Home Away From Home

I'm spending this week in LaFollette, TN at Galilee Bible Camp where the kids and I have served during the last several summers.  It's Middle School week and Will is a camper and I'm leading worship each evening at chapel.

The staff and volunteers here pour themselves into the campers week after week during the summer.  They are dear friends, and they have been a wonderful influence on our family.  We are blessed to be a part of the ministry here.

This week, I'm not as active as usual at camp.  It's a kind of retreat for me, as there are memories of Sam everywhere.  Emily and Will, too -- so it's sweet and sad to be here with Sam gone, Emily grown up, and Will so quickly growing, too.

One of the missionaries, Rebecca, gave me a couple of heart blocks for Sam's Darling Hearts quilt.  She is catching the quilting bug (YES!! :-D), and rightly so with Selma Jean and I helping her catch it!!

Selma Jean, a prolific wonderful quilter, also made a heart block. And she surprised me yesterday with beautiful handmade ornaments, each embroidered with my children's names.

On Sam's she included the dates of his birth and death.  It struck me that from now on, people will see Emily and Will and think I only have two children.  But I have three.  I'll always have three. :-)  So three ornaments!! Selma Jean understands!!!

I brought projects to work on while at camp.  It's a nice quiet time for me, and I have some deadlines approaching....the Hands-2-Help quilt for Romania, for one!  I've got the blocks laid out and ready to be put together. The deadline is the end of the month....so yeah! Onward!! LOL

I also have another project that is short on time (aren't they all! LOL)!  This one, I can't reveal just yet, but here is a hint....

 

I have the rest of that quilt in my head...and it's gotta get outa there and onto fabric in the next couple of weeks....Let's hope I can make that transition from vision to concrete reality! LOL

Between the heat and my working on projects, I'm ready for sleep tonight.  I'm resting on a beautiful pillowcase made by my friend, Lil.  She makes dozens of pillowcases to share with friends, family and people in need.  She knows my colors (red, green and gold!!), and I love that she included a label on the inside, too.

It's an oasis here, a home away from home.  Maybe because I take "home" with me! :-D  My sewing machine!  My pillow and my quilts.  My Pepsi! :-D (and a bit of zucchini bread).  My family. My friends.  My memories.

And the God of all Comfort and Peace:

Psalm 139:7-10

⁷Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence?
⁸If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there.
⁹If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.

There's no place like Home!

Blessings!