Wednesday July 25

Somebody was surprised at breakfast with a chorus of “Happy Birthday.”  Then at lunch another complete surprise – a birthday cake with a “50” lit candle.  And more singing!!!  What a lucky guy.  Thanx everyone!!

   What an awesome God we have.  The weather forecast can be the same, but each day can be a little bit different.  Seems He never runs out of ideas!  For instance, halfway to House #1 the air became rather foggy, first time during our trip.  But all too soon the sun did come back out and so began the hot Texas heat, as hot as a frying pan.  But thru the grace of God Sherry was able to join us again.  Let us see, more yard clean up, looking real civilized now, the young ladies were under the pink pop-up canopy, and after a while they must have felt real sorry for me because I got a paint brush too.  And more geckos in the storage garage.  Must be a Texas thing.  Carmen had to leave before the rest of us woke up in order to attend a wedding and now a funeral too.  What a busy week for him.  God bless you young man.  So the flooring was worked on by

others.  And paper was laid down on the floor so that the ceiling painting crew, made up of Dave, Alexa, and Lisa.  Good job guys.  Lee Ann the site manager stopped by to check on us, and see to the delivery of a bathroom vanity and a new toilet.  Actually the name on the box is “John-in-a-box.”  Another Texas thing?  Luckily we had “strong-girl” Maddi with us who carried the heavy box almost by herself from the travel trailer to the front porch.  Then she, without any hesitation, joined Rev. Peter in the dumpster to crush down the almost overloaded bin. 

   Because we just had a half-day today (nobody even complained about that!)  We left early from House #1.  A separate crew worked on siding on House #2 in Fulton.  These included Elvis and son Kyle, Rev. Peter, TK, Val, and Doug.  After the work was done the fun began.  Host Parkway Church provided our group with the sandwiches used for lunch. Thanks!!   Now what fun did we have?  Well we had several options.  For instance some wanted to go to a water amusement park.  Or a sightseeing trip aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier Lexington, permanently docked at the Corpus Christi harbor, now a big tourist attraction.  Others still went to the Texas State Aquarium, and saw exotic birds and fish, and were delighted by the live dolphin show.  Elvis and Doug decided to hit the beach, literally.  And some poor soul sweated out a stay at the world famous Hans A. Suter Wildlife Preserve.  What a lucky guy.  Merri Lee had to leave this afternoon to go back home.

   And tonight was our night to eat out.  Because there are so many of us, we split between two different places:  seafood or BBQ.   I chose to join the seafood lover’s group at the Doc’s Wayside Place, a really COOL restaurant  set up on stilts, by the bay and Padre’s Island.  Live performer playing guitar and singing country and rock music.  The sun was low in the sky and shining thru the thin curtains, and no glass windows, so the sea breezes could just blow on into the place.  And as if that wasn’t enough, there were plenty of ceiling fans so a breeze was always blowing on you.  And the food was great, just like the locals said it would be.  The place was packed, inside and out.  One young girl had a T-shirt with a Psalm quotation on the back that went:  I will not be shaken.  Good advice for anyone!

   And now my assistant Maddi will tell us about the BBQ place. The BBQ place was called Silverado Smokehouse. As Elvis was driving to House #1, he looked up places to eat out during lunch breaks. Some of us meat fans weren’t into seafood at the time, but the locals said that this was the place to go for great service and free ice cream. They have options of so many juicy meats: Pulled Pork, Chicken, Sausage, etc. They have options from sandwiches to 4 meats of your choice at a time! Rev. Peter was thinking about going to the Marble Slab Ice Cream, but no one could resist the free ice cream. Most of us had cones of vanilla, chocolate, or chocolate vanilla swirl. TK, Bill, and I made ice cream floats with the ice cream and Root Beer or Dr. Pepper.

  Thanks Maddi.  Now let me, on behalf of us all say “thank you” to all our reliable drivers for the 2 work vans and pickup truck, and of course to Greg who is the mission team financier.  Once we got back to Parkway, Rev. Peter conducted a short meeting, then Pastor Doug conducted the devotional time.  We talked about love as expressed in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.  No wonder they say it so often at weddings. 

   Well Maddi is yawning like crazy, and I am just nodding off, so goodnight and God Bless.

 

   Maddi and Clark signing off.