We’ve signed up for another Maranatha project… If you are unfamiliar with Maranatha, they say they “Build People by building urgently needed buildings.” What that has translated into, for us, is working like crazy to do impossible restoration in amazingly short time periods. The work is done by volunteers, who come from all over the place. They give you a dorm room, or RV hookups (Yay!), feed you well, and work you hard. It’s amazing what gets done. This is our 4th Maranatha project (I forget how hard we work until after I sign up for another!)
So after the awesome Manhattan Project National Historic Landmark tour (Read about it here) , we spent the night in a very nice campground pretty close by in Richland, Washington, then headed for Walla Walla.
We arrived the weekend before the project started, just so we could check out the area a bit. In church, bumped into a couple we knew long ago in Denver – Phil and Debbie! We spent two wonderful afternoons with them, catching up and having a great time. Thank you Phil and Debbie for your great hospitality!
Walla Walla University
Located in Walla Walla Washington, (Isn’t that fun to say?!), the University was founded in 1892. It is a Seventh-day Adventist institution, with a great reputation, and perhaps best known as having a very good engineering school. Our kids, Becky and Kevin, graduated from this school. (Do I sound proud? I am!)
We toured the beautiful grounds a bit. It is very green, well manicured, with lots of pretty flowers. Overall, the campus is gorgeous.
Once the project started, there wasn’t much time or energy to do other outings or photography, so for now, just a few pictures of the pretty campus. Another option would be pictures of a very old dorm rooms greatly in need of restoration. Maybe you’ll get those next week!
From a distance I spotted this odd contraption – it looked like a three legged deer! John Deere, that is. But I’d never seen a three legged John Deere either, so I went to investigate… While it seemed very content just resting in the evening shade, it was obvious it needed to be hooked up to a complete, more capable tractor to get moving. Maybe that’s like all of us – we need to be hooked up with a power greater than our own to get anything done!
congrats on your next Maranatha project. I was the cook for 14 international Maranatha Projects. They are all worthwhile projects – hard work, good food and rewarding experiences. Steve graduated from Walla Walla so we made several trips up there and enjoyed the area. Jeff’s b-day is today so we will eat cake today! Ha!