Second week in Marble Falls Nov. 2010

SECOND WEEK IN MDS SERVICE AT MARBLE FALLS

Our Project Manager couple here are both licensed pilots. Accordingly, when they learned that the San Antonio Air Show was on this weekend, they asked if anyone else would like to go. It was at Lackland Air Force Base and admission and parking were free. We all piled into the MDS van to travel the 120 miles to San Antonio. For outings such as this, the MDS van is available for our use if we pay for the gas. We went on Saturday, a very hot day. None of us had enough foresight to take our lawn chairs or sunscreen, so we all ended up with sore necks and burned faces from looking up. It was a fantastic show, with a Viper Four-Ship Flyby, F-15 Strike Eagle Flyby, Warbirds Demonstration, F/A 18 Hornet, U.S. Army Golden Knights, and USAF Thunderbirds Demonstration, just to mention a few. Of course there was a tremendous turnout by the public and everyone was security-checked at the entrance to the airfield. We all agreed that none of us had ever stood in such a long line-up for such a long time, but it was well worth it. Naturally, being an official Air Force function, it was done in a very orderly fashion.

Last weekend, Camp of the Hills had its first ever family retreat for campers who had attended as children 15 years ago. It was a very exciting time. It was promoted by a Camp Counsellor from 15 years ago with her group that she had led at that time. Living in the inner city, the young families are experiencing the usual struggles of young families and came to recapture the experience they had as campers with their families. The camp is hoping that this will be the beginning of a whole new chapter of campers every year.

Sunday found us at the First Baptist Church of Marble Falls. It is a huge church and has a fairly new very young, passionate pastor. We came away greatly blessed by his message. This church is very involved with their community.

Sunday afternoon, most of us enjoyed an afternoon picking and shelling pecans out in the sunshine on the picnic table, and the men convinced Mary she would like to make some pecan pies for our Thursday night pot luck.

Back to work on Monday. No sooner had the ladies again started working with their sorting plumbing supplies than Mel showed up with a more urgent task for us… a much more strenuous task! The concrete was due to be poured into the styrofoam forms in the first building the next morning. Before then, we were to lay 10 foot strips of canvas tarp all along the inside of the 60 x 80 foot building, as well as on the outside where there were concrete pads poured for verandas, so that there was no overspray of concrete onto the concrete already finished. However, these 10 foot strips of canvas were still in the form of a 10,000 square foot circus tent! It was our job to unroll the 4 sections of tent and cut them into 10 foot strips. Luckily there was a gravel parking lot accessible to accomplish this. By the time this canvas was all cut up, we were done in! Then we had to lay them out, as the concrete was coming at 8:00 a.m. Thankfully a couple of the men came and helped us move the rolls of canvas over to the building and lay them in place. It was probably the hardest day any of the ladies had in their service with MDS! We were very happy to get back to sorting plumbing on Tuesday. By 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, that part of Mel’s shop looked better than it ever had, complete with vacuumed floor. We were mighty proud of what we had done.

Meanwhile, the men spent their days getting the footings ready for the crew to come in and pour next week tying steel for beams and pilings, another very demanding task, John says not for the weak and feeble!!

Tuesday evening some of the Board Members of Camp of the Hills prepared a soup supper for us and the RVIC group at Mel’s home. After supper, Mel gave us a presentation about the camp and its history and showed us a video which they use for publicity purposes. It was a lovely evening and they are hoping we can all get together for an evening of song before we leave.

Next on the agenda for the ladies was making the “Big Ark” cottage liveable for Miss Kaki, the Camp’s volunteer co-ordinator, She has been hired full time and now lives on site instead of commuting 3 days a week. It started out that we were to paint the three room cottage, but in accordance with Murphy’s Law, there was much more upgrading required: a new shower enclosure which turned into a bathtub with shower instead, removal of carpeting and installation of laminate, removal and replacement of kitchen cupboards to allow for a small cook stove, and finding mold and leakage underneath the vanity; nothing new in the life of an MDS volunteer (or anyone renovating, for that matter). It will keep us busy for a while - we really have nothing else to do while we are waiting for the site prep.

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY KEELY!