Mississippi Monday

Wow, where have I been? Let's see we went to MS in July and now it is...NOVEMBER! Maybe I'm just a bit behind. So let's try and catch up a bit!

Monday started our real work week at FOA. Up to this point we had been seeing the sights and having fun with the RBC youth. Now it was time to work.

Breakfast for the guys (who chose not to sleep in) was at 6:30 a.m. At 7:30 a.m. on Monday-Friday we had class. Class? you may ask. Oh yeah! We had a Bible class from 7:30ish-9 or 9:30 every morning studying Basic Bible Doctrine by R.C. Barth. The guys at FOA study this during the two month program there. We were there for study 6: Basic Truths of the Faith - Grace, Faith, Justification, Assurance, Rewards. This was great week of study. We also had homework each day and a test at the end of the week. Thankfully, everyone passed and we didn't have to leave anyone there.

After our Bible study, we went to work. Monday's morning work - picking vegetables in the garden. Due to all the rain we experienced, it was rather muddy. However, we still managed to pick corn and peas. Rusty was our "work superintendent" for the week. He did a great job of keeping us busy and exposing our northern group to some good ole southern work. Thankfully for our group it was a rather cool (temperature) week.

Rusty in his pick em' up truck

Hollywood meets corn field

Practicing to take Vanna White's job

Pea Picking

The Kelly Dance

Kelly eating some really fresh corn

After working in the garden we got cleaned up for lunch and after that got back to work processing the corn. The good stuff went to the kitchen or the freezer; the bad corn went to the pigs. So we also got to go down and feed the pigs some of the corn.

The piggies eating corn

Kelly fearlessly feeding the pigs

After this we had a break for 15 minutes and the option to go to the store. Many in our group had their first taste of Blue Bell ice cream (how could you have survived so long without it?). During our breaks, usually a couple of the guys were on the porch playing guitar and singing and sometimes our group joined them or watched.

After break we headed out to the wood pile and moved it over about 10 feet and stacked it nicer while trying to dodge red wasps. This wasn't just something for us to do - the point of this was to make more room for the wood we would be chopping on Tuesday.

Wood pile after lots of work

After this Andrew and Jakob went and helped clean the pool while the rest of our group went back to our rooms to get cleaned up for dinner. Every weeknight at 5:30 we had dinner with the guys. And of course we had corn on Monday night. Monday night we went to Question and Answer from 7-8 p.m. This is a class for the guys to ask questions about the Bible and have them answered.

Dinner Time

Luke really liked corn on the cob!

After class, some headed to their rooms to "sleep" (a.k.a talk) while others went to continue their week long game of Risk. Lights out at 10:30 p.m. to get ready for another hard day of work on Tuesday.

A great Monday at FOA. See you tomorrow (of course that could be a few weeks or months away :)