Jacob, Our Hero

In trying to figure out what to tell you next about my adventure, the one story I did not want to be remiss about telling you was that of Jacob. From what I've been told Jacob often has difficulty being in school. He also was having problems at God's Town and there was talk he might have to go somewhere else to live. A requirement of living at God's Town is the children must attend school. Here is Jacob on the right with the visor on and Nathaniel.

Emma, the oldest of the staff has recently been working with Jacob and there were signs of improvement in his behavior. But none so striking as what happened the day of our planned outing to take everyone (and that meant everyone, and then some) from God's Town to a "resort" as its called there, to go swimming. Ma'am Linda always finds out  where everyone wants to go on a group outing when she comes to visit and this time was no exception.

I was not present to what actually occurred with Jacob but I saw one of the emotional results. Linda came into our room where Becky and I were preparing for this outing to the resort. She came in with tears in her eyes and took a moment to relay the following. It appears that Jacob who by the way is 10 years old, went to Purie (God's Town Director) and offered, volunteered, to stay behind, miss a day of fun and swimming, to take care of the farm (ALONE). You see with a working farm, run and tended to by everyone who lives there, some chores can't miss being done. There are animals that must be fed and crops to be taken care of. Our outing was going to last pretty much all day and just getting to the resort would take at least an hour....nothing and I repeat pretty much nothing is less than an hour from where they live.

After relaying this story to us, next came the proclamation, "that boy gets a bike". I mentioned taking the big wheel to God's Town, but unfortunately if it was to last the bigger kids had to be restricted from riding it. As much as they wanted to (and sneaked in a few pedals) it just had to be. We had told Jacob who really wanted to ride the big wheel we'd buy one in town when we took the older boys for the "Big Shopping" trip. But unfortunately we couldn't find one then. Believe me I can't forget Jacob's face as we drove back in from the "Big Shopping" trip in Catbalogan searching for that bike, which unfortunately was not there. But now, after this heroic, responsible act of selflessness we had to find a bike.

The "resort" which I put in quotes because it is nothing like what we here in the US would think of in those terms was nice.  It had 2 swimming pools, shaded tables which were reserved for us, some other pavilions for bigger parties and more. But it was pretty small. Now when the staff at God's Town plan for an outing boy do they plan. I can't even imagine how late they stayed up making food for us to take. We had a cooler, pots and much more. Because there were so many of us a bus was rented. When we left and counted off to make sure we had everyone the count was about 36 and it actually grew along the route picking up some friends of God's Town....

Now the bus, well this was another type of thing Ma'am Becky and I would refer to as getting an X over it. And what that meant was if it were here in the US it would more than likely either be illegal or at the very least deemed highly unsafe. The bus sounded bad, if it had a muffler not sure it worked, from where I sat well...let's just say I could see the ground through the thin rust spots. It did not have windows and was open on the sides but there were flaps that could be brought down in the event of rain. And that event did happen on our ride back but those flaps, only on one side, and it wasn't mine. Exhibit A below:  a still shot of the bus!

Exhibit B of the bus; pictures, sound, and ending commentary by Ma'am Becky so cue the video:

But regardless of how apprehensive I was about that bus, the scenery along our travels to the resort was pretty amazing. After first passing by our destination we finally made it. The outing itself was fun. Even Ma'am Dawn, who would rarely get in a pool literally spent hours in there. Mostly with M-D because he was so small for the big pool but loved playing volleyball with a beach ball. So with me hoisting him out of the water and balancing him on one leg, and hopping on my other, M-D and I played, and played and played. All the kids seem to have a good time, even Sebio when we finally got him in the water. The video below includes me hopping around with M-D, playing volleyball with Asst. Dir., Dan and narration by Ma'am Linda with a host of other squeals and fun-filled laughter and yells in the background from a cast of characters.

And some of you may be wondering what about the bike for Jacob? A picture is worth more than 1000 words. That's Jacob in the yellow top. And, one of the last times I saw Jacob riding around the building on that bike, he was giving a chicken a ride!!  That's our Jacob, you gotta love him.

We also got another small bike as a next step up with training wheels. But don't read my words, just listen to the sound of the bell ringing.

Project Water Tower

I have had a couple of inquiries about how people can help us reach our goal of funding the purchase of a water tower at God's Town. As you can see I now have a fundraising thermometer and it's moving rather slowly. We had one very large generous donation from a friend of Linda's and the rest has been from my selling candy and snacks to my chocolate addicted co-workers and donating the money for the tower.

Just imagine not having consistently running water, or filling a bucket before you go to bed just to make sure you've got some to dip into for your "shower" in the morning in case there is none available. Having a water tower will be more than helpful to the children and staff at God's Town, it will literally get them threw their days better. 

The group that initially started God's Town I can only assume had at least thought about a water tower as is proof here by the concrete that was laid for it. However for whatever reason they felt other things more important. Althought I can't think of much more important than having water. They also were not the ones who believed in God's Town becoming self-sufficient and creating a working farm.  But hey, everyone has different ideas, it's just a good thing the people with the idea of making God's Town more self-sufficient are the ones working with them now.

So, if you'd like to help us raise the temperature on the fundraising thermometer, please consider donating whatever you can. Please be sure to make your checks payable to One Heart as that is the church's mission fund which sponsors God's Town. If you'd like to specify your donation towards the water tower simply put God's Town water tower project in the subject line. Donations of any size, which are tax deductible, should be mailed to: One Heart, c/o Penbrook United Church of Christ, 56 Banks Street, Harrisburg, PA 17103.

Coming up more trip adventures, pictures, video and information about our newly sponsored young man, Sebio's friend Eric.