DAY 7

My goal on this day: do laundry.  After a leisurely breakfast of yoghurt and granola, coffee and fruit, I rounded up our week’s worth of laundry.  We had been given a key that first evening but for the life of me I couldn’t remember which building on the retreat center property had the laundry facilities!  So we trotted over to the main office and chatted with a couple different staff.  Half an hour later we had found out where that key was for!  I carried the bags over and followed instructions on the fancy high efficiency machines.  Then I took a book and found a sunny spot outside the building and planned to check on the machines in about half an hour. 

I soon realized that I needed some water, so I returned to our place.  When I got there, Walter thought he had blown a breaker.  So he went to the neighbor in the other half of the duplex units we were part of, and they had no power either.  Great!  So the old wiring affected both units!

As I wandered back to check on my laundry, the alarm was beeping.  I went inside and sure enough, the power was off there, as well.  This was not a blown breaker.  The entire place was blacked out in the middle of a perfectly sunny day!  I quickly made a plan B.  Both machines had spun the loads and seemed rinsed and finished.  So I unloaded them in baskets and pushed them outside in a cart.  Then Walter tied our 50 foot extension cord (not needed in Phoenix for plugging in our car!) around the posts of the car port to rig up a clothes line.  Soon, we had our “clean laundry” airing for all the residents and volunteers at the ministry center to see!

We decided to journey over to a magic shop a few minutes away.  Walter has been working on illusions to use at Bible Camps to illustrate his stories to the children in chapel times.  So he wanted to expand his repertoire and thought he’d check out a new store.  “Wacky Zack’s” was cool and quiet, so the storeowner had plenty of time and exuberance to present and sell his wares.  Apparently “Gospel Magic” is a whole genre and he and his wife were quite helpful in setting Walter up with some new and impressive items that worked with Gospel themes. 

An interesting side-note was that the storeowner’s aunt was visiting them from out of town, and would chirp in with comments once in a while.  Soon, she was asking Walter some spiritual questions.  We listened, then Walter responded carefully and gently to lead her away from seeking a psychic – which the nephew and his wife were in agreement with Walter- and he asked if he could pray with the lady.  She gladly bowed in prayer. 

Shortly after that, Walter bought some of the illusion materials and we left the store.  You never know what opportunities await to share about the Lord and pray with needy people!

I had wanted to check out the “Flea Markets” that my mom had raved about in Phoenix and area.  So we found one that was an indoor venue and wandered inside.  It was sort of like a mixture of Dollar Store, Liquidation World and Exhibition “hucksters”!  Not quite what I expected, but I left there with a $10 sundress and $3 earrings plus a John Deere tractor wind spinner.

Across the parking lot there was a bakery and coffee shop.  In the shade outdoors, we sat and enjoyed a late afternoon treat.  The laundry was drying and there was no rush.

To end our lazier day, we folded the clean clothing and then went out for a late supper at “Cracker Barrel”-an old fashioned country store and home-style cooking restaurant.  It was tasty food, quick service and fun to browse through the store afterwards.  I bought a couple items, one being an old metal sign “Dad’s Garage” to hang in Walter’s workshop back home. 

The evening was warm.  A fire was burning by the guest apartments, so we walked over to see if we could join the group seated on lawn chairs.  It was a pleasant evening of chit chat and staring at the flames.  A full moon rose in a clear black sky.  Coyotes howled occasionally.  In the middle of a very urban location, this area of Peoria had open lots, corrals with horses, chickens and the odd pig.  So coyotes had continued to make their homes nearby. 

We actually made it to almost 11 pm that night, and gleaned some suggestions for activities for the next day, Saturday, from those around the fire who were in the “know”.  We looked forward to more adventures.