This is our second week back from vacation. Rachel and Hannah and I took a week and went down south to North Caroline to visit my sister and her family. It was a great time. The south is an amazing place. Some of the things I appreciated about that region were: the weather, the fact that I did not have any allergy issues (may also be due to being away from our old house and pets), the people are so polite, the lack of de-industrialization/vacant buildings/blight, cheap gas, the amount of stuff to do, different types of historic sites, and so on.

My sister's family recently moved back there after about a year of living in the Flint area. They were miserable up here, but wanted to try and be closer to family. As soon as they moved back to Charlotte, my sister was rehired back at her old job, and her husband received a substantial promotion. We spent a lot of time outdoors with Hannah. And she loved being around her cousins. We realized that we need to find her some play friends.

Above all, it was interesting to note how bad things really are here in Michigan. I knew they were bad in contrast to the rest of the country, but we are really in a situation here. Rachel and I both took note that as soon as we got through the Ohio valley, the scenery changed to...well I can't quite describe it, but it wasn't pretty. It's no wonder that the southern US is experiencing population growth while the Midwest grows slowly while, Michigan was the only state to have a shrinking population. People came in droves to work good paying industrial jobs, and then when the industry declined and in some aspects died, the people left, and the landscape is now scarred in a sense with old factories, businesses closed, and houses left to rot and fall apart. It's a mess. I don't blame people for leaving, but I also know that the people who are here, for as long as they are here, will work hard to rebuild and see this area thrive again.

We're keeping busy here as we wrap up the school year, and enter the Summer. Our programs, activities, and ministries shift towards outdoors as the weather gets nicer out. We're expanding Picnics In The Park to include crafts, organized sports, poetry, Mission: Literacy reading program, and more. This will be a good Summer!

Rachel and I are going to Commissioning Weekend (big Midwest Sal Army event) and promoting Ignite. We'll have a table in Resource Connection, a popular spot to be, and hopefully we'll have recruited six people for this year's Ignite program by the end of the weekend!