop is boxed up in the workshop awaiting warmer weather for Paul and me to assemble. We are planning to buy six to eight chicks in March, which hopefully will grow into laying hens.
A woman and her two daughters drove up from Bunker, a small town about 45 minutes south of here. They helped us prepare St. Raphael’s, which is going to be our handicraft building, for interior painting. In the process they discovered four brown recluse spiders—now four dead spiders. Since they are poisonous, I am very grateful they were found and that we now know what they look like!
We washed all the walls and shelving from ceiling to floor—which would have been a two-day job for one person. But with our three helpers, we did it in ninety minutes.
There was even time before lunch to move brush and leaves to the garden plot in preparation for building raised garden beds.
After lunch we read from Catherine Doherty’s book, Grace in Every Season and then gave it to them in gratitude for their generous donation of time working. Raandi also gave the mother a gallon jar of yogurt she had made especially for her mom who’s been on heavy doses of antibiotics for ongoing health problems.
That reminds me that we have been reading from Catherine’s 1979 Commentary on the Little Mandate for our after-lunch spiritual reading.
Last Monday we had just finished reading about “Arise – go,” when we got word from the parish that their heating system had blown up, and they needed vacuum cleaners, floor-fans, and hands to help.
Paul and I arose and went. Many parishioners turned up to help clean up the water-soaked carpet. Some of the men even had the know-how to repair the damaged piping. The damage was not catastrophic; the boiler was up and running by the following evening.
Last Tuesday, we drove to Springfield for a visit with Bishop Leibrecht, the retired bishop of our diocese and very good friend and supporter of Betty and Muriel, the women who left us the buildings and property which are now our house. Our visit began with his reading of the last letter he wrote to them, a letter which was tender and encouraging.
The bishop had done some homework in our regard; he had visited with Bishop Rice, the current bishop, the day before our visit, and they had discussed our presence in the diocese. He said that Bishop Rice is very happy we are here.
We left him with a promise of future visits, in Springfield and even at our house.
We stopped by the Catholic Center on our way out of town with hopes of seeing the chancellor, Bishop Rice, and others of the staff we are getting to know on the phone, but everyone we had hoped to see was away or tied up in meetings. At least we got to meet Sherry, the receptionist.
The world outside is white and cold; we had our third snowfall of the season yesterday. Today, Sunday, many of the regular church-goers were either “under the weather” (sick) or afraid that the weather made it unsafe to venture out.
It’s a good day to write letters, read books, and enjoy the comforting heat of our woodstove, but a lousy day to go fishing.
Raandi is our Sunday supper cook. (We take turns.) She and Paul are visiting in the kitchen as Paul writes and illustrates greeting cards. (Every house sends cards to each staff worker on their birthday or baptismal day.)
I’ll probably take a walk around the lake after I get out of my Sunday clothes and check on the beaver dam. I’m hoping we can continue to share the property with the beavers.
Much more important, we look forward to sharing it with folks from near and far
