From Petersburg to Petersburg in one week

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” — Tim Cahill      

This is especially true for RMI President, Dan Shoemaker, this week.  If the miles were counted, he would indeed be weary!  4700+ miles between the Petersburgs.  Saturday Dan presented RMI’s ministries to a church missions committee in St. Petersburg, Florida.  It was exciting to see them grasp the concepts of having a long term, in-depth relationship with a Sister Church and realize the potential that it could have for their congregation.  Tuesday Dan then journeys to Seattle where he will stay with friends in a Sister Church there before continuing Wednesday to Petersburg, Alaska.  Though Petersburg Bible Church finds itself in a small fishing village on an island, it is excited to be a Sister Church.  Yes, they travel all the way to Haiti to visit their Sister Church.  Yes, it’s a long, long, very long way, but it is worth it for them to see friends.  They aren’t measuring the miles, they are measuring the friends.

On the way home, Dan will once again stop over in Seattle, visiting friends in 2 Sister Churches as well as long time friends from his early years as a missionary in Haiti.
The world isn’t so big when you measure it in friends!

The tale of the $50 tile repair job

What started out as a $50 tile repair job turned out not to be.  Almost 2 months later, we’ve finally come to end of the journey.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

This is what we started with.  We had to put down a pathway of
sheets through the bedroom for the workers to walk on.

There was a lot to rip out - right down to the outside block wall.

A new, proper subwall was put in...the original builders had slapped the tile 
right onto drywall. It was good to see the tile go on.

Toilet in the shower?  That's where it had to sit 
while the floor was being re-done.  

The main floor was re-done.

The loose tiles that needed to be re-applied revealed a MUCH MUCH bigger, blacker problem.  The tiles had been applied to sheet rock instead of shower backer board.  The subsequent moisture turned into black mold throughout the whole shower.  It had to be torn out and taken down to the outside block walls.  Picking out new shower tiles, showerhead, etc. was not how we’d planned on spending our weekend, but there was no choice for it. All of the recommendations we received for a tile store were for the same store, so we went there and within 20 minutes had picked out what we wanted.  Working us into his schedule and working around our schedule meant that the work was done in the evenings and a couple of Saturdays.  And now we are finally done.  What a relief!!  I mean…What. A. Relief!
  

Now I can take a shower in peace, knowing that the black mold monster will not get ahold of me!  And I’ll be able to see what I’m doing. 

P.S. Dan put the shower light in himself!!  YAY Dan!!