Home Sweet Home

We made it! After 1000 miles on the road, 20 hours in the vans and four solid days of serving the people of Rapid City, we're back in Rochester. I know of at least one person who's glad to be sleeping in her own bed (and NOT on an air mattress in a Sunday School classroom) tonight.

We closed our trip this morning by taking a detour to Mount Rushmore. It was a great reminder of the importance of perspective -- and that one person with a big idea can do great things in the world.

Our last stop put that into practice: we delivered two dozen hand-tied quilts from the fabulous Zumbro quilters to an apartment building that offers a stable, secure place to live to homeless families who are trying to make it out of the poverty cycle. A few members of our group had worked here on Wednesday fixing furniture and getting the apartments ready for new residents. When I brought them into the office a woman was there filling out an application for one of the apartments. I told the manager the quilts were a gift for the new residents, a way to say, 'welcome home.' And I at those words I could see tears fill the woman's eyes. Home is a pretty powerful word.