At last we post...

   A week ago last Sunday, there was a thunderstorm that hit the town/intersection of Falcon ahead of Hurricane Irene.  It was big enough to unnerve the boys ages 11 to 15 that live on our hall, Culbreth East.  The power went out momentarily a few times and I turned off the computer in the office and brought out a surge protector to keep the X-box 360 from getting blow to bits while the boys played some basketball game.
     Back in the office I sat down on the sofa for a moment while Cherie did something at the desk.  The router, screwed against the wall and plugged into a cheap power strip that is screwed vertically against a cabinet nearby flashed.  After the storm we found that two or three computers were lost on campus, including the computer on our sister hall, Culbreth West.  Our router had to be ordered online, and for reasons unknown to me, the "I.T. Guy" could not get the computer to connect directly through the modem.  Thus our online days came to an untimely end at Falcon Children's home, or untimely intermission maybe (it should be running when we get back from our week off this Monday).  Sad to say, it kept us from updating our blog.
     It also, combined with lack of a printer, kept us running back and forth between the office (by us I mean mostly Cherie) with a memory stick full of house parent reports and other paper work that God in His wisdom has kept largely out of my hands.
     We are at the moment at Adam and Hannah Erickson's house, who, besides being generally awesome in every way, have given us a key to their home so that we could rest and update our blog.

     We survived our first two weeks as house parents!  I (Cherie, now)  have been asked several times if anything surprised us.  My answer is no.  Training was very thorough and we felt very ready to start.  We currently have 10 boys on the hall!  Two of them moved back our first day there.  They are a great group of boys, but they definitely challenge us.  They are adjusting to the way we do things and what we expect from them.  We were told to go in strict and we did!  Every boy received consequences except for one.  The one who didn't, arrived back last Tuesday and has lived at Falcon for seven years!  He is our oldest and so far has not tested us.
    The kids in public school started back last Thursday, which was a relief to us.  Having 10 boys with us all the time can get stressful.  Four of them are going to public school this year.  The other six are going to Falcon Christian Academy, which is starting this year.  They will start Sept. 6.  Ben will have the privilege to teach the high schoolers in the mornings.  He will only teach during the weeks that we are working.  The principal will teach on the weeks that we are off.  He will have a class of 8 students.  There will be 27 students in all.  We are very excited to see how God will use this school to reach these kids with the Gospel.
    The highlight of these past two weeks was last Weds. night.  James, one of the more "difficult" kids that we have, came to us and told us that he rededicated his life to the Lord two weeks ago and he feels that God is calling him to be a youth pastor!  He was very excited and so were we!  That moment gave us the energy to make it through the rest of the week.
    We are so grateful for this week off.  The rest is what we are enjoying the most.  Thank you for lifting us up.  We hope to update more later this week.

Training Week 2

It is our first week off.  Yesterday we drove two and a half hours from Falcon, NC to Greensboro to pick up our cats Abby and Tisé.  We drugged them with some anti anxiety droplets and loaded them in the car to drive the next seven hours to Hanover PA.  We arrived at one this morning, after several stops to clean waste out the cats’ cages.  A Starbucks near Roanoke gave us a cup off coffee grounds for free to use as a deodorizer on the way up.  It helped so much!  In PA we bathed the cats (a lovely time, as the small scratch on my wrist attests to), set up their food and litter box, and went to bed.  Mae woke us up early this morning and already I have that sort of groggy headache that will demand a nap before the day is out.  We will be visiting family and friends here in PA today, and then heading to Greensboro to pick up the rest of our stuff, before heading back to Falcon on Thursday and moving into our little two bedroom, one office, and one bathroom apartment that juts off the back of our hall, Culberth East.

On a a completely random note, I found out how Falcon, NC got its name.  It was originally called Starlings Bridge.  When the Post Office was first put into Falcon, the Postmaster informed them the name was taken, and the founder (Julias Culberth) looked at his pencil and saw the manufacturer’s name was “Falcon”.  He looked up and said, “We could just call it Falcon.”  Inspiring, isn’t it?  

Anyway, about our boys.  We have eight of them right now with potential to get to nine.  They all are very different.  Some of them were traveling with the choir so I did not get to spend much time with them, but Sunday night I played basketball with two of them (I lost two games of 21), and Cherie was able to throw the football with two more of them.  (They were impressed with her ability to throw).  The others were on the hall playing video games or talking with their current houseparents.  All in all they are a good group of kids, and it should be a lot of fun.  Some of them are already taken with Mae, others don’t really pay her much attention.  The children, and us, will need prayer as the transition may be rough for some of them that have bonded well with their current houseparents.  Pray for wisdom and patience on our part.  

Training Week

It is Thursday of training week.  We are staying in the oldest boys' cottage while we are training.  Oh the things we are learning!  Our heads are full, but so are our hearts.  We are so grateful that God has chosen us to be a part of His work here at Falcon.  It is a battlefield, but God is the victor.


Mae is adjusting well.  She is getting used to staying with us all the time and starting to stay in the room with us more.  She is slowly adopting the house parents of Morris as family, and readily asks them to pick her up.  The boys are putting up with her, but most of them pay her little mind.  One or two stop to hand her balls and ask for high fives, but as they are not allowed to pick her up with out permission, she has not really connected with any of them.  (17 year old boys apparently don't go gaga over little girls when their friends are around.  Crazy, I know.)


Tomorrow we are meeting our boys for the first time.  Please pray for them as their current house parents tell them that they will not be with them anymore.  We have learned some about each of the boys and their backgrounds, so it will be good to put a personality with what we know.

Two Days After Moving

It is Monday morning, and for the moment we are homeless.  All our stuff is stashed in Falcon's warehouse and Ben's parents house.  We loaded all our things that began looking more and more like junk onto a small U-haul trailer that was hitched to my brother Daniel's Jeep.  Because of the limited selection of U-haul available in Greensboro (we drove to Winston to get the one we had), Daniel and I (Ben) took two loads down to Fayetteville and a half load to my parents house in Greensboro.  Our cats were dropped off at a Vet.  If no one wants them we will be taking them up to PA to live with Cherie's family after our week of training, and after we bring the rest of our stuff to Falcon.  We spent Saturday night with Adam Erickson, went to church with him at "The River" and met some of his small groups friends over lunch.  Work starts this morning at 9:00.  We will have one week of training and then a week off. We are both exited, and terrified.  "The first day on the job lasts a week," I find myself thinking and then check myself.  It's not a job, it's our new life, our new ministry.  God brought us here, and we are here for His Glory.  Thank you for your prayers