The Haunting

Riding a bike, plunging a toilet, and knowing how to make ricotta cheese are all skills that a person wants to keep handy for future situations.  Other pieces of knowledge come back when put into certain situations, and then others I wish to never recount or think about ever again, and yet they keep haunting me.
Starting this week I have found begun to find my feet in each of my placements.  Thursdays and Fridays I will be working at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  It is essentially a recycled hardware store where individuals can donate used home items like toilets and fans.  I will be acting as the marketing intern for the store and implementing the ideas of the larger Habitat for Humanity mission into the store.  My first assignment is to work on World Habitat for Humanity Day, which is on Oct. 7th mark your calendar!  Headquarters wants all the stores to decorate doors and put them on display to promote the mission of Habitat for Humanity.  Those skills I mentioned earlier manifested in this project.  Suddenly I had to make a boring wooden door something to look at, but how to do it?  AH HA, high school stage crew come back to me please.  For one set my job was to make a bunch of ply wood look as if it were a true hard wood floor.  Thank you Mr. Kuhar for teaching me your brilliant technique of making nothing into something by simply using a paint brush and paint.  Before, the door looked like an unfinished door with no panels or wood detail.  After, the looks wood paneled with exquisite details, okay not exactly, but it looks better than before.  This was one of those skills I was glad to recall.  The next situation, not as happy to put these skills to the test, but I am still thankful to have them.
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays I will be working in my parish placement.  The church is a small church with a congregation with about 100 people for all three services offered.  It is located south of Omaha.  And because it is a small parish my position there will essentially be to act as the shadow of the rector.  I will be going on pastoral visits, preaching, teaching adult christian education classes, sitting in on financial meetings and vestry meetings, and working with the youth group, and attending some Sunday school classes.  I am looking forward to all of it, except for one teeny tiny item on the odds and ends list.  The list is what I should try to get around to if I have a rainy day, and on it I could use one of those haunting skills that is trying to creep up on me.  The objective on the list is to make a database!  Thank you Dr. Lynn, I would have been lost without your wisdom or without my friend Julia's brilliance in Access.  I thought by simply avoiding the corporate office I would avoid the dreaded database forever.  Alas, to no avail.  I am going to try and create a database for the parish which will enable them to keep track and look up baptisms, confirmations, funerals, and more.  It is much needed for their parish, and I do have this little database creating skill.
I am ashamed to admit that I take for granite these little skills.  I am blessed to have any sort of knowledge or education at all.  Individuals all over the world are deprived of this opportunity simply because of where they live or because they can not afford a uniform for school.  I am lucky for all that I have and the for everyone who has ever taught me anything in or outside of a classroom.  I will use what I can, to serve as many as I can, even if that means I may have to create a database or two.