We got out to the East Texas Baptist Encampment on Saturday night (Nov 1). We were a little less than excited when we saw the size of the hotel room that we would be living in for 6 weeks. But you know when you go in a spirit of service it changes your (mostly mine) attitude about certain things. We had driven through some neighborhoods and were so amazed at the quality of some homes... most people in our community would not be able to believe how a lot of the population lives like. It's so heartbreaking! So ya, when we saw how small our 'home' was with the images of others homes we were thankful.
We had a super awesome church experience in Newton. We were the white population and yet I've never felt more welcome in a church that wasn't our home church. Thank you Jesus for such a gift. I had a few tears of thankfulness and just took it all in. We will miss them this weekend but home to go back next week.
Willie started the week on Monday early morning. He had an awesome day and was excited about the rest of the week. There are short term volunteers from Manitoba and one guy from Chicago.
Tuesday we found ourselves really curious about the election (since we didn't have internet or TV or radio...) but late at night we sat on a log and got connected to the internet and found the news... We feel that we need to pray for the US... a lot!
Willie's crew shingled the house, roughed in all the wiring and began the siding. The A/C and heating guys completed their work on Friday as well. The family that they are building a home for consists of Mom and Dad, 3 kids plus a niece and nephew of Mom's sister who passed away a short while ago. Dad is a delimber operator so that's kinda neat for Willie, as he works in the heat he hears some very common sounds of the 'bush' machines in the distance (so just like winter work at home - just with a farmers tan happening) :-)
Samuel has found a new friend named Luke. God gave us another amazing gift! A family has just moved to the camp - he's a Youth pastor and she's a full time mom of 4 kids and one more on the way. They just moved there about a month ago from about an hour down the road. So they have little Luke who is 4, Sara who's 2 (see how perfect that is!!!) and 2 older kids. Luke and Samuel play great together - the girls don't always play perfectly because they're both shoe freaks so they have some arguing to do about that.
On Friday we experienced "Friday Night Lights" and that was fun! For $5 we could go watch a High School Football game in Newton. It was so neat - pretty much the entire town of Newton was in the stands and wow is it a big deal! They get to the game about an hour and half before kick off!! And you think La Crete hockey moms are crazy --- we just found a whole stadium full of them!
We also met a family that has a connection to home. Larry (and Sandra) Neufeld's brother and his family is here at the camp on their way down to Belize. What a small world! And they have amazing kids that enjoy spending time with our wild kids too!! So we haven't lacked in the entertainment section of life and Samuel is so happy to have someone other than Mom and Olivia to play with!
God is showing us daily how much he loves us and how He is going to take care of us. I'm thankful for the experience God is allowing us to have and I pray that we will continue to be used by Him! I pray that each of you at home will search for an opportunity wherever you are to bless someone's socks off!
1 comment:
Hey there,
so good to hear from you. I'm so glad you're all doing so well. Wish we were there, sounds so colourful and exciting! Hey, is there any address to send stuff your way? Let us know!
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