Jeff and I had a great Sunday. We started the morning at our new church Moran Park. For lunch, I made sloppy joes in our new kitchen. This is such a big deal! Later in the day we tried a local ice cream shop called Captain Sundae. All of their offerings are maritime themed. It was okay. Certainly no Doozies :) After our mediocre ice cream experience we decided to walk out to the lighthouse. Big Red sits at the front of the channel between Lake Michigan and Lake Macatawa. Oh, it is so beautiful out there. The story is that the Dutch saw this area as a great opportunity for industry and shipping. The government, however,disagreed and would not foot the bill to dig the channel to connect the two lakes. So, the Dutch people dug the channel themselves! Holy cow! This new connection went on to be very profitable and influential in the development of Holland. Jeff loves this, of course. People rising up to take action instead of relying on the government. Just that morning, I was telling Jeff how disappointed I was with the Dutch people. I find their names ridiculous and often impossible to pronounce (Graafschap, DeLeeuw, Nyenhuis, Saar for example). Are there no rules governing spelling in their homeland? All my sounding out skills I learned in kindergarten are useless here in Holland. But after learning that these same people dug a channel with their own hands (amazing), I figure I can let the name thing go :) 
(For a more complete history of the creation of the channel click here.)
Jeff and I found a church here (I'll go into that in another post) called Moran Park. It sits next to a city park with the same name. Moran Park the church is commited to serving this particular neighborhood. One way they do that is by keeping the park clean and tidy. Once a month we gather under the big gazebo with edgers, wheelbarrows, blowers and the like. We spend the next 2-2 1/2 hours doing whatever needs to be done. Today's activities included edging, pulling weeds, blowing off the shuffleboard court, sweeping the sand back into the sand pit, and many other general clean up things.I had a chance to talk with a couple new people. Well, new to me anyway. Ben is a dentist and we chatted about my dental implants. I spent a good chunk of time with Sue. Sue is a middle school teacher. We talked about all sorts of things. One of which was mentoring with the 70x7 program. 70x7 is a non-profit recovery program for addicts and also a community re-entry program for ex cons. In short, ex cons get involved with 70x7 to fulfill their community service requirements. If during the community service program the person shows reliability and a willingness to make changes in their life, they are elgible for a job. Which is where New Day Staffing comes in. New Day partners with local businesses to offer jobs only to ex-felons. Once you have a job you must also have a mentor. As a mentor, you help set goals (physical, emotional, and spiritual) and provide accountability and encouragement along the way. I'd like to be a mentor. Sue is a mentor and she addressed a lot of my questions and concerns about being a mentor. This is such a paltry explanation of all that 70x7 does. But I'm trying not to overwhelm you with this first post. I'm sure I'll talk more about it later.On the homefront, Jeff finished wiring our kitchen! We now have a working sink, garbage disposal and dishwasher, and new outlets! Hooray for Jeffrey!That's enough for today. Love you all, Rachel
Hello friends and family. As you know, Jeff and I have moved from Mt. Pleasant to Holland. Our life is in transition and so many things are new and unknown. I thought it would be good for me to keep a bit of a journal of this time in our lives. I also wanted to share this time with all of you. My hope for this blog is that I will be faithful to post and that you will enjoy being able to stay connected with us. Rachel
