SOME DAYS ARE DIAMONDS (SOME DAYS ARE STONES)

“Some Days are Diamonds, Some Days are Stones” was a song written by Dick Feller. Feller's version was released in 1976 but failed to make the music chart. The song was covered by John Denver on his 1981 album Some Days Are Diamonds. Released in May 1981 as the album's first single, Denver's version peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also reached number one on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada. For Denver, the song was a “diamond.”

The chorus says: Some days are diamonds, some days are stones.
                                Sometimes the hard times won't leave me alone.
                               Sometimes a cold wind blows a chill in my bones.
                              Some days are diamonds, some days are stones

For some reason I think about this song when things aren’t going just right in my life. In my April blog I introduced you to an old word - “monsterful” - which means wonderful and extraordinary. However, June seems to have been less than monsterful.  More a bit of a “stone.”

We spent the first three weeks of the month at Camp Berachah in Washington on our first MMAP project of this year.

 

This is the fourth project we have done at Berachah. It is conveniently close to our daughter’s house, so we have gravitated back to it for the last three years.

We worked with three other MMAP couples:

Wayne and Debbe Frank from Pasco, WA were the coordinators. This is the first time we have worked with them. Wayne is a retired teacher from the Tri Cities area of Eastern Washington. We look forward to working with them again.

 Sam and Mary Tozer are from Kingman, AZ. We have known the Tozers for almost 40 years. We were instrumental in getting them to join MMAP and we have worked on three projects with them so far. Sam is a retired journeyman plumber and knows just about everything about construction.

Patsy and Scotty Scott are from Texas. They are long time MMAPers and live in Texas. They retired from government work in Panama. They lived there for over 40 years and had some wonderful stories to tell about life outside of the USA.

The camp didn’t have any major work for us to do, (and except for a moment of excitement when our friend and fellow MMAPer, Sam nearly severed his little finger with a circular saw,) it was just three weeks of mundane painting and small repair jobs. These are some pictures of the various things we did: 

Repaired the bench on the hay wagon-

Scotty painted a small shed. Debbe and I finished the trim.

Sam cutting window trim

Wayne and Jim repaired the frame and roof of the shooting range

Jim and Scotty recovered a carpet ball table and Wayne added trim

 Debbe and I did some painting - trim on barn windows and painting of the monkey ball court.

 We did some yard work

And Pat and Mary helped in the office 

Camp Berachah is like so many other Christian camps around the country – long on needs and short on funds. The major things that should be done are many times put on the back burner due to lack of materials or lack of volunteer labor. It seemed this was the case in June for Berachah. They had listed a roof job for us to do, but because it is in such desperate shape it was uncertain just how much repair work would have to be done before the new roofing material could be laid down. We had been warned last year that this particular roof is a real safety hazard, so our MMAP coordinator advised the camp maintenance supervisor that we might be able to put the roofing material on if the camp could get the old stuff off first and see just how damaged the roof is. That never happened (at least not in June,) so we were assigned other miscellaneous projects.

I’ll confess, I was getting frustrated at the ordinary jobs we were being asked to do. Somehow, I got my ego in the way and figured every task we accomplished had to somehow produce “diamonds.” However God got my attention through a remark by my friend Sam. At one of our morning devotionals, Sam told us about a previous project he had been on where they spent most of the time scrubbing a bathroom floor with toothbrushes. He too was frustrated that his expertise as a journeyman plumber with years of experience was being overlooked. But God reminded him (as He reminded me) that no matter how humdrum the work, we are called to work at it with all our heart. More directly, the Bible says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3: 23-24)

I know I left all of you “hanging” with my previous remark about Sam's finger. I’ll bet you are wondering just what happened.  So, I’ll share the story of “Sam and the Killer Saw” - The first week Sam and Wayne were cutting and installing window trim around some windows. He had just turned off the circular saw he was using to cut the boards, but the blade was still spinning and his little finger got too close. It was just a split second and before he knew what was happening, the blood was gushing. (Not a pretty picture!) Wayne acted quickly and they wrapped it in a rag and headed to the emergency room. The saw had cut the tendon and ligament, severed the artery on the outside of the finger and shattered the bones. They sewed the finger up temporarily and a few days later he went to a hand surgeon and had the finger reconstructed. It will be at least four weeks for complete recovery. Fortunately Sam is slated to be the coordinator for the project at Berachah in July, so he’ll be able to do more supervision than actual physical labor. And even better - he still has a little finger!

The fact that Sam will be the July coordinator was also a providential turn of events. In our last blog I told you that Jim was slated to be the coordinator in July at Berachah (his first time at this position.) Sam was assigned to be the coordinator in August at Warm Beach Camp in Stanwood, WA. However, prior to Sam’s accident, he and Jim had decided to trade the coordinator positions since Sam and Mary will be leaving the Stanwood project a week early and I will be unable to assist Jim as the coordinator’s wife the first week of July. (I will be with the kids and grandkids in Oregon on a family vacation – more on that in the next blog.)

So I will close this little note with a reminder to us all – if your days seem filled with stones, take a long hard look at them. Some of them may be diamonds.