Union Gospel Mission

We visited this downtown Spokane mission on Monday of Spring Break week. We took a tour of the facility and had a meal with the people that showed up for dinner. So to not appear too touristish, I did not take a lot of photos of the inside of the mission. Let it be said, though, that the facility is fabulous, and their ministry in thriving.

I took a photo of this bed for two reasons. Both testify to the unique jobs that folks find to do to help the mission. First, 200 of these metal bunk beds were donated to the mission. They were all too short to hold a twin mattress. So a team of volunteers separated all 200 of them, and soldered them back together, adding the needed length.

The bedpreads shown, were donated by a hotel chain when they redecorated. The bedspreads were all too wide, so another team of volunteers cut them, and sewed them to fit perfectly. These are two of many ways the people of Spokane provide for this much-needed shelter.

We Interrupt These Camp Reports to Bring You...

Sorry to interrupt the Camp reports, there will be more to come. However, I just knew you would be interested in this little report on my eye.

Iritis

Iritis Overview

The iris is a circular, pigmented membrane that provides the eye its color and forms the pupil of the eye.

The iris is made up of muscular fibers that control the amount of light entering the pupil so that we can see clearly. The iris accomplishes this task by making the pupil smaller in bright light and larger in dim light.

In some people, the iris can become inflamed. This is termed iritis.

Iritis Causes

Iritis may be a consequence of trauma (traumatic iritis) or nontraumatic causes. In a significant number of cases, no cause for the iritis is found.

• Blunt trauma to the eye can cause traumatic inflammation of the iris.

I went to the doc yesterday and this was his diagnosis of my left eye. Now, you may be wondering "What in the world did you do to your eye?"

Meet the culprit.

This little metal lovely is located on an elastic cord, that runs around the bottom of my jacket. While paying for my tea at the mall, somehow the elastic cord got caught in my purse. At some point, the tension on the cord was great enough to cause it to fly mercilessly into my open eye. Ouch! Okay, it was more of an "OH, MY GOODNESS WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS THAT WILL I EVER SEE AGAIN?!?!?!" It was excruciating, but after several minutes, it seemed to be okay. Five days later, a trip to the doc proved that injury had indeed occurred. Thankfully it's not as bad as it could have been. Hopefully the steroid drops he prescribed will do the trick. However, I will be following up the eye drops with a visit to my local ophthalmologist. Just to be sure.

Camp, Part Two: The Jobs

Each morning at camp, Ken, the Camp Director would meet with us after breakfast, and present his wish list. These were the jobs that needed to be done that day. In nothing-less-than-auctioneer-style he would assign each of us tasks. David and I quickly learned that sitting in the back was not where we wanted to be when being assigned jobs. Ken definitely did not see us flailing our arms in the air to repair the foosball table from that spot. But after a lot of negotiating, and a little whining, we were included in the "Fix the Foosball Table" team.

I suppose the biggest draw of the week was the Burn Pile. The ground was mostly snow-covered, so there was precious little to rake, but somehow, it still made a nice fire.

There is a wedding being held in the chapel March 28th, so several of the ladies set out to deep clean the chapel, and yes, they did windows!

Betty agreed to go on this trip, only if she didn't have to do toilets. She didn't say anything about urinals.

This is David's Communication Arts teacher, Ms. Lee. I'm pretty sure she doesn't hang from the rafters at school, but boy howdy, could she dust those things!

Here is aforementioned foosball table. Dave and I rushed to the shop to check out our task! It took us all of 15 minutes to complete it. So by the time the rest of our team got there, we were done! You snooze, no foos!

Building Fire Hose Boxes. Job well done, Peterson's!

Playing Hand & Foot at every spare moment.

Carson showing Lisa how to make quesidillas.

The Rake Brigade

Carson entertaining the Big Boys!

I'm really glad Carson was there. Who would have taken care of these guys?

Tshimakain Creek Camp, Part 1

Welcome to Camp Tshimakain. This is where 38 folks from EFree spent our spring break. This is a camp of Union Gospel Mission in Spokane. The mission challenges local churches to find 50 unchurched kids to bring to camp. There is no charge for the campers to attend. The hope is that after a week in the woods, these campers will stay connected to the church once they return home. A very good idea, indeed.

The Chapel was built after a donor left $200,000 to the camp in her will.

Creek Tshimakain, I presume.

The 12-man cabins are well built, and thankfully, heated. We shared our cabin with the Smithgall family. Our cabin was dubbed "The Infirmary".

Our kids got to experience some trust-building exercises with low ropes and a climbing wall.

Grace did not get to experience said courses. She was checked into the Infirmary.

More Camp Fun To Come...

I'm Back

Guess who found the camera cord? Emily! Guess where she found it? In someones' dresser drawer! Of course! So now you get to see 109 photos of our Spring Break Trip. Okay, I'll spare you and not show you all 109, and not all at the same time.

This is our entire group that went from EFree. Can you find the Keena Three?

What's A Blog Entry Without Photos???

I've lost my camera cord. Ok, I didn't really lose it, but I'm not really into blaming others. I had it permanently plugged into my computer, even marked the cord. Surely anyone that saw it, would know to leave it where it was. Surely.

A Bite Out of Bozeman

Bozeman's city manager has declared a local emergency for the City of Bozeman after a Thursday morning natural gas explosion shook the downtown destroying several businesses. The explosion occurred at about 8:15 a.m. in the 200 block of Main Street. Crews have allowed the fire to burn into the afternoon because they could not completely shut off natural gas. Several businesses were destroyed including Boodles restaurant, the Rocking R Bar, Pickle Barrel that is located in the Rocking R Bar, Montana Trails Gallery, the American Legion building , Montana Dance Studio and Lilly Lu's children's store. One person remains unaccounted for. Initially, 11 had been missing, but 10 were found throughout the day Thursday.

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Only Child

For the past 24 hours, we have had an only child. Emily is somewhere in this world on Lightrider, David is in Billings, and Grace, well, Grace is experiencing the joys of being an only child. Maybe you should check with her about those joys, but I know of at least a couple. Last night she and I went to Walmart by ourselves, bought baking supplies, and came home and baked together. This morning I woke her up early enough to go to first service with me, because somehow, running back to the house between services for only ONE child did not seem prudent. (I'm pretty sure this was not a "joy" to being an only child) But since "we only had one" child after church, we went out to eat. A long lost love of the Keena family since we have been Dave Ramseyfied! We let Grace choose the restaraunt, so Fuddrucker's it was! We pulled up to the parking lot, Grace got out and headed to the door, then Jim realized that if we were going to go to a particular Open House today, we needed to go NOW and eat later. So we called Grace back into the car, and since one "WHAT!?!" from one child is not nearly as loud or annoying as when coming from multiples, we drove undisturbed to the Open House. And then went to another Open House. And then were on the other side of town, so decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings. As you may know, patrons are barraged at BWW with sports, trivia games, sports, and more sports. Not really a problem, but one screen did catch my attention. It was a commercial for this, basically a male girdle. (Is that called a mirdle?!) I had no idea men were really concerned about such things, but I found it amuzing that in a restaurant geared to sports fanatics that like to eat deep-fried-saucy chunks of meat, that this would even be a consideration. Oh, and my only child didn't think it was quite as amuzing as I did. But I guess that's how only children are.