Sunday,July 26, 2009

Today is the Lord's day and we will rejoice in it.....Up early and get ready for church. I remember when we were here 3 yrs ago, we had to be ready for anything....copies for worship, check out the sound system, make sure things were unlocked....NOW, we just have to show up.

Church was good......worship and preaching. The church is growing with some new people. There are several people that has moved on and no longer go here but new people have arrive and filled their place. Here is a couple of short video clips of a part of the service.

The service was good. It was good to see a lot of the people that we have met from our previous trips. Adullam Christian Fellowship is our second church home. We feel very comfortable here.

After service, we went to Zea's Restaurant for lunch, one of our favorite places. We were there with Pastor Randy and his family. The roasted corn grits are very good as well as the shrimp etouffee, ribs......well, it is all good. After lunch, we headed to the gym......yeah, we needed it. At the gym, Randy did a little swimming and hot tub while the rest of us worked out a little (little is the operative word). After that, we started a little serious racquetball. Now, let me set the situation, I was already sore from our playing on Friday night. Well, I was determined to better Pastor Randy so I was playing all out. In the first game of 11, we were 8-7 (my lead) and I reached for a low shot and pulled my groin and collapsed on the floor in a lot of pain. Well, that finished my playing for the day and probably for the week or longer. It was and is painful. I sat for awhile and then decided to leave. We got to the RV and I just relaxed. Of course, not knowing how to treat this injury, I didn't do anything. We watched a little TV and then to bed.

Monday

Today, we continued on our different assignments....Barbara in the book store and I working on the website. Both were slow in getting things done. Barbara was not busy at all. The store is not advertised at all during the week. We are working on getting a sign out front, on the street, in addition to the sign on the building. This should help in getting people to the book store.

I got the church signed up with the website people and all are trying to determine what type of web presence they want or need. Lots of idea and we are trying to decide just how it should look.

Barbara closed down the book store at 4:30 and went to the RV to do a little cleaning and getting dinner ready. I worked until it was ready and had to drag myself away from the website discussion. :-)

I am not too mobile with my injury so I kinda hobble around. We had dinner and did nothing for the evening except a little TV and a little reading. I talked to Kim and she gave me instruction on how to treat my injury.....with cold compresses. I did that and it was a little better. To bed and I couldn't get comfortable and Barbara did not sleep well at all.

Tuesday

A new day and a little more mobile. Back to our routine of the book store and the website. For those of you who know Pastor Randy and Jill, sometimes it is difficult to get some things done as they are pulled from every way with people needing their attention. No different with us....they have a church and ministry to run and they have to multi-task so each person has their time with them. So, we don't get much done but I have 2-3 weeks to get it done. We will.

Today, for lunch, we went and got some sushi.....very good. After lunch, we bought some fresh shrimp.....jumbo.....at 3.99/lb. Tonight, grilled shrimp.

An additional note for today, Collin made us a snowball......stuffed Dream sickle.......ice cream inside shaved ice with dream sickle syrup. Yummy Yummy.

OK, this brings you up to date to 5pm.

Love and Blessings,

DAD and MOM
Papa and Mema
Jerry and Barbara

Thursday, July 23, 2009

We got up late and headed toward Arabi. We needed to stop at a Wal-Mart to get a few things. Then, we continued our trip. We arrived in Arabi at around 1pm. Pastor Randy and Jill were off at a meeting so we didn't see them until later. We got to see Randy, jr and his friend, Lauren and Paul Remick and his son Justin. Our spot was ready so we back our RV in and got everything setup. Wow, we were "home". Randy and Jill showed up a little later and we had a nice reunion. We got a surprise visit from Adam and Melissa Gaye....some good friends we have met here in the past. Later that evening, the youth had a meeting and Lil Randy was preaching his first sermon. He teaches all the time on Thursday nights for youth but this was the first he was to "preach". There is a group of 30 youth from Wisconsin so they had a nice crowd. Lil Randy did a good job, of course, he was a little nervous but it was good. After the meeting, the youth had a time of fellowship in the 50s Cafe serving malts. A good end to a long day.

Friday

Today, we met with Randy and Jill and learned what we could do to help on this trip. Barbara will be running the day-to-day operations of the "Words of Wisdom" book store at the Church. I will be helping the Church set up its website. Barbara spent the rest of the day getting organized in the book store. The book store is very nice. It is the result of teams working to get it finished and set up. Randy and Jill are really blessed because of the work done by teams without cost to them. Here are a few pictures of the book store.

This area is the reading room area and a place for people to relax.

And Jill and Barbara as Barbara learns the system.

The Book Store will be an added plus to the church and once it becomes operational on a full time basis, it should add funds to the re-building efforts of the church. Barbara feels she can help them get organized and get the store fully operational.

I started getting info about the setting up the website. They have a lot of information ready to go so it should relatively easy to get it up before we leave.

Randy and Jill invited Barbara and I to go to their gym with them to relax and workout if we wanted. Their gym is a huge place that has 3 pools, racquetball courts, a large number of weight machine and free weights, running tracks, place to eat. In addition, there is an outdoor water area plus another eating place. On Friday nights, they have bands come in for concerts. We had a good time. Randy and I hooked up in the racquetball court and he wore me out... and I can see how out of shape I am. We had food there and listened to the band a little (not a good band) and talked a lot. We stayed until they closed (10pm) and arrived back at the RV tired and had a great time.

Saturday

We got up late and I got up very sore. So much for being out of shape. We had our breakfast, devotions and I caught up on email. Randy took us around and showed us some of the problems that still existed. A lot of empty lots where houses have been torn down. Here are a few pictures:


We saw some of the homes that Brad Pitt and his organization has finally built. A lot of work still needs to be done.

Later, Randy and Jill called and asked if we wanted to go to a restaurant in New Orleans for dinner. We went to Joey K's, a diner that was presented on Food Network show of "Diners, Drive-In and Dives". We walked around a little looking in some of the antiques shops and then to the diner. It was very good and worthy of the hype. We even went to a gelato ice cream and chocolate specialty place for dessert. It was good. An end to a good day.

We are now sitting in our RV relaxing and looking forward to church tomorrow. For now, Goodnight.

Love and Blessings,

DAD and MOM
Papa and Mema
Jerry and Barbara

Well, we are off again.....This time.....back to Arabi, LA (New Orleans area) for our sixth trip. We will be working again with the Pastors Randy and Jill Millet at Adullam Christian Fellowship. We don't know what we will be doing but they will have something for us.

On Sunday, July 19......after a very successful Missions Luncheon (for our trip to Ghana), we left our church at 2:15pm and started our trip. We drove for 7 hours and arrived at Casa Grande, AZ (about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. We stopped at a RV park and went to bed tired.

Monday, started at 7am and started driving.......and driving and driving........finally after 600+ miles ending at Ft. Stockton, TX at around 7pm....after losing 2 hrs due to time zones. Well, we are here and we are tired and hot. Yesterday, the heat peaked at 114 in AZ and today, it peaked at 105. It is now 9:45 and it is still 88 outside.

By the way, Barbara drove the RV today.......she did great....all 20 minutes. She just wanted to know if you could AND she can. Just in case she has to drive, she knows she can. I really enjoyed sitting in the passenger chair and relaxing. And of course, our two girls love to ride in the RV and their spot in on the dash, in their bed.....except when they are on Barbara's lap, which is most of the time.

After a good night's sleep, we got up on Tuesday and headed to San Antonio, our first destination. We arrived at 3pm and found our park and got set up. We cleaned up, unhooked our car and headed to downtown San Antonio. After a couple of wrong turns, we arrived and parked our car just outside the Majestic Theater. We are here to see a Gaither Vocal Band concert and they will be taping the show for a future DVD.

Before we went to the theater, we walked around town and found the Alamo. IT IS HOT HERE! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! By the time, we arrived at the Alamo, we were ready to cool off and we went inside and looked around. I was amazed how small the building is. After we saw all we need to see, we headed to find a place to eat. We had a lot of places to select from.....all the way from Subway to Morton's Steak House. Because of the heat, we decided to go into the mall to cool down and we finally selected the food court...can you believe it? After our meal, we decided to walk the RiverWalk. We made it a few yards and decided it was still too hot! So, I went into Marble Slab, got me an ice cream and we headed back to the theater. By the time we arrived at the Theater, there was already a line....I sent Barbara into the box office to stay cool and I stood in line.

They opened the doors a little later and we went into the Theater. The inside of the Majestic was amazing......very ornate and very beautiful. There was the ceiling, clouds and stars. Then the side walls with special boxes and very ornate side alcoves.

The concert started at 7:15 with Bill Gaither coming out and talking about what they would be doing, the rehearsed applause and the audience shots (just in case they need these). It was quite a setup......2 stationary cameras, 3 hand held cameras and 2 boom cameras - a small orchestra, piano (Gordon Mote), bass (Wes Pritchard), drums (Greg Richie), guitar (Kevin Williams) and of course, the Gaither Vocal Band with Bill Gaither, Michael English, Wes Hampton, David Phelps and Mark Lowry. (of course, most of you do not know who these people are.) WOW! It was wonderful. The one picture is the one I took before the announcements about cameras, ANY camera....digital, video, cell phone or any other recording device! So, after my wife reminded me to do what was right, I only took one picture.......this is a first for me as I have almost been thrown out of a Russian ballet and took selected shots inside other restricted venues!

There were some guests, the Issacs, Jason Crabb and Larry Gatlin - again, some of you do not recognize these people......but we are Southern Gospel fans, big time, and we really enjoyed it. We might have made it on camera....don't know until the DVD comes out. It was a good show or really, a good time of worship. Three and one-half hours of singing and comedy by Mark Lowry. The only way it could have been better would be that Guy Penrod (there a obscure name again) be there instead of Michael English.....no offense, Michael, we are just not a big fan of you.

After the show was finished at 11pm, we headed back to the RV park and crashed for the night. On Wednesday, we left San Antonio after sleeping in and taking our time getting around. We left after 9am and headed toward Houston.

One of our friends are in Katy, Texas on vacation stateside. Matt and Coby Jackson, and their girls are now in China on assignment for several years. The Jackson family went to New Hope Family Worship Center and Coby was in my bellchoir for awhile. We hooked up on Facebook and called her when we left San Antonio and we decided to meet at Cracker Barrel for lunch. We had a great time visiting and catching up and, of course, the food was great. Maybe, one day, we can visit them in China as they know about an orphanage near them....Hummm!

After our lunch, we continued our trip toward Arabi, Louisiana. We headed on down Interstate 10 and finally stopped at 6pm in Lafayette, LA. for the night. We could have driven 3 more hours and made it to our destination but we were TIRED!

So, here we are in Lafayette, LA and I apologize for not sending out this blog earlier but I could not get online at any of the parks even though all had wireless connections.

Tomorrow, Arabi.....we can't wait.

So, we will talk to you later. Love all of you. Blessings,

DAD and MOM
Papa and Mema
Jerry and Barbara