Thanksgiving and our first VCB job in TX

Well, here we are, still in Texas!!!  Or should I say, BACK.  But, more on that in another post.

Our holidays started out in Livingston, TX at the Escapees Park there.  We got in late on Thanksgiving day and missed the park's Thanksgiving get together.  :-(   Took a lot longer than we thought and with traffic....what can I say?

A few of our fellow campers, at the park, took pity on us and one gal gave us some sliced Turkey and a Butternut Squash dish and another gal gave us a pecan pie she had picked up at Wal Mart but they didn't cut into.

We hadn't had time to shop on our way there so we just added whatever we found in our cupboard and fridge and the result was filling ;-)  

                                                          

                   

We stayed a few days in Livingston, TX and them drove down to Mauriceville, TX, where we met up with other VCBers to work on a church there for two weeks.

We got an outside parking spot.  We were able to see a field to side of us and woods to the back of us.  But, evidently I didn't get a photo of the woods.

And here are some of the rest of the crew....out in the 'rv park'.  The church has 20 hook ups out there for just instances like this.

This is the back of the church building where they worked for two weeks.

 And, here is the front of the church.  It is the largest church in Mauriceville and so they are the ones that offer disaster relief and are the church that dispenses supplies to those affected by disasters.  And, have a 'rv park' to house people that are displaced or people like us, traveling through to help other churches in need.

The following photo is of their former church that is now used (unless they have to tear it down) for classrooms.

  

There is also a former parsonage that is also brick, where they used to have their offices....didn't get a good photo of that but it's behind that 'shower' trailer  They will probably have to tear it down as the damage was too extensive, to warrant repairing it.


Just a little bit of the damage done to the church facilities including their church, gym and offices.  This church was only 5 years old and the VCB had been there to help build it.  Of course, the worst of it was already cleaned up before we got here.....but you can see how HIGH the water was by what they had to repair.  These people have been through SO MUCH.....they are truly an inspiration to me!!

  


The ladies of the church provided us with wonderful meals for lunch and dinner!!  And, they always had something for us to snack on during breaks.   Here is their menu for dinners! 

They kept thanking us over and over for coming to help them, but what they don't understand is how much we appreciated the southern hospitality give to us, amidst their losses.  So many of these church members are still busy working on their 'own' homes and the destruction they experienced there....yet still came to bring food for meals for us.

They are currently holding services in their gym....which was also damaged but not as badly as the church and other buildings.

One kind gentleman, named Al.....even gave us four bags of lemons, grapefruit and oranges.

Anytime the office workers were in the office, we were welcome to come into the gym and get on our computers as they only have Wi Fi at the office.  While I did that almost every day, at some point, for two weeks, I got to know many of the church members and workers that would come.  Oh the stories they told of that horrible experience with Harvey!  But, also they just were so welcoming to people "all the way from Oregon" and the rest of the VCBrs that gave of their time and talent to help them out.   

Of course, when we left for Florida (I'll post that later) we were concerned about taking all those lemons into FL....so David juiced them ALL by hand and we froze the juice to use later.  I didn't get a photo of all those bags of lemons...sheesh.

  

Just so we didn't forget Oregon, we were treated to a freak snow storm!!!  It only lasted the day but it was about 2 or 3 inches.  What a shock when I looked out the window that morning and saw SNOW!!!!  I remember saying, out loud, "NO WAY".  They said it rarely happens here and most of the time their winters are mild.  Hmmmm, what happened?   I'll post later on the frigid temps we saw when we returned.

 And, last but not least.....I am official!!!  Our very first job with VCB!!

So much more to share, but this is it for today!!!  I've been at the church gym, on my computer, for hours downloading photos and getting them uploaded, so I could put them on the blog.  I'll take a break, for now, then I'll catch ya up on what we did after we left here.

Thanks for making it this far!!  More to come in a day or so.

And, thanks for following along with us as we journey together across the US.

HUGS

Char