From Jeanne

Hi family. My suggestion about our blogging is to try to have at least one post per week, perhaps every Saturday, from each family. We are so spread apart and this is a great way to keep in contact. I think it will just be a matter of getting into the habit of communicating this way. Also, I pray for all of you every day, and would like to know what's happening and how to pray better.
I'm feeling less overwhelmed by my job, and learning how to supervise humans better. The whole key is regular contact. I had one man that was not keeping up at all, and I had to write him up and institute weekly meetings with him. He is doing so well, and my bosses say it's a miracle. I always tried to encourage him when we met, and was very respectful to him, which was sincere on my part. I attribute the success on his part to the weekly meetings, which gave him motivation to keep up with his contacts and paperwork.
I just keep running into more and more confirmation of how much we need others to be involved in our struggles with us to get anywhere. This is especially true in my relationship with God, which would seem to be an individual and personal thing, but can't seem to grow in isolation. In fact, I believe that the more isolated I am, the more one-sided I become, and then I get stuck.
Last week, Jan and I heard an amazing story told by a man named Eugene in the church we're going to. At first I thought he was slightly retarded, but it turns out he was only partially deaf. He spoke very slowly, but every word seemed straight from his heart. Eugene is in his forties, and an expert mountain climber and instructor. He told us he always avoided any association with a church, believing that faith had to be a completely personal thing, that he could only find God in nature and away from people. He has had much suffering in his life, didn't go into any details, but was unemployed for a long time and finally got a job as custodian at St. Peter's. Over the period of about a year he began to be drawn toward something he had never believed in--a faith community. He told us that God is healing him of such deep wounds through being around this church every day, and he has made a joyful commitment to become an active member. It was deeply moving.