Blog 9 - Trip to Deweyville

John, Don, Paul, Linda & Mary



This was the weekend John and I had been waiting for. We made the 8 hour trip through Newton to Deweyville. We stopped along the way to see things we hadn’t been able to when we pulled the R.V. here. Finally got to the Court House Whistle Stop Café with a large antique store attached, in Livingstone, which Verna had said we absolutely HAD to go and see. The owner was a very friendly lady and John visited with her over a coffee while I checked out the antiques. It was mid afternoon and we were the only patrons in the café at the time.

We also stopped at a crummy flea market, but found some treasures anyway. There were only three stalls open on the Friday. John picked up an old toy Ford touring car.

It was 5:30 and dark by the time we reached Newton. I telephoned my cat lady friend Patty from the Dairy Queen and she was very excited that we were nearby. She came to the Dairy Queen and we had a nice visit. John had never personally met her before.

As there was not a motel in Newton, we headed down Deweyville way and had to drive all the way to Orange to find a motel room. It was along I-10, on the way to the place where we had bought our R.V. last year.

In the morning, John washed the truck and we went and found our friends in Deweyville. It was so great to see Paul and Mary again. There were also many other friends there that we had worked with or met before, so it was like “old home week”. They showed us around their site and we drove over to see the house they are building. We noted it will be like having a “mansion” in the middle of a slum. There were very few liveable houses in the neighbourhood of the project. We spent the rest of the day and evening with Paul and Mary in their R.V.visiting and playing STIX and then they pulled out their hideabed for the night. As they live in Pennsylvania, way across the country, I told them we were thrilled because this was probably as close as we were ever going to get to “staying at their place”.

In the morning we attended the Baptist Church whose parking lot was now an MDS RV camp. What a friendly place it is. Their parishioners prepared a fish fry dinner for the MDS group and their guests, which was excellent. It was soon time to head out on the highway back to Marble Falls. We took the south route this time, which was shorter, but involved traveling at high speed on the “beltway” around Houston and it was a concrete jungle of concrete overpasses. We were sure glad when we were back on the regular highway to Austin (which we had traveled several times before) and Marble Falls!

Blog 8 - Work week Jan. 19, 2009

A couple of the men built some wonderful shelving in the area where the clothing is stored. In addition, they hung another rack for the “dress up clothing”. That made a lot more room to store everything in an orderly manner. When the shelving was completed, all the clothing was put back in, and now there was more than enough room.

This being completed, the ladies asked for and were given a new task at the camp. It was not sorting T-shirts and clothing this time, but (would you believe) sorting nuts, bolts, screws, nails and other assorted items including things we’d never seen before, in the CAMP WORKSHOP. One side was automotive and the other was construction. We could not believe that Mel would let women loose tidying up his workshop. It had probably never been done before and what a fine job we did! There were buckets of every size and description of nails and screws available. We will not say that they are sorted exactly in the correct manner, but what we did certainly tidied up the place! It was all swept out and vacuumed and cleaning done where it hadn’t been done before.

The men were doing odd jobs at the camp in anticipation of the clearing of Patricia’s lot after demolition of her house. Warren, the Project Director, and John, his crew foreman on this project, were busy finalizing arrangements for building, doing foundation plans and arrangements for permits.

Tuesday was Inauguration Day. A number of us came in to watch the inauguration on T.V. It was very moving to see a million Americans waving flags on Washington Square, the most hyp seen in American politics ever. We were wishing any of our Canadian politicians had as much common sense as Obama has – what is going on up in Canada is nothing to be proud of at all.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we had faspa in the afternoon when the work day was done. The sun was shining both days and some of the ladies had prepared goodies.

Monday they will begin work on Patricia’s house.

We had a pot luck supper on Tuesday night and invited Denise and Karen, the two local Recovery Committee volunteers, to come. Denise brought her four children. Warren started a fire in the beautiful fireplace in the dininghall and we ate our supper by the fire.
Afterwards, some of us visited and the rest played a rousing game of Mexican train dominoes. Good food and good fellowship.

Blog 7 - Weekend Jan 16/17/18

On Friday, our group had an appointment for a tour of the Pogue Gallery which we pass every time we go to town. It is run by a local couple who are very talented sculptors. The sculptures they create are seen in old downtown Marble Falls on every corner and are wonderful realistic creations.

John wanted to go and see the Aircraft Museum in Burnet, among other things. So the rest of the day was “John’s day”. We invited Andre and Suzette, but they had other plans. We first stopped at the antique and classic car restoration shop in Marble Falls and browsed around the show room and the yard, taking pictures. It is an upper-end restoration shop.

On the way out of town, John stopped in at the Lube Centre to see where they would recommend taking our truck to get a diagnostic done on it. It is getting terrible gas mileage and seems to hesitate at times. He was told this was the place to get it done, and the cost for the diagnostic is NOTHING. Everywhere else, it costs about $75 – the owner of the lube shop said they’re ripping people off!! He said bring it in on Wednesday. When Wednesday came around and the diagnostic was done, it turned out that the ERG valve is dirty or not working properly.

On the way by Walmart, we stopped and got the Service Dept. in Electronics to add the minutes onto our Net 10 TracPhone. I had tried all evening to get them added, without success. Mike did it with one phone call. I could have hugged him! We didn’t even lose the 56 minutes remaining after the allowed days expired. That was a bonus!

The Aircraft Museum in Burnet was small non-profit museum beside a small airport, and the $3.00 charge was well worth it. We happened to come in on the day that the “Bluebonnet Belle” was being serviced. It is a huge plane in which they give rides in summer.

Longhorn Caverns was something he wanted to check out, so on our way home we drove about 8 miles off the highway and there was a large historic tourist complex. Apparently there were caverns underground which served all kinds of purposes over the years, from being an outlaw hideout, to smuggling liquor and guns, to an Indian hideout for prisoners. What I would like to see is the underground BALLROOM. We figured we could save the tour of the caverns for a MDS outing in February.

Andre and Suzette came over and brought their game to play on Friday night.

Saturday night, we, together with Annette and Ron, went to the Boys and Girls Club in Marble Falls where there was a Seniors Gospel Jamboree. Finally, some MUSIC!!! It started at 5:00 and you were supposed to bring a “covered dish” – meaning pot luck. We figured if we got there after 6:30, we would miss the supper. Not so. Of course, we had eaten at home so weren’t hungry when they invited us to come and eat. . .

There were 3 sets of music while we were there. The first set was EXCELLENT; the second set was not too bad, but not as good as the first group, and the group that played after supper was not good enough to make us stay and listen.

Sunday morning, our Project Manager had chosen the United Methodist Church to attend. This church has THREE well-attended services every Sunday morning. It is a very large, progressive church. We were very impressed by their young Associate Pastor, who did all three services. The service at 8:45 is a Contemporary Service. The Blended Service at 10:00, which we attended, was a casual service, with a music team. The Pastor wore a “wild” tie and fancy red shoes. The parishioner I sat beside told me that he wears all different kinds of interesting ties and shoes…he is very involved with the theatre group in the community. His sermon was one of the best I have heard.

The third service is a “Traditional Service”. We were invited to stay for coffee in the coffee room and as we were leaving, we had to walk past where the service was being held. They had a fully robed choir and the Pastor was gowned. The ushers had dress suits on and the church was full.

My first impression was that this was a pretty full plate for one young Pastor. However, upon reflecting further on what the lady beside me had said, I realized that for him, it was three “performances” per morning and he probably thrives on it..

Our weekly MDS lunch that day was at Doc’s Fish Camp. Carol had told us that the fish kabobs there were excellent. John and I shared a steak again. Several had fish kabobs and really enjoyed them.

Blog 6 - Week 3 of work

What a job!!

One crew of men finished up the skirting at Delores’s house, and the other crew completed the siding and drywalling at Debra’s house, and pulled the MDS tool trailer back to the camp on Thursday.

The ladies kept busy with a new task provided by the Camp of the Hills. We had asked if there was anything we could help them with, and they accommodated us. Our first task was to organize and put all of the campers’ clothing neatly into a huge closet. This was an incredible job – there were hundreds of all sizes of all size T-shirts - children’s, men’s and ladies, Then they also had some better clothing in a special place for the “dress-up” banquet the night before they left.

Before we can get this under control, our men are going to build some specific shelving. The camp person responsible for keeping the clothing in order said they have tried many methods of attempting to keep the clothing from being rummaged through and in an orderly fashion, but all have failed,. So they are trying something just a little different this time. Good luck!

Then she needed someone to help her clean up the counsellors’ quarters, as they had a bunch of kids coming in for the weekend. We were busy ladies. Bathrooms, the living area, and bunk rooms all needed cleaning.

Basically, the camp itself could use our volunteers for various projects right up until the time the first camper arrives in June . .

We were glad to see the weekend come, as we had worked pretty hard.

On Wednesday evening, we had a pot luck dinner and games night at the dining hall. Alex from the Americorps group joined us and said he enjoyed himself immensely. He is a nice single young man who I would like to take home for Shari…

We enjoyed two meals compliments of Debra at her home, one a lunch on Tuesday that she made for all of us, and the other a supper on Thursday for all as well. It was wonderful food and fellowship.

Smoking for Jesus Church - Sun Jan 11

Waiting for this house to be demolished...


We were invited to attend the Smoking for Jesus Ministry Church just out of Granite Falls, where we are scheduled to build a new house as soon as the old one is demolished. This church service was quite memorable as the longest church service anyone in our group had ever attended! Their motto is “On Fire for the Lord”.

Their first half hour of singing was just getting them warmed up for the praise and worship which lasted an hour and a half; and no one fell asleep during this Pastor’s excellent one hour message. The welcome was “hugs all around” and although the majority of the congregation was African American, there were white families there as well.

When these people sing of trials and tribulation, they are singing with firsthand experience. This congregation moved from New Orleans when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit. After being evacuated and learning that they had lost everything, they have had several moves, and have finally settled in this area, reconstructing their lives and enriching the community. The lady who is the person in charge of the Local Recovery Committee is a member of this congregation.

The church also runs a Real New Orleans Café in the area, which we hope to eat at before we leave...

After the service, we all went to have a look at the house that is scheduled to be demolished as soon as possible so that we can build the lady a new home. We could not believe the shape it was in, and they had lived there until very recently. It was full of mold and mildew and totally unliveable inside.

We then went to the River City Grille for an excellent lunch. We met and became acquainted with Alex Hebert, the Americorps worker who consults on our projects.

Tomorrow it's back to work...

Blog 4 - Second weekend in Texas

André and Suzette at Christmas Café



Have to check this out...

Blog 4

We had a busy second weekend in Texas. After going to Austin on Friday as described in my last blog, we went and took our new friends André and Suzette from Quebec, to check out a little town north of Marble Falls called Burnet.

Before we left, we were advised by Sherman that a curb at Dairy Queen had jumped up and tripped Carol when they were in town yesterday and she had taken a bad fall, mashing her top lip and chipping a couple of her teeth. She also fell onto her wrist and leg and injured her second toe on one foot. Warren got her into an Emergency Medical facility and after a 2 hour wait, she got it stitched up. Thankfully, her lip is healing and the other injuries are not causing her much pain, so we are praising the Lord that she is okay. So Saturday, she was quite happy to stay at home and rest all day.

The rest of our group traveled to Austin to attend a Home and Garden Show where the host of “This Old House” was a featured guest. Over-all they were expecting something more GRAND, but it was worth spending an afternoon there to get their picture taken with the “star”.

Before leaving, we called Paul and Mary from the pay phone at Walmart, as our Tracphone does not work for cell phones. Ironically, their group was all at the Winnie Flea Market. Mary had been vividly recalling our visit there last year when some of us ladies went together. I wonder if she bought another Funnel Cake for old times’ sake… It was sure nice to talk to them. We are hoping to see them at the end of the month.

Before going to Burnet, we stopped at two thrift shops in Marble Falls. There was nothing at the first one, but we found treasures at the second one. John took a shine to a closed in cherry wood coffee table with a magazine rack on the side. The slats for the magazine rack needed to be fastened, so they had the price marked down from $15 to $7. He made “the buy of the day”. I found a pair of cowboy boots for Bryton, and we also bought a black leather look jacket in excellent shape for John for 50 cents and a cover-up shirt for me for 50 cents.

Our trip to Burnet was enjoyable. We spent some time in an Antique Shop, but it was very pricy. Then we headed over to a Flea Market in the mall and it was about the same. There were certainly no “flea market prices”.

I had been told we just HAVE TO SEE the Christmas Café in Burnet, so we went over the Old Town Square and toured through the Christmas Café. They had many rooms full of Christmas decorations and gifts and was truly a tourist attraction not to miss. They must get sick of “lookers” though. One thing that impressed me was their use of balled-up brown paper to make a closet look like a cave!

As we were leaving Burnet, we stopped at a large tourist place. The display of classic and antique cars was a big draw to get us off the highway, as well as a large veranda full of Mexican pottery, etc. The furniture and cowboy paraphernalia they had on display inside the very large building was the most incredible stuff I have ever seen. I imagine that the bedroom suites on display were the type John Denver would shop for for his ranch house. We went through positively drooling, as each item we looked at was more awesome than the last!

They also had some type of gazing balls, the same size as mine that got smashed recently, but not as fragile nor as mirrored, for a reasonable price. I have a month and a half to decide if I need to replace it…

Blog 3 from Marble Falls - Observations

The evening we had a potluck supper in the very large dining hall at the lodge at the CAMP OF THE HILLS where we are staying, the Mel, the Camp Director agreed to give us a presentation as to what the camp is all about. We were very impressed. This camp was built so that inner city homeless children who could not go to camp otherwise would be able to have a Christian camp experience. A senior man with a heart for this mission bought the property in the mid nineties and everything has been built and supported by volunteers. Mel brought to our attention that there are not only homeless men and women, but also HOMELESS CHILDREN, a concept we had not considered. There is a minimal charge for the children to come, and the camp is full all summer. The campers come with no sense of family, love, hugs, or hope. They come with hostility, anger, attitude, and hopelessness, and are loved to pieces all week. It doesn’t take long for the love of God to penetrate. All of the help is volunteer – from the camp counsellors, usually Christian university students who often come back from year to year, and some former campers - to church groups and youth groups who come and make the meals. The meals are all home-cooked and are eaten in a family atmosphere. It was noted that they could eat ALL THEY WANTED. They do all the things children at any regular Church camp do: fun things, swimming, games, sing-songs, fishing, you name it, plus get an education about the love of Jesus.

We had noticed and were wondering about the three crosses way up on the hill in a clearing, with a cave just below. We learned that on Thursday nights for each of the sets of campers, they have a drama, with the camp counselors whom the youngsters have grown to love and respect over the week, as actors, and re-enact the crucifixion. These children get a real view of who Jesus is and that it was not just like a TV movie or a fictional story. They go home with hope and a life-line - a knowledge of what life can be when you have Jesus in your heart. It was SO moving.

We were also informed that the first building on the left up the hill from our camp site is a hair salon where all the children have an appointment when they arrive – head lice is a terrific problem and must be treated so as not to multiply in the dorms. Can you imagine totally removed lice and nits from some of that tightly kinked hair (a good majority of the children are black American children)??? It would almost be to the point where you’d just want to shave all those heads!! Mel, the Camp Director, said someone is coming up with a new device to put over your head like a hair dryer which sends rays that will kill any micro-organisms, and they cannot do it soon enough for their purposes!!!

As we drive along the highway from Smithwick (which is the name of the local area) to Marble Falls, there are miles and miles of fence behind which is an exotic game farm which also has hunting. As we drive along, we strain our necks to see zebras, impalas, gazelles, some red-colored shaggy long-haired deer and whatever else there may be grazing in the fields.

On our first Friday off, we drove to Austin to collect John’s winter Canada jacket with his passport in the pocket, which we tracked down to the Quality Inn where we got dropped off coming from the airport.

As we drove along the highway between Marble Falls and Austin, there was a very interesting site. There was a bridge across very large river with big fancy houses on each side of the highway and on each side of the river. There were many very visible boat houses along the - practically empty river bed. It emphasized how dry Texas has been for the past couple of years.

Blog 2 from Marble Falls

Monday was our first day of work. After devotions, John was asked to be crew foreman for the new renovation. They first had to assess what had to be done, so there was no work for the ladies yet. Jim Martens is the foreman for finishing off Delores’s house –it needed insulation installed under the floor held up by chicken wire (the house is built on 3 foot pilings) and then skirting put all the way around the house. The ground on one end is quite a bit higher than the other end, so it will be a challenge.

We started off the week with rain, the first rain they have had here since the floor of 2007. It rained pretty well for two days.

The first off day, the women met to discuss and plan social activities. In the afternoon, three of us went to town and scouted out the thrift shops. There are 3 so far.

Sherman and Lavonne (whom John has dubbed “Short Stuff) and Suzette worked for two days on putting up blinds and valances in the office trailer. When the sun shines, it gets like an oven in there. It looks very nice with the new window treatments.

I went with Carol to Marble Falls the second day. We were supposed to meet with the lady in charge of the projects and also meet a gentleman who needed some help in his house, but it didn’t work out, either one. I had to take our truck in to get a tire checked. The valve stem was leaking and the fellow fixed it for nothing. Very nice!

Wednesday, we set up the tables in the dining hall in anticipation of our pot luck supper and presentation by the Camp Director in the evening. There was work for some of the women in the afternoon at the job sites, and three of us went in to take inventory of material at the storage unit in Marble Falls. [Hear more about this evening in Blog 3].

Thursday, all the women were working on the sites. I helped do some insulating in Debra's porch and helped side the back wall of the house. Debra is a very nice friendly lady who provides us with snacks and coffee for our morning break.

We are hoping that the house presently on the new build site will be demolished very soon so that we can plan to get to work on the new house.

Marble Falls, Texas January 2009

Happy New Year to all of you who have been able to access our blog!!!

We enjoyed our month of December back at home, despite the extreme cold temperatures which arrived there when we did… Shari and the crew at home were happy to have us back for a while, and it was great to spend some time with the kids. We took in a Christmas concert, visited some friends and just enjoyed being home. There was only about 4 inches of snow all the time we were there – it snowed an extra 3 inches or so shortly before we left.

We flew back to Austin January 2nd and had good flights. Jake and Verna Martens also flew from Winnipeg to Austin that day, so we waited the extra hour for their flight to arrive and gave them a ride back to the camp.

We were happy to see that Keith and Carol Workman had not left yet, and Marvin and Henrietta Giesbrecht were on the site as well.

Saturday morning, we all headed for the Blue Bonnet for breakfast. Changed the oil in the truck and shopped for groceries. In the afternoon, the rest of the volunteers arrived and our crew is complete. Keith and Carol and Marvin and Henrietta went on their merry way after breakfast and we the rest of us came back to the camp and had a lovely visit in the sunshine.

Unfortunately, John realized when we got back here that his CANADA winter jacket did not appear to have arrived with us. Near as we can ascertain, he removed it leaving the airport and it was left in the cab. Although it was a pretty nice jacket, we weren’t really that concerned about getting it back until we realized his passport was in the inside pocket. So we have made some inquiries and certainly hope we can get it back. It may be that he will have to report his passport missing to the immigration authorities. Thankfully he had put his driver’s license back into his wallet and puts his wallet in his back pocket, not in his jacket!!

Then we had a bit of excitement at our camp after dark on Saturday. All of a sudden, a helicopter was landing in the clearing beside our campers. John went out shortly after it landed, and a fireman told him to get back in the camper. It wasn’t long before other of our volunteers were standing outside watching and John went back out. It appears that there had been a car accident on the hill coming down to the camp sites and there was a severely injured man who had to be airlifted out to a hospital. It’s quite a steep hill on a sharp curve and they don’t know whether the driver was going too fast or if he was trying to avoid a deer (there had been some seen there earlier). There were firetrucks, an ambulance and police vehicles in the vicinity. Hope the guy will be okay.

Sunday we went to the First Baptist Church where we had attended in November. It was an excellent New Years message giving us the guidelines to have the best year ever. I was wishing our son Darren could have been there to hear it, as right about now for him it is seeming like the worst year ever – his employer gave him a pink slip the first day back in the New Year – with the reason he hadn’t matched their expectations – he had worked there 8 months. It was totally out of the blue and was a terrible blow for him. We are praying he can find something else fairly quickly.

We had our weekly outing at the Francesco Italian Restaurant after church, and then went back to the site. We were tickled pink to have Lloyd and Bev Glass from Prince Albert appear at our door shortly after we returned to the site. They are on their way to south Texas and had told us they’d tried to stop in. We had a wonderful visit and we invited them for supper.

The weather has been very beautiful – mid eighties most days. The forecast is for cool and rainy for the next few days.