IHN Sunday/Monday 9/12-13/2010

We are a day-and-a-half into our Interfaith Hospitality Network host week now. We converted three rooms of the Children's Ministry Suite into bedrooms on Sunday afternoon after the last event of the church's action-packed Celebration Weekend. Just three rooms this time, because we have just two families plus the Overnight Hosts.

We have Nancy and her 7-year-old son Matthew, and Michael and Amber with their 21-month-old son Gavin.

Matthew is a really active boy, with sports events after school; he attends Malcolm Bridge Elementary in Oconee County; that's a story in itself (see below). Nancy works in event catering, for the Classic Center and for Epting Events. She has an erratic work schedule, which can make IHN van transportation problematic.

Michael and Amber are both actively seeking employment.

IHN of Athens has host churches in both Clarke and Oconee counties. Matthew attends a school in Oconee County, but for this week and some other weeks, Nancy and Matthew are in Clarke County. An Athens-Clarke school bus picks Matthew up at First Presbyterian Church and takes him to the parking lot at Kohl's on Epps Bridge Parkway, just over the Clarke-Oconee county line. From there, an Oconee school bus takes him to Malcom Bridge Elementary. I'm astounded that two government bureaucracies would coordinate like this to get a single child to his school, but they do it every day. It's faith-restoring.

So far the families *love* the inside play area (our nursery area), the outside playground, the showers, and of course the food. Not to mention the volunteers, of course. We always try to make our guests welcome, and they respond.

Michael is a classical pianist, and hopes to perform at the upcoming IHN Volunteer Recognition Banquet, which will be held at our church (with Darryl Magrino presiding in the kitchen) on October 10. You should all plan to come -- it's FREE! No charge for the dinner, nor for the entertainment by Ken Medema. Check the link to the banquet info on the IHN Athens web site.  Reservations are required (but FREE), so that the chefs know how much food to prepare.

A good start for our host week.  Holy Cross Lutheran will take over the volunteer jobs next week, but the families will stay put in our building next week.  Holy Cross has a construction project under way at their church, and can't host there.  We can relate to this, as we had to "borrow" churches twice in 2009 to do our own IHN hosting.