Texas 2 update 7                                                                                                                                      10/19/19

I better let you know I’m still alive and well.

I’m still just doing my thing with a few new twists now and then.  I’ve worked on 3 different houses since my last update.  I’ll include pictures but I’m sure to you they’re just houses that don’t mean much.

Photo 1399 is the house that I mentioned in my last update that I had just started work on.  The owner fancied himself as a real craftsman and I’m sure he didn’t really appreciate the work I was doing.  I caught up to what he wanted done at the time before he wanted to do more work himself.  He kind of abruptly said he would call when he was ready for me to do more work.

Photo 1400 is a very fancy 4 bedroom, 3 bath house that has an in-ground swimming pool in the back yard.  The owners also own a boat business and an outfitter retail business.  They have 2 senior high-school boys that are living with them that I’m told are grandchildren although they don’t seem old enough for that to me.  The mother of the wife comes and stays with them one night a week.  They have 3 nice new cars and a house trailer parked there.  I have no idea how they qualify for assistance but mine is not to reason why.  Anyhow, I installed 5 new doors with frames, put down flooring in the master bedroom bath, and a lot of baseboard.  I moved 2 new lavatory cabinets into place but they are waiting for a plumber to hook up.  The owners said they were very happy with my work and gave me a $100 bill and some venison sausage as a tip.  (I had spent about $20 of my own for a wax ring and spacer under the toilet)  Photo 1401 is of one of the doors that was removed showing the level of water from Harvey.

 A group of 17 people, 12 high school students and 5 adults, came to stay with me at the barracks last Saturday evening.  They are from a Christian school and church in Indiana.  The adults included the pastor, the coach, the cook, a teacher, and a fire fighter congregant.  There were 5 boys and 7 girls.  They worked Sunday afternoon through Thursday afternoon and left for home Friday morning.  I worked with them at the house in photo 1402 from Tuesday on.  We did moving out of furniture, some deconstruction, and drywall as well as putting down baseboard and some trim.  I was impressed with their discipline and ability to work in teams.  They split into 3 groups to work on different projects as well as the one working with me.  I participated in some of their meals, worship, and prayer times.  They prayed with hands on me as a blessing before they left.  On their last day here, we all attended a little ceremony of presenting the key for move-in to a couple owning a trailer home that they had ;worked at and I had worked at way back when I first came.  The last photo shows some of group at the ceremony.

Now, I’m back by myself at the barracks.  They left a lot of left-over food and I will be working on eating it for a while.  It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for almost 3 months, half of the time I committed for.

I don’t believe there will be another large group of volunteers coming until January.  I had thought there would be some coming for disaster relief from Imelda.  Apparently, they are all staying further west.  The last house we worked at is in Vidor and there were piles after piles of trash including mattresses, refrigerators, overstuffed furniture, drywall and, of course other items along the roads to the house.  Many of the piles were being picked up by special crews but there is still much to be done.  I understand the area has now been approved by FEMA for relief.  It’s not too hard to imagine the dollar value involved when looking at all the piles along road.  Iconnect is not yet involved in any of the relief work required by Imelda.

That’s all for this time!

Christians Together!

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