“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”  Anais Nin

Today as a group, we all headed to Horsetrail Lake over by Baileysville for a trail cleanup and trash pick up with the local community, organized by UGWA. It was wonderful to spend the day outside, doing a lot of physical work.  The place is an absolutely beautiful spot and we hope to frequent it next year.

With all the last minute things with wrapping up the summer, we decided to treat everyone with Fox’s Pizza Den pizza for dinner.  Nothing fancy, but boy did it taste good!

For tonight’s closing prayer service we reflected on the words of Oscar Romero.  What an inspiration!

As the West Virginia portion of our summer program comes to a close, we want to thank each and everyone of you for a wonderful summer.  It was a great start to the PV Program.  I will try and post pictures tomorrow, but please come back at the end of August to follow the PEACE Camp in Bedford Stuyvesant.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”  Anais Nin

Today as a group, we all headed to Horsetrail Lake over by Baileysville for a trail cleanup and trash pick up with the local community, organized by UGWA. It was wonderful to spend the day outside, doing a lot of physical work.  The place is an absolutely beautiful spot and we hope to frequent it next year.

With all the last minute things with wrapping up the summer, we decided to treat everyone with Fox’s Pizza Den pizza for dinner.  Nothing fancy, but boy did it taste good!

For tonight’s closing prayer service we reflected on the words of Oscar Romero.  What an inspiration!

As the West Virginia portion of our summer program comes to a close, we want to thank each and everyone of you for a wonderful summer.  It was a great start to the PV Program.  I will try and post pictures tomorrow, but please come back at the end of August to follow the PEACE Camp in Bedford Stuyvesant.

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”  Anais Nin

Today as a group, we all headed to Horsetrail Lake over by Baileysville for a trail cleanup and trash pick up with the local community, organized by UGWA. It was wonderful to spend the day outside, doing a lot of physical work.  The place is an absolutely beautiful spot and we hope to frequent it next year.

With all the last minute things with wrapping up the summer, we decided to treat everyone with Fox’s Pizza Den pizza for dinner.  Nothing fancy, but boy did it taste good!

For tonight’s closing prayer service we reflected on the words of Oscar Romero.  What an inspiration!

As the West Virginia portion of our summer program comes to a close, we want to thank each and everyone of you for a wonderful summer.  It was a great start to the PV Program.  I will try and post pictures tomorrow, but please come back at the end of August to follow the PEACE Camp in Bedford Stuyvesant.

“The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings.” 
Dave Weinbaum

Today is our official last day of the 2010 PV Summer Home Repair program. The weather continues to be a bit warm, but temperatures are suppose to break the evening.  We finished up our sites in Wyco, Brenton and a combo site in Glen Rogers/Lilydale/Pineville.  There were downpours to dodge, but we were able to get pretty much everything done. It was also the official last day of work up in Hanover.  This site was very unique, it began with our NIU Spring Break Trip in March, the TGIA group from Brooklyn in April and each group of volunteers through the summer program. It was truly a PV Community effort to help get the home owner back in her house.  Not only is it a functional house for her, but it is a beautiful place to call home.  We took lots of pictures today and will be posting them on the blog in the next week.

This evening for dinner we had a representative from UGWA come and speak to the group about what her organization is doing to help improve the water conditions in the county.  She went on to explain what our group will be involved with tomorrow, a trail and lake clean up outside of Baileysville with the local community.  She shared a lot of information and shared the wonderful tuna salad meal with us.

As the summer continues to wind down, for reflection we were asked to reflect on endings and beginnings, in our day and in the summer.

“The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings.” 
Dave Weinbaum

Today is our official last day of the 2010 PV Summer Home Repair program. The weather continues to be a bit warm, but temperatures are suppose to break the evening.  We finished up our sites in Wyco, Brenton and a combo site in Glen Rogers/Lilydale/Pineville.  There were downpours to dodge, but we were able to get pretty much everything done. It was also the official last day of work up in Hanover.  This site was very unique, it began with our NIU Spring Break Trip in March, the TGIA group from Brooklyn in April and each group of volunteers through the summer program. It was truly a PV Community effort to help get the home owner back in her house.  Not only is it a functional house for her, but it is a beautiful place to call home.  We took lots of pictures today and will be posting them on the blog in the next week.

This evening for dinner we had a representative from UGWA come and speak to the group about what her organization is doing to help improve the water conditions in the county.  She went on to explain what our group will be involved with tomorrow, a trail and lake clean up outside of Baileysville with the local community.  She shared a lot of information and shared the wonderful tuna salad meal with us.

As the summer continues to wind down, for reflection we were asked to reflect on endings and beginnings, in our day and in the summer.

“The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings.” 
Dave Weinbaum

Today is our official last day of the 2010 PV Summer Home Repair program. The weather continues to be a bit warm, but temperatures are suppose to break the evening.  We finished up our sites in Wyco, Brenton and a combo site in Glen Rogers/Lilydale/Pineville.  There were downpours to dodge, but we were able to get pretty much everything done. It was also the official last day of work up in Hanover.  This site was very unique, it began with our NIU Spring Break Trip in March, the TGIA group from Brooklyn in April and each group of volunteers through the summer program. It was truly a PV Community effort to help get the home owner back in her house.  Not only is it a functional house for her, but it is a beautiful place to call home.  We took lots of pictures today and will be posting them on the blog in the next week.

This evening for dinner we had a representative from UGWA come and speak to the group about what her organization is doing to help improve the water conditions in the county.  She went on to explain what our group will be involved with tomorrow, a trail and lake clean up outside of Baileysville with the local community.  She shared a lot of information and shared the wonderful tuna salad meal with us.

As the summer continues to wind down, for reflection we were asked to reflect on endings and beginnings, in our day and in the summer.

“Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.”  

Sarah Ban Breathmnach

Today we woke up to another toasty day, with the heat index well into the 100’s. Despite the heat, lots of wonderful work was done.  Volunteers started working on a couple sets of steps for our friend, Foxy Lady, up in Wyco.  Volunteers also began work at a site up in Brenton at the home of one of our Home Repair class students.  Unfortunately we will only be able to work there a couple of days this summer, but we hope to return in the spring.  The final two sites were the completion of the site in Mullens (yay!) and the continuing finishing touches on the site over in Hanover.

For dinner we feasted on a wonderful, yet simple, meal of beans, rice and chicken.  Yums yums in the tums tums.  For those that braved the thunderstorm in the evening, s’mores were toasted over the grill for dessert.

Reflection for the evening focused on the Ignation way of reflection, the Examen of Consciousness.  We each were asked to reflect on our day using this technique.  It was nice to look at reflection in a new way.

“Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.”  

Sarah Ban Breathmnach

Today we woke up to another toasty day, with the heat index well into the 100’s. Despite the heat, lots of wonderful work was done.  Volunteers started working on a couple sets of steps for our friend, Foxy Lady, up in Wyco.  Volunteers also began work at a site up in Brenton at the home of one of our Home Repair class students.  Unfortunately we will only be able to work there a couple of days this summer, but we hope to return in the spring.  The final two sites were the completion of the site in Mullens (yay!) and the continuing finishing touches on the site over in Hanover.

For dinner we feasted on a wonderful, yet simple, meal of beans, rice and chicken.  Yums yums in the tums tums.  For those that braved the thunderstorm in the evening, s’mores were toasted over the grill for dessert.

Reflection for the evening focused on the Ignation way of reflection, the Examen of Consciousness.  We each were asked to reflect on our day using this technique.  It was nice to look at reflection in a new way.

“Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.”  

Sarah Ban Breathmnach

Today we woke up to another toasty day, with the heat index well into the 100’s. Despite the heat, lots of wonderful work was done.  Volunteers started working on a couple sets of steps for our friend, Foxy Lady, up in Wyco.  Volunteers also began work at a site up in Brenton at the home of one of our Home Repair class students.  Unfortunately we will only be able to work there a couple of days this summer, but we hope to return in the spring.  The final two sites were the completion of the site in Mullens (yay!) and the continuing finishing touches on the site over in Hanover.

For dinner we feasted on a wonderful, yet simple, meal of beans, rice and chicken.  Yums yums in the tums tums.  For those that braved the thunderstorm in the evening, s’mores were toasted over the grill for dessert.

Reflection for the evening focused on the Ignation way of reflection, the Examen of Consciousness.  We each were asked to reflect on our day using this technique.  It was nice to look at reflection in a new way.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”  
Martin Luther King, Jr.

As you have probably noticed, I am a day late posting each day’s activities.  It has been a bit of different routine here in the house than up at the school.

The weather has taken a turn toward the HOT!  We have been having temperatures in the 90’s with high humidity making the heat index well over 100 degrees. Boy are we missing the air conditioned school right about now….

Several sites were finished up today.  We finished in Glen Rogers, Lilydale, Welch and Glen Fork.  We also started, and finished up, a touch up on the painting at Mt. Grove Baptist Church in Wyco that volunteers worked on back in 2003.  It still looks great!  We also came very close to finishing in Mullens where we cleaned the basement and put in a new ceiling. The high humidity made in impossible for the last coat of mud to drive. Tomorrow will sand and paint and then that site will be done.

We were once again treated to a delicious dinner of pasta and homemade sauce.  Those of you that were here last week know the sauce I am talking about.  Yummy yummy.  For dessert we were introduced to grilled pound cake with peaches and honey on top.  Delicious!

For reflection, the theme was “where is the hope,” and we were asked to reflect on and share where we see hope.  It was a beautiful sharing.

Unfortunately, at the end of the night it was time to bid adieu to Dan and Lucy after a wonderful summer with both of them here.  We will miss you guys!