More on Milford

Today's blog   {mostly} is a window into the dear congregation in Milford, Pa that has adopted us during our stay at Bethel.  Often a we get a look of surprise when we say we drive an hour to get to our congregation meetings.  (that includes going up and over a mountain and yes, interstate construction traffic; because what road travel is complete without it and that's the most fun of all).  But the delight we have when we get there far outweighs the travel. 

Here is proof:
Milford has a long-time Bethel couple ( at Bethel like 25 years) that will soon be reassigned to Mossouri as special pioneers.  Milford congregation will miss Bill and Jill greatly because of their fine zealous spirit in the ministry and the wonderful comments at meetings.
However, we will also miss their bright & colorful personalities! 


Here is Jill [at her own goodbye party] giving us a tutorial on how to make fishless California sushi rolls.  *Note the special interest some of the brothers showed.  Now isn't THAT delightful?



Here is Bill sporting one of his best looks:  He wears his "bling" like no other!

Then we have marvelous Watchtower conductor, Dave, who has crazy guitar skills and isn't afraid to share it!


And what other congregation do you know of that has a Candy, Peaches and Cookie?





How adorable is this sampling of Milford young ones singing "Preach the Word"? 

 And here is Brother Banks who inspires faith without his even knowing it.  He is over 90 years old and has been completely deaf for many years now.  He depends on the friends to bring him to meetings and help him know what is being said. Happily he still reads even small print well. Anthony, one of our Bethelite brothers, often has him sit with him and uses his tablet to write notes to let Brother Banks know about the announcements and such. 

Here are two remarkable acts of faith we see in him regularly: 1} he prepares for and attends the meetings regularly even though he has not heard one paragraph, comment, scripture or song for years. He simply knows the Kingdom Hall is where he must worship and be with the brotherhood.  2} he has remained on the Theocratic Ministry School and participates in the Bible reading, depending on someone to nod to him when he can walk up and read it.  What a loyal brother!

 

 

 

 

On another note, there are other friends in Milford we have enjoyed special time with.  Here are siblings Nathaniel and Michelle who showed us their favorite tennis spot. And we even attempted tennis. Had a blast too!

 

 

 

 Here was dinner on Peaches deck.  Dinner was delish and on the lake in the backyard, Olivia and Abigail provided entertainment. (rowing while singing heartily songs from the Sound of Music) 

OKAY, just two more things to share!

 

  This week at Bethel we had the thrill of spotting Crystal, Alexis, Jennifer and Bill Malone along with some of Crystal's family  (all from Kentucky) taking a tour!  Even though the shot is distant, trust us, that's them on the bridge!  It was really nice to run down from working to give them a big sweaty hug! [nice for us. not sure if sweaty was nice for them.]

This past Wednesday afternoon I was able to give a Bethel tour to good, dear friends from my old congregation in Gaithersburg, Maryland. 

Hard to describe the joy of welcoming  friends to Bethel as our home.

Comings and Goings

Top of the day to ya!

First off let me give you a heads up on photos.  We will be sharing construction pictures in person rather than on the web. That's why we will update you on the work but you won't see construction photos on the blog.

HOWEVER, we couldn't resist one "construction area" photo.  We found it soooo funny that the cows were allowed to graze along Red Mills Rd when clearly they were in a CONSTRUCTION AREA - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY area. Where on earth is their PPE? (personal protective equipment) Don't they KNOW how risky that is???? {does anyone actually even MAKE hardhats for cows?} Mothers and children out there no less!!!


This time at Wallkill Jeremy is having more of a share in oversight. Just a little here and there where he is needed. But that reality hit us when we saw a shipment of tile come in to the D Res like this!


So last week we had three RBC volunteers come for work Thursday through Saturday. Two brothers and a 19 year old sister. We worked like crazy to prepare for them because we needed to finish base work so the volunteers had walls to set tile on.  They worked really hard and we had a good time getting to know them.  At one point we had stacks of wall tile, buckets of mud and buckets of water, strings of extension cords for a temporary light, Jeremy giving instructions AND all three volunteers in the bathroom getting to work! Let me tell you, it was one packed bathroom! {keep in mind too, we have no air movement in the bathrooms, no fans or a/c} What a sacrifical spirit!


Part of the prep work before we tile the bathroom floor is painting an olive green waterproofing goop on the concrete floor. Along the joints where the wall and floors meet we use that goop to stick a type of fabric along the crack to make sure water could NEVER, EVER, EVER, get behind the walls and create mold or moisture issues. [Bethel hates water issues and does everything possible to minimize the risk] I had a fine time that day crawling around the bathrooms and waterproofing everything. Feeling really glad to be productive, I was walking back to my locker in a hurry (it was meeting nite) and I went to tuck a bothersome wisp of hair away from my ear when I realized my hair felt....... clumpy. That's when I realized I had gobbed some water proofing in my hair! How do you remove something like THAT when you know you can't wash it out with water?!!! Given the time factor (and the irrationality of the panic factor) I grabbed scissors and hacked it out. Yep. I did. It's not too bad, really. I have curly hair and that hides alot. I hope. :)


As a reminder, here is a picture of our Kingdom Hall. 

We had CO last week and were very built up. This is the last visit of this CO and everyone is sad to loose him now that they know him well. The friends told us he tends to be direct and we better understood on Tuesday night. As he listed the week of activities and times for them, he told us the Saturday field service meeting would be at 9:30 rather than 9:00am. He followed up with something like: "and that should work better for you friends since that is about the time you all showed up last time anyway". I laughed out loud, but no one else did. Awkward. The best part about the story is that due to heavy construction along the highway (that many of us use to get to the Hall) the CO was LATE to Saturday service! He arrived at 9:35! HaHaHaHaHa!


Now that summer is here and so many Bethelites travel away for their conventions and vacations we have open seating for breakfast.  Normally when you arrive at Bethel you have a seat location you are assigned to.  It helps your table head to keep track of you (say you don't show up for two or three morning worship/breakfast times, he finds out if you are sick or have an adjusted work schedule, or are struggling to managing your time....) and keeps the tables full so waiters are not serving huge bowls of food to partially filled tables. 
But with so many Bethelites gone, open seating allows for us to sit were we choose: with old friends,  to make new friends; and the waiters just make sure we fill each table up. On our last day with our assigned table we had a "table party" which means we all bring goodies and take pictures.  Here is most of our assigned table after our table party.  {we are missing two folks because they were distracted gleaning food from other tables and missed the shot}




So we promised to let you know what else is going on here at Wallkill. So here is the run-down:

The Services Building is getting revamped. It needed a new roof and other renovations. It also has an auditorium that was restructured with wider aisles and seats. I believe it will seat about 800 when finished. Above the auditorium will be offices that likely will be the new location for the Service Department that is moving from Patterson sometime soon. There were bathrooms and lockers in that renovation area but that began in early spring and although that work is ongoing, the tile crew is split up with some working there, Jeremy and myself are in the D Res.

There is also a recreation building in the works. It is obviously the last on the list for importance and ground work is really just getting started. Nearby are the new location for basketball courts, sand and hard court volley ball and the soccer field. They are just finished this week!  They are lighted and our parking garage location is right next to the courts. On our way to meetings and ministry we see and hear the fun and Jeremy heaves a little sigh of regret and gets in the car and we drive off. :) One day Jeremy, one day you can play.



About field service: two weeks ago we had not yet checked out a territory and found our cargroup of Bethelites needing something to do one Sunday. So we drove to yard sales and stores looking for people to witness to and found a lot of people speaking foreign langages. So we would strike up a conversation (if possible) and direct them to the websit in their language and give them the JW information card (the one that looks just like a business card). We were really nervous but we will keep practicing. It seems there are a lot of Ukranian and Russian speaking people in our territory.

We stopped at Gray Towers (one of our favorite places to hang out and relax in Milford) and after talking with a nice Russian lady, we stopped to play at the water table. Here are the boys passing fruit at the table. It was a nice change of ministry and bonus:  I found a great bookbag at one of the yard sales! :)

Last Saturday evening we went to help a commuter couple Frank and Terri at their wood stacking party.  They live about 25 minutes away.  There were lots of people helping and it was pretty fun.


There is a  downside though.  After the work and the cookout they hosted, we played frisbee in the yard.  I sent it flying into some brush several times and Jeremy didn't want me to get any poison ivy so he went in to retrieve the frisbee and sadly, very sadly, HE got poison ivy. EVERYWHERE!  He has smeared creams and taken every antihistimine possible for about a week and it still seemed to be speading badly. Finally yesterday morning we sent him to the Bethel infirmary where they put him on steriods and gave him MORE ointments. Finally we have it under some control. Whew!

Here is our last bit of amazing news: 
Bethel branches always have more tours than normal on national holidays because people often have the day off.  Everyone anticipated lots of visitors on Memorial Day.
But no one expected Wallkill to have 1,935 people tour on that one day!!!!  It was so exciting to see families from everywhere coming to see this wonderful part of the Branch! The lobby brothers and Bethelites assigned to give tours that day were wiped out!  [in a good way] 

So there is our news. Share your tales with us when you can!

Back to Wallkill

There is something familiar about this place... it's like we've been here before....

YEP, WE'RE BACK AT WALLKILL, NEW YORK!

Happily, Jeremy and I were invited back to Wallkill last week for another three months to work on another residence building being renovated here at the Branch.  (if you have an excellent memory you recall we were helping a little on a demo project just as we were finishing our last year assignment, well that demo is now at the "rebuild" stage)

Last year we talked constantly about the renovation of the E Residence building.  Well, the E Residence is finished
 and here it is across the pond with the expanded dining room on the ground floor.  We helped tile everything on the left side of the bldg. (Right side was finished when we arrived last May)       

Below is one of the lobbies in the finished E Residence.  Above the stairs, the stairs, the lower floor and the wall decor is all tile.  Pretty isn't it?

Now it's going to be all about the D Residence building.  There are, of course, lots of other things being renovated or constructed around Wallkill, but it looks like the D Res is going to be our assignment. :)      [But, I promise to give updates on the other projects here in the next update.]

This lower shot is our view from the D Res. We get to admire the pond and E Res in the background.




Initially we were scheduled for a full week of orientation, which includes housekeeping training, laundry training and dining room etiquette.  But it turns out tile work needed to be address immediately.  Bethel must also be counting on us remembering the importance of leaving your counters clear and emptying trash in your room every day (housekeeping), of how to stack and list our clothes for laundry service as well as knowing not to double dip into the butter dish at meal-times.  Happily, we do recall all such orderly behavior to fit back into the Bethel lifestyle. :)

It looks like our assignment will be bathroom work in the D Res.   Large showers with tile wrapping around the room like a wainscoting just high enough to be a backsplash for the sink areas.  The rooms we start in are for the renovated infirmary, so there is no lip into the shower from the bathroom floor.  This translates into creating absolute perfectly flat floors with perfectly pitched shower drains so there is never standing water. 

Phew.  Perfect can be tricky.

So this first week we are all about grinding and chipping down the concrete floors and  pouring a smooth concrete like material called self-leveling.  It allows us to level out floors that weren't.   FYI:  This picture to the right was after our first day at work.  My brand new boots were dark, chocolate brown eight hours before this photo. They will never be THAT color again!

Temp work closure

Hello again!

Amazing that we could go a few months and not report properly.  *this is just one sad reflection of my time management skills*

Basically our update is this:  many more lovely things and special spiritual programs and dilligent work assignments have come and gone.  Too many to share now. 

But, if your terribly interested (and you live in KY) you can ask us in person in another week  because we will be back with our home congregation in Williamsburg.  If you live in Wisconsin you can find us there in two weeks and yes, you dear Maryland people, we will be there soon too.  We have trillions (give or take) of photos to share and stories to tell, just ask. ;))  [[And if you are in some delightful theocratic assignment internationally, well, your just gonna have to call! ]]

Our last week here at Bethel, Jeremy and I both got moved to the structural crew which is hard at work gutting another residence building.  The infirmary needed expansion and updating so demolition is in order to start the project.  We come to our room completely covered in dust and insulation and drywall and... but how nice it is to work hard at something so productive.  And honestly, you can't have a bad day by messing something up, when the whole purpose is to tear it all out! So it's pretty stress free. :)

So {for now}  the blog may be in a holding pattern. 

Thanks  for caring enough about us to peek in from time to time.   Warmly, Toppings

Snippets

Dear Friends Who Wonder What is Happening in Our Little Bubble,

We have enjoyed a few nice little "things"  in our routine and we wanted to share with friends. :)


Circuit Assembly:  a couple of weeks ago our congregation was assigned to the first one day circuit assembly in Newburg, NY.  It is a beautiful assembly hall and we have noticed it is the one in all the organizational videos.  Here are our friends the Beanes* (the two boys on the front left are what we call "little beanes") in the main hall. 

There is a huge mural of the Hudson valley on the entry wall which is stunning . But what is one of the nicest features are the chairs and the leg room.  OH WHAT GLORIOUS LEG ROOM!

*We had intended to introduce you to the Beane family  [to the right  Becky, Eli and Josiah -- eating fresh beans -- shocker]  over a month ago and forgot. 

We spent the weekend with them in Aug. and had a lovely special campaign day with them. Below  is Eli (little beane) and his dad, Doug witnessing to a man who owned this cute produce market.  Here is the man watching the Bible study video, took the tract ......

 

  


and later asked and received a Bible!







Gilead Graduation:  On Sept 13th we were able to attend the Gilead Grad.  Of course we were in the dining room of Wallkill, watching the program on the tv, but the re-enactments of the field service experiences by the Gilead students, the talks by the branch committee and Governing body and illustrations were so upbuilding! 

There was a sister from Denmark who is a  missionary for the Arabic group in Italy who was interviewed.  She basically said:  I'm a Dane.  We don't talk all the time. This non-extroverted Danish background made the communal people setting of Bethel a real challenge.  But she reflected that with Jehovah's help she could do it.  She also has learned this powerful point:  if you focus on what you are personally sacrificing while serving Jehovah, you will loose your joy.  However if you dwell on the privilege of service to Jehovah and the joy it brings you - you will not be sorry for any sacrifice.
A couple who is serving at the Malawi branch was also interviewed.The wife in particular explained while she was growing up (while Witnesses were under ban) it seemed normal to attend meetings at midnight and to clap by rubbing your hands together.  The ban never stopped them from serving Jehovah.


Raymondskill Falls:  One Sunday afternoon we had the opportunity to check out this short hike and waterfall in the Milford territory.  It was a perfect day and a breath-taking waterfall! 

  We followed the trail a little and found a few more falls and this delightful creek.  (by the way this is my first try at panoramic photos!)

We also zipped up to New Jersey's highest point.  Logically called High Point.  They have a veteran's monument and a great view. Actually you can see 360 degrees from this spot, but honestly, this was the nicest view to me.

We actually climed the 291 steps to the top of the monument and the windows were too dirty to see out of, which was a lot of work and no photo opportunity!   But I like the shot I got of looking up all the stairs we took. :)

Work progress:  Well, time has run out so I'll have to share those next time. Sorry to disappoint but it's a guarantee I'll write again! 

On with the construction!

OKAY!   Here is the update on our little sphere of Wallkill construction:

Let's just start by letting you know the E Residence is scheduled for completion Oct. 2014.  This has caused a general blur of activity in most crews.

For Jeremy and tile this has involved bouncing around quite a bit on the basement level.  Why?  


Because the commissary was moving into its original location down there. Tile didn't touch the flooring, IC (industrial coatings) crew made a ribbon pattern and created a terrazo flooring.  It was so beautiful that we hardly believed it was just for the grocery store! 

Tile went on a few of the walls in the commissary. It didn't take them too long.

 

 

The next HUGE project was the basement hallway.

These three sides of the E Res basement connect to:

the dining room

 two elevator areas

 the back end of the kitchen

 men & women locker rooms for kitchen & waiter staff

 two public bathrooms

 the personal laundry area for those who live above

 the commissary

 the new barber shop

AND

 loads of technical rooms housing electrical, plumbing and maintenance systems.

 

 

 

  The traffic in those hallways was non-stop! Once again IC handled the terrazo flooring,  tile crew was responsible for blue coating (a movement-control membrane that helps adhere to the plaster walls ) and tiling five feet up the walls making this  4,000 SQUARE FEET of tile!

 

Below is the tile on the walls with no wallpaper above or a finished ceiling.  The other picture shows how nice the terrazo flooring looks too.

 

 

But lets not forget all the other tile that has gone in this basement: locker rooms, the public bathrooms, the laundry or cleaning stations...  Trust us -- this basement is LOADED with tile!!!  

Here is one of the elevator areas before and after

 

Jeremy and Elvis early in August.

 

 

 

 

 Here is the personal laundry area for the residents of E.

(I got to grout these walls last month)



Then, you may remember the showers in the locker rooms Jeremy worked on a couple of months ago...
(I was caulking these for a week and just finished up now that the door frames are in)

And just this week he helped tile the two public bathrooms:

(floor tile was 20x20)

Public bathroom (womens)

Jeremy with Eric above and Denver, Osiris, Jarin and Alexis to the right in public bathroom (mens). 

Grouted!

My jobs have varied between tile and laminate all this month.  I've got lots of practice caulking tile showers and now I'm in the process of caulking the top and bottom of the tile in the basement hallway.  Earlier in the week I helped put down laminate in residence rooms here:




 So now you know more than you ever thought you could know.  :)

The fast track update

   Well hello all! 

Sad to say I have neglected the blog during the exciting and historic JW.org campaign in August.   Happily I am well prepared  to blog now. 

Rejoice all you lovers of brevity because I will be only able to skim all the activities we have been a part of. (in the interest of honesty:  I will be brief in my review of items but I don't think the number of items are few)

Up first is a nod to our darling Milford congregation.  We had wonderfully productive ministry days and even when my special yellow tract was rejected by a bakery owner, he graciously gave me a fresh loaf of his best selling olive bread! 
Here is one dear family we joined and as you can see, the 3, 5 and 8 year old girls are utterly adorable!  (I have plans to share my secret popcorn ball recipe with them in the future - so more to come on that!)






Then there is 6 year old Ethan who was helping his dad direct the parking at the hall one evening.  He takes this assignment VERY seriously.





Early in the month we had a congregation picnic where everyone could play something: sack races, tug of war, a scavenger hunt, volley ball, football, frisbee and then exclusive use of the community pool!

 

 

 

Jeremy and I also had a hankering to join Ryan and Abbi and take a Branch tour of Patterson.  It isn't a normal tour of the branch but more of a backstage tour.  As temporary Bethelites, we have access to all facilities in any branch in the world and Patterson is only an hour away...

Out of all the neat things we toured -- we found one highlight was posing with Caleb and his family

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at Wallkill we had to say goodbye to some very good  friends!

  To start, Alex, who has volunteered 9 weeks from California was heading home.  We all ate cake after his last day of work in honor of his willing spirit and labor. {He is sitting in the right corner}

 

 

Ryan and Abbi had finished their six month assignment and Elvis was being reassigned back to his native Puerto Rico branch while Stewart was transferring from the tile crew to the furniture moving crew.  All those goodbyes required one good sized farewell party! 

 

And obviously called for another tile crew photo!  {Stewart is in the center -- you can see why furniture moving wanted him, what couldn't he lift?}

 

 

 

FINALLY!  After waiting over a month,  my scheduled morning to pick blueberries arrived! Naturally it was a gloomy stormy day, but the brothers supplied us with raincoats and it never really rained.

  Apparently that very day was the last day for sisters to pick because the following day the bushes were open to the whole Bethel family to pick any leftover. 

 

Here I am with my sweet friend Keri [ we were partners in the picking that day ]

 

If it crossed your mind we may have eaten more than we picked, well, we wondered that too.

 

Keri and her husband Brian have also completed their 6 month assignment here. But we are confident we will see them again soon!  

 

 

We have run into some delightful old friends this month!  Here is Bill Beechly who volunteered for a couple of weeks from Tennessee!

And friends from Oregon, that we worked with in Ecuador back in 2008, have just arrived for a six month assignment! Don't worry, you will surely see photos of them in good time. :)

 

 

 

We also had the opportunity to visit my Great Aunt {she is 95} in Albany.  It was only a few hours north and she really wanted us to see the old home place.  She has lived in this home all her life.  And she told us stories of how my Great Grandfather Taaffe had it built - the first house on Park Avenue. 

Walking through it brought to life the charm and culture of that historic time.

 

 

 

This brings us up to our visit to Maryland last weekend.  Jeremy and I enjoyed  sweet     R and R!

With Molly's help we coaxed mom  into a kayak!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 No surprise that Jeremy and Molly bonded with some local geese!

 

Mom also sponsored a Christian-oriented talent show for her congregation and we had a blast watching, listening and participating.

 

 

Some of the little ones, then young men and later all the elders sang a song from our songbook.

 

 

Several of the families supported Bible dramas like Eliezer  observing Rebekah watering the camels in answer to his specific prayer;  Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac (with a ram in the bushes); the story of Jephthah's daughter and an in-costume Bible reading.

 

Tiffany played her violin to song 110 while we all sang it to her.

Molly offered Bible Jeopardy and we had a few hilarious skits too.

 

But we also had some moving personal experiences.  Rita, in her 20's explained how she learned to choose Christianity over her cultural Nepalese religion and another sister described severe hardships and challenges growing up in Ethiopia as a Witness and how greatful she is for her parents faithfulness.  How encouraging to learn of a 12 year old boy in Liberia who was so impressed by a Witness in his school that he preferred to walk to the Kingdom Hall by himself each week while his parents attended their own church!  We also heard just a little bit from Rose, a dear 95 year old sister who has a lot of experiences to share!

 

It was just the uplifting type of gathering we were hoping it would be!

 

With all these activities you may be wondering if we worked in construction at all last month.  I'll be sure to bring you up to date in next weeks blog!