October 11, 2025

A weathered piano bench here hasa new life. This is the top.

For the last 2 months I (Debbi)have been heading up the effort to reorganize the marketing offices. We’repacked in pretty tightly, so it’s been several consecutive games of Tetris tomake it all happen: empty one area, redesign, fix most of the details, moveback in and shift over the stuff from the next space, then do it all again.It’s about the last thing I thought I’d be doing as a missionary, but the Lorduses the skills He has helped us develop however He can. We’re almostfinished—which is a really good thing because my back has organized a protest. Imay be doing my usual job remotely for a few days. But it’s worth it. Theimprovement in the environment for the staff is already making a difference.

Dennis has also been doingsomething he didn’t expect on a mission. Once upon a time, the Center had alaser engraver that served well, but breathed its last a few months ago. Theybought a new one, but no one really knew how to use it. (Only a couple ofstudents who had used the old one are still here, and besides, this is adifferent machine.) Experience with his own laser engraver and the computersavvy it takes to calibrate one, he has found himself in the enviable positionof playing with the new toy. He’s also using his engineering skills to designand create spacers they’ll need to hold ukuleles in place when they are beingengraved. This is the stuff dreams are made of.