Yesterday at 4 p.m. when our day crew went home, I began doing laundry.  There were piles and piles of sheets and towels to be washed.  At 1 a.m. I took the seventh and final load out of the washing machine.  All clean laundry is put in basins and lugged from our bathroom, where the machine is, to the top of the stairs.  Our night guard comes along and carries them downstairs.  Then at 5 a.m. he begins hanging laundry out on the lines out back.  The lines hold five loads of laundry.  Only five.  Not seven.  The two remaining basins wait patiently on the back porch for our day crew.  Since it's dry season, long about 10 a.m. sheets are taken off the lines, folded and put away.  This makes room for those last two basins of laundry.  And long before the day is over, even the heaviest towels will be dry, folded and put away.  

This is a procedure that is repeated over and over again.  To run a spiritual retreat center is to do incredible amounts of laundry.  It's all part of our ministry to others.