My Magnolia

Last week I spent 8 days in beautiful Magnolia, DE. If you have never heard of Magnolia, don't worry. Most people in DE never have either. It's a small farming town with a population of 275 just outside of Dover. Beth, Rhonda, Aaron, Jeremy, and I worked at a GROUP Workcamp mission trip up there. The camp had 350 students and adults from all over the country doing home repairs for needy families in the area. I was the speaker for the week, Beth/photographer, Rhonda/cafeteria host, Aaron & Jeremy/site coaches (they helped guide the kids on how to do the work at their job sites) This was my 11th workcamp and my 5th on staff. This was by far the toughest staff experiences to date.

There were some major personality issues that made life behind the scene pretty tough. The camp as a whole was wonderful though. The campers and residents were some of the best I have ever been around. Instead of trying to document all of my happenings during that week, here are my highlights (and lowlights):

1) Highlight: Driving over/through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel
2) Lowlight: It wasn't all that (But I did get a great magnet)
3) Highlight: Relaxing drive up to DE
4) Lowlight: It took FOREVER (we left at 7am and arrived at 6pm)
5) Highlight: Meeting some great people on staff
6) Lowlight Meeting some lousy people on staff
7) Highlight: Getting to spend another week of mission work with Beth
8) Lowlight: Beth got crabs...at a really bad restaurant
9) Highlight: Helping some very appreciative residents
10) Lowlight: Wishing we could do more
11) Highlight: Relaxing half day off on Wednesday when we went to the beach.
12) Lowlight: All the jellyfish
13) Highlight: Hitting Beth with a moonfish
14) Lowlight: Picking up a jellyfish by mistake (I thought it was a moonfish)
15) Highlight: Walking on the pier with Beth and Jeremy
16) Lowlight: No electric eel
17) Highlight: Hot showers with Aaron and Jeremy
18) Lowlight: Gang showers with Aaron and Jeremy
19) Highlight: Bringing Rhonda to her first mission trip
20) Lowlight: Riding home with her in a coma because she was so tired.
21) Highlight: Sneaking into Dover Downs racetrack for some pics of me in the checkered flag booth
22) Lowlight: Not getting to drive my Explorer around the track

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