Im finding some time to blog some more because all of the Cono students are in their work crews. I had an encouraging day yesterday. Besides catching up with the Cono community I drove down to Cedar Rapids to run some errands and to spend some brief time with a family I know down there, the Allens. Now many of you dont know who the Allens are because you are not from Cedar Rapids, IA, but they know you! Mrs. Allen is a faithful reader of my blog and is actually well updated on who a lot of my friends are through their blogs. She will probably be embarrassed that I am writing about her, but I figured that because she has been such a great blog reader she should have the opportunity at least once to read about herself.
I met the Allens through their daughter Anna. Anna and I became friends through a coffee shop conversation group called the "Conversation Cafe." The coffee shop is owned by a local pastor who wanted to start a convo group that encouraged open discussion about faith, life, politics, etc. Anna stood out to me immediately because a) she was one of the only other Christians in the group and b) she was really into history, particularly the Civil War era. Actually, Ive never met anybody who does exactly what Anna does. She is a professional seamstress who operates her own business, called "The Graceful Lady" out of her home. She specializes in Civil War clothing and spends a lot of her time during the year traveling to Civil War reenactments. She is incredibly well connected in the Civil War reenactment world, which is a fascinating sub-culture that you can read about more in this book. In fact, Im not even able to see her this weekend because she is currently at a reenactment event in Kentucky.
Now what you have to understand is that the Civil War reenacting world, at least parts of it, involves far more than just playing dress up and pretend. Anna is what you call a "hardcore" as opposed to a "farb." Hardcores take the reenacting world really seriously and attempt to learn a lot about history through recreating authentic clothing, environments, and events, while farbs tend to make Civil War clothing from old eighties prom dresses. Its actually really impressive stuff.
But anyway, it was really good to get to know Anna and the Allens during my time in Iowa last year. They were a really supportive family toward me, and they have continued to encourage me since Ive been back in Chattanooga. Just last night, Mrs. Allen hooked me up with a whole stack of sermons on Jonathon Edwards to listen to in the car as I drive around Chicago. Very thankful for that. I was glad to have dinner with them last night and to catch up on life. Thought I would blog about them so that my other friends would know who they are.
I was also able to spend some encouraging time last night with some of the teachers here that I worked with last year. Cono is a smaller school this year, but it seems that the faculty are a really good fit in their respective positions. So Im feeling pretty good about the quality of learning that Cono kids are getting in the classroom this year. Its probably even better in some ways that the class sizes are smaller because each kid can get more attention. One thing that Cono has got in spades is great teachers!
And I was able to spend some good time this morning chatting with the pastor here, Mr. Duble. I cant tell you how great it is to sit down and talk to an older man for a long period of time. I dont get to do that a whole lot, and when I do I just feel I get a whole ton of perspective on life that Im not able to normally get for myself. I feel like Ive got to find better ways to open myself up more to talk to older men, because Im just playing a huge guessing game a lot of the time in life, trying to figure out where everything is heading. And right next to me are men who have already walked down similar roads that could give me at least a hint of what is coming. Its funny to me that I havent managed to avail myself of that opportunity more often.
Well, those are some things that are happening. Part of me really wishes I was back in Chatty right now because Im missing Covenant's homecoming. Im sure there are a lot of people back there right now I would want to see. But its been great to be here as well. So long for now.
Posted by todd at October 7, 2006 12:18 PM