Texas is sorta big and we do things sorta the big way around here. We actually drove down here on Thanksgiving day and arrived on Friday morning. Last week we have volunteers from Staurts Draft, VA and Ephrata, PA. I get to sleep in the bunk trailers with the volunteers, and I can tell you this, it gets pretty wild in there in the evenings. And now this week, we have 3 volunteers from Grandview, TX and 11 volunteers from Somerset, PA. Last Thursday, the community around here had an appreciation supper for CAM. It was held at the “dance hall,” as you would call it, and there was some extraordinary foods, which wasn’t too bad. But one of the cooks of CAM said that she about died when she saw the food. It looks like she’s still alive,which is a good thing. She cooks too good.:) We don’t have Internet connection at the base, so I’m here at the library updating. I’m having a blast if you didn’t know already.

Texas

 

 

     Well, I’m finally home, where I belong. It was a great experience for me like it always is. The place that we were was not so much damaged except for roof damage. Down south along the beach and Galveston got hit pretty hard. So one Saturday after we took the volunteers to the airport, we went down to Galveston to look at the damage. We went to the wrong place on Galveston because the southern part was not as much damaged, but it was the nothern part was. We didn’t have enough time so we went back up to the same airport and pick up George, a volunteer from Aroda, Va, who stayed for 2 weeks.     Uh, let’s see, what else would be of interest. Oh yes, there was a dance at the Catholic church that is right by us. You should have heard the music coming from that building. It was very loud and deep so it sorta shook the inside of you with each beat. A couple of the volunteers and I went over to see what it was about. I’m telling you it was packed in there. I don’t think you could put another person in there. It wasn’t quite that bad, but it was close. We went to bed with this beation going on, and my mom woke up when it quit, and it was 1:00p.m. before they quit. The week of the volunteers from Pa was a trying week for work. The first day, the wind tried to stop them but they persevered. The next day, it was even worse, it rained about all day, but they kept on working on the roofs even though tey got sopping wet. That evening the rain turned into sleet and a very unusual thing happened. There was SNOW!!!!!!! And this is in Texas just to make that clear. It snowed most of the night, and by the next morning, there was 4-5 inches of snow on the ground. I can tell you this much, it was hard to do school work. Finally, I took a cuople hours’ break having a snowball fight with the children and heoping make a snowman. That was fun. I guarentee that there was more pictures taken in that county than anywhere else. you know, it was 28 years since therewas such a big snowfall. Anyway, by mid-afternoon, it was all melted. And then the last day of work for that week, it was a perfect day to work. The last wek the volunteers came from 5 different states, whic is unusual. Seven were from MI, 4 from Tx, 2 from Pa, 1 from Va, and 1 from Mt. We had a wonderful week. By Saturday evening, it was only the secretary, George and us that were left at the base. All the rest went home for Christmas. We sure had to get used to only 5 of us instead of 14. We got up early Monday morning and started getting ready to head on out. We unhooked the kitchen trailer from the dining room and hitched to the truck. By the time everything was ready, it was 10:00. So George and I started off with the truck pulling the kitchen trailer to the base at Picuyune, Ms. It took about 6 hours to get there. My parents left later about 12:00 and didn’t get there until after dark. It was cold, and the landowners were very kind and let us in their house and gave us supper of pizza and hot wings, which was very good. We found one camper that was unlocked and made our bed on there. The next morning, they served us some good pancakes. After we were all ready, we decided we’re going to visit some people that we worked for last year. By the time that was done it was 1:30p.m., and we were finally on our way home. Since George lives only about 40 minutes from us, he went along with us. At about 10:00 Eastern time, we stopped to eat at O’ Charley’s with George’s brother who lives in Atlanta. And then we headed on home. A friend picked up George in Charlottesville, and we got home about 6:30 in the morning. It sure is good to be home again. Anyway, shall I make this thing any longer? You’re probably tired of reading this by now, so I’ll quit now.

CAM’s base

 

Hi Everyone!

Surprise, Randall! It’s your birthday! Today, we had a surprise birthday dinner for our teacher. It was awesome. He totally didn’t suspect it, and we had some awesome pizza, thanks to those who made it, whoever that was. We also had chips, pop, and icecream. After that, he opened his gifts, and Benji and I gave him a whole box of newspaper, which had $1 bills in it. It lasted til about 1:00 when school let out for Thanksgiving vacation.

    

 

  

     Mark Yoder’s had relatives over for Thanksgiving, and my counselor from boy’s camp 2 years ago, Marcos Byler, and one of the guys that was in my group in camp this year, Jeremy Yoder, was along. So after school Jeremy and one of his cousins came over to our place and played some basketball, which was a lot of fun. Anyway, for your information, that is if you want to get informed, but whether you want to get informed or don’t want to get informed, I will inform you anyway about some information, which is some good information, I get to go along with my parents to Texas to help victims for Hurricane Ike for 3 weeks!!!!!!  Guess when we’re going. We’re going on Thanksgiving day, which is tomorrow. Good activity for Thanksgiving, isn’t it? At least you can be thankful for the road system we have in the United States. We plan to be there til Christmas.

Baptism

     My baptism was this morning, Sunday, Nov. 16. There were 4 other young men who were baptized. The others were Joshua Hege, Luke Yoder, Matthew Miller, and my bro. Benji. It was a very encouraging time. Oh my, the church house was packed full with people. The balcony was totally filled up. I am glad that James & Ginni could be here for this occasion, and also my parents came back from Texas a couple days ago. But they won’t be staying too long. They’re planning to go back down on Thanksgiving weekend. During the service, Ralph mentioned that we all had
Bible names. Sorry Ralph my name isn’t in there. Then He described each of us by name and applied some Biblical principles to them. When He came to my name, He said that He couldn’t find my name in the Bible, so He went to the first book and found my name in the word, Genesis. Gene iss dot, which is dutch meaning “Gene is there”. So I guess my name is in the Bible after all.:) And just pray for me that I may be able to keep those vows that I made before the congregation. And then we had some of our friends from Aroda, VA come to our place for lunch, which was pretty cool. Here are some pics.

Plans changed

     The plans have changed concerning what we were going to do in the eve. All the youth under 18 years old were invited over to Mark and Gina Smucker (youth sponsors) to play some games. It was 7 of us and we sure played a couple of games, which was sorta fun. And then at about 8:30 we rode over to some sort of Mexican restaurant and joined the others and ate some awesome Mexican food. And then after we filled our stomachs up to the brim, we set off for home.

Just an update

     I reckon it’s about time to update again. Not much is happening around here except a little here and there. How would you like to do homework in the dark? I sure had that experience on Tuesday eve. Uh oh. For some reason or another the electricity went out, and I had to do some homework yet. So Benji and I started the fire in the fireplace and set out to do homework. It’s a little awkward having a flashlight in one hand and a pencil in the other. But at least it worked. And then last eve. we had instruction class and reorganization afterwards. We only have 3 more lessons in the Dortrecht Confession of Faith, which takes only 1 eve, before our baptism next Sunday, Nov. 16. Tonight the youth are going to sing at a prison, but only those 18 and older are allowed there. So we decided that Benji and I might go to Tim and Tj’s to practise singing. I don’t have anything else to write, so why not quit? And that is just what I’m doing.

Minister’s Appreciation Supper

      Last evening, which would have been Sunday evening, our church had supper in our church basement to honor our ministers and their hard work and effort in leading and shepharding our church. It started at 6:00p.m. First of all, we ate some delicious food of soup, sandwiches, and vegetables that the food committee put together. After everyone filled up their stomachs, the program for the evening started. Steven Byers talked about the blessings and heartaches of being a minister, since he had ministerial experience when he served under Believers Fellowship in Sioux Lookout. After that a singing group sang a couple of songs. And then we had an open mike to whoever wanted to share an appreciation for the ministers. And then came the desert. We had some good pie and icecream. And then Josh H., Tim, TJ, Benji, and I had to carry baskets of gifts to the ministers. Finally after two and half hours, the service came to a close.