September 2006 Update from Jughed

Receiving letters from missionaries keep me encouraged. Here is the latest update from a friend we call Jughed. He was a missionary in Bolivia. His term just ended and he has now returned to the states. However, I will continue to post his updates as we receive them to be alongside him as he decides whether to return to the field or not.

From: -------- ------- [mailto:jughed@-------.---]
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 9:46 AM
To: ------@-------.---
Subject: newsletter

Greetings

Well it’s been 3 months since I’ve returned to the states, and long months they have been. As I write this I’m sitting in the canteen at Lake Owen Camp in northwest Wisconsin. It has been an interesting trip so far.

June was busy getting resituated to the states but in hindsight was pretty relaxed. I made a quick trip to the mission in Florida. I drove straight there, spent one night, had a day of meetings and then drove straight back to Chicagoland. I would have made a nice long trip of it but I snuck into a re-entry seminar done by MTI in Colorado which started 3 days after my meetings in Florida. http://www.mti.org/dar.htm . I spent from June18-24 out in Colorado; it was a good time of fellowship with other missionaries, learning about stages and stresses dealing with changes in cultures and my expectations, and we did some hiking as well. I also started rehearsals for the Bristol Renaissance Faire in June. I worked as a street performer and had to develop 2 new characters and how they related to the town and the other new characters.

July found me in western IL at the Cornerstone Music Fest.
http://www.cornerstonefestival.com/ Once again I volunteered to help with Transportation and it was quite the experience. Besides the random meeting of ‘famous’ folk I was able to help rescue a youth group from Canada whose bus engine blew up 80 miles from the fest. They had the bus towed to the site and a friend brought another engine and they changed it out in the middle of the field, amazing. I went by myself this year but was happy to see many familiar faces and even set up doing hairwraps again. The Ren. Faire opened so on Saturdays and Sundays I was in Kenosha Wisconsin trying to survive the heat while wearing canvas. During the week I was kept busy with random painting project and I started hanging out with the youth group at church. Hopefully I’ll be able to be more connected to that ministry in the future months.

In August I was still at the faire for the weekends but Sunday nights found me driving into northern Wisconsin to work at Lake Owen camp or at my uncle’s cabin. Yea I’m dumb. Happily I’ve had some rain days and while frustrating they do at least give me a break. That pretty much describes August, lots of work and lots of driving, sigh.

So far in September I’m working up north still but my work at camp is mostly done and the weather is promising to finish up all outside work soon (high’s forecast in the 40’s on Wednesday). The faire closed on Labor Day so no more of that, and yes I miss it. It’s an interesting time with interesting people and I sure did enjoy what I was doing. I played a sailor and so now I’m interested in tall ships. Curses for living in the Midwest…

For all those waiting for a visit, that’s the plan for the next couple months. I don’t have a firm schedule yet but I know that I’ll be down in S Carolina for a wedding October 7th and I plan to spend thanksgiving in Maine and I’ll be in Bolivia around Christmas to visit with my sister. I’m planning to visit Kansas and Texas in October as well but don’t know when yet.

Well this has gotten much to long so its time to end.
Thank you to all ya’ll who have endured to the end.

Have a great day,
~--------