The beginning of Week Three

Here is a mind dump of my random thoughts from the past week or two...

The first couple weeks have flown by. I thought that this was going to be a summer with an abundance of free time and boredom. So far I have been pretty wrong about that. I work at HOPE International Monday thru Thursday. Friday is my day off before I mow lawns on Saturdays. So far I haven't taken a Friday off. I spent the first Friday working with a Keystone employee at one of the Keystone communities. Keystone Custom Homes is home/community builder and was founded by my boss Jeff Rutt (he also founded HOPE International). I am technically a Keystone employee also because of the mowing that I do on the weekends. This past Friday, I went to a Homes for Hope breakfast. Homes for Hope is a separate nonprofit that brings together builders and sub-contractors from around the nation to build homes. These homes are then sold to the public and the profit is given to HOPE International. This is not like Habitat for Humanity because these homes are built just like any other home and if someone looked at the home it would look like any other house on the block. The builders volunteer their labor and greatly discount the materials they use on the house. So if the total cost for building the house was $150,000 and the house sold for $300,000, then HOPE would get a $150,000 check. That can provide a lot of loans overseas. I've gone to two Homes for Hope events now and it has been great talking with people about what HOPE does and learning how to interact with builders. A Home for Hope was completed in the end of April and it has been incredible seeing how generous builders/sub-contractors have been even amidst a challenging economic climate. Over the past 10 years, 64 homes have been built and over $10,000,000 dollars has been given to HOPE International.

My first couple weeks at HOPE have been great. Within the first 3 days, I felt very comfortable with everyone in the organization. Each week we have devotionals and time to grow together as a team. The HOPE staff has been a blessing and really involved the interns even outside of work. Every week some employee has had a barbecue at their house or we will go to the park to play volleyball or ultimate frisbee. They invite us to their churches with them and have us over on weekends to watch movies.

I share an office with Deirdre (Jeff's assistant) and I have had a blast just talking with her throughout the day. The days fly by so fast because each day there are a couple meetings for either HOPE, Keystone, or Homes for Hope. If there isn't a meeting, there is probably a devotional or special event. For example, today was the beginning of the HOPE International ping pong tournament during our lunch hour. By 3 in the afternoon, I am hoping the clock will slow down so I can get some work done. Tomorrow night, we have game night at a HOPE employee's house. Then on Thursday, we have a barbecue at another HOPE employees house and Deirdre is planning a day to take the interns into Amish country later in the summer.

I have an extremely busy week ahead of me. This weekend it poured rain as I was trying to mow lawns. Now that I am behind on my lawns, I have to mow lawns after I finish my work at HOPE. Tonight I left work at 4:30, picked up the the equipment/other work truck and mowed 2 lawns in Lancaster. Tomorrow night will be a longer night, but hopefully I will get most of my lawns done before dark.

This has been a pretty disjointed post, but that is more or less how I feel the past 3 weeks have gone. It has been great, no day is the same, and each day brings a new adventure. I am excited to see what tomorrow brings and how I will grow from these experiences. In the coming weeks, I will describe in greater detail the work HOPE does around the world and how I am involved in that work.