Tag Archives: Texas

On the Road, RV Life, SOWER Projects, SOWER Projects 2019, The Adventure

The Great East Texas Area Rep Road Trip

February 1, 2019 steph 9 Comments

Five Nights
Five Beds (one motel, two projects, two friends)
1387 Miles
Eleven Projects

It was ambitious plan. As East Texas Area Reps, we’re “responsible” for the fourteen projects/ministries in our East TX/LA area. Being “responsible” means that we visit (or at least call) every year or so to check that all is well and we also handle any problems that may arise (like questions about the RV sites, how the ministry operates, that kind of thing) during the course of the year. Gary decided that with a little planning we could visit eleven of those projects during our week ‘off’ between our January and February projects. So the planning began, and all the puzzle pieces fell into their correct spots, and oh-so-early on Friday morning (was that just a week ago??), off we went!
(Did you know that Google Maps limits the number of destinations you can put on a map? Hence the skinny blue line, where I had to approximate the trip from our final group of projects in the Lindale area back to our house in Harper. We did manage to squeeze in a quick stop in Waco, though, for some hugs and our mail!)

But back to the trip….
Although we were quite exhausted at the end of it (more the five different beds than the trip itself), and quite honestly are so thankful that we took notes during each visit because already we’re trying to remember who said what, it was a great trip. We have worked at most of these projects, so we already had some relationships with the staff going into the visit. It was lovely to touch base with folks and as an added bonus we got to catch-up with many SOWER friends who had been working at some of the ministries we visited. I’d like to say I took gobs of pictures at each stop, but the reality is I did not. (I know, it’s a major failure on my part.)Â As we visited with the hosts at each ministry, it was such a blessing to hear of the “God Stories” of blessings and lives changed through their ministry.Â I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, but one of the best parts of this journey we’ve been on is seeing just how BIG God is!Â Our little group of projects include many camps and retreat centers, a training center and seminary (geared largely to men leaving prison), an international medical ministry and a discipleship training facility.Â Â How humbled we are to be able to serve at each one!Â (I’ve included links to each project at the bottom of the post if you’d like more information about any of them!)

So since this was a Road Trip, it only makes sense that most of my pictures were of The Road.Â Although we’ve traveled most of these roads before (who can forget I10 across the bottom of Louisiana), we did take a different route going from Gulf Coast Church up to Acadian Baptist Center.Â We took the FREE ferry out of Galveston

and traveled up Bolivar Peninsula instead of fussing with Houston and I10! It was a beautiful drive and well worth the few extra miles that it added to the trip.

If you’d like to see a few more photos from the road trip – you can check them out HERE!

After we got back to our rig in Harper (you know, that skinny blue line), we packed up and headed to our February SOWER project – Forest Glen Springs – outside of Rosebud, TX. Now that we’ve had two nights back in our own bed, we’re beginning to get ourselves back in order! First up was getting this blog updated, and now I’d better get those eleven Area Rep Reports actually written up and sent into the office!!
Thanks for stopping by!

Here are those links I promised:

Camp Tejas, Victory Camp, Gulf Coast Foursquare Church, Acadian Baptist Center, Dry Creek Camp, Camp Cho-Yeh, Forest Glen Camp, Trinity Pines Camp, Calvary Commission, Mercy Ships, YWAM.

Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, The Adventure

My Introvert Gene is calling

January 5, 2019 steph 4 Comments

Oh, My! I honestly didn’t believe that I had an introvert bone in my body!! But after a super busy and fun 6 weeks in Waco and then a wonderful two weeks with the rest of the family in Columbus (I promise I’ll share more about that soon!), my recessive introvert gene has risen to the surface and it’s saying things to me like
Alone
Quiet
Still
Breathe
Rest

We’re settling in for our first night’s rest at our January location (see Where Are We Now for more details!) and for the first time in a while we’ll be working alone. Oh, we’ve already met some sweet folks that will be working with us so we’re not ALONE alone, but by and large I’m really looking forward to a lovely, quiet, restful, month.

And since I haven’t even had the time to look through the pictures of our Columbus Christmas to share any of those, I’ll just leave you with a funky photo I took from the plane.

Love those city lights peeking up through the clouds!

Wishing you all the best in the coming year – good health, kind words, deep thoughts, and a fresh experience of God’s Grace!

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, RV Life, SOWER Projects, SOWER Projects 2018, The Adventure, The Cabin

Bullet Points

October 1, 2018 steph 7 Comments

Hello October!!!! We’re in a new month and at a new location, so it seems like a good idea to get this little corner of the internet caught up and back on track! Perhaps the most efficient way to accomplish that is do do it in ‘bullet points’, so here goes:

- - Too much time has passed to really go in depth about our time at our Vermont Cabin, but let me tell you once again, how critical those three weeks are to our mental health.
    
    If you’d like to see more photos from our Vermont vacation, you can check them out HERE.
  - Spending the day in Waco with our son and family (especially little Anderson who we hadn’t seen since he was 10 weeks old) did our hearts good!
  - Getting together with fellow SOWERS at the “Western Wound-up” (i.e. SOWER Rally in Oregon) was SO. MUCH.FUN.Â It was lovely to not be in charge of anything, and just enjoy all of the fellowship and fun.Â We don’t often get to work on the West Coast, so this was a wonderful opportunity to meet new friends and connect with others that we did know!Â From Silly
    
    to Serious
    
    it was a wonderful time!Â More pictures of the sweet craziness HERE!
  - We meet this super talented double neck guitar player, Mark Kroos, and his sweet wife at the Rally, where he wowed us with his guitar playing.
    
    We were so impressed with Mark’s incredible talent, that we wanted to spread the word about him!
    
    Check him out!
  - After the Rally we were back in Lindale, TX getting ready for the Trustee Meeting. I even got the dashboard sorta-kinda decorated for fall! Sometimes it’s the little things…..
  - So the Board meeting.
    
    All went very well, and when all was said and done, this happened –
    
    Should be an interesting (and hopefully productive) year!
  - With the Trustee meeting in our taillights, we were headed to our October/November SOWER project at Oakridge Ministries In Anadarko, OK. (See the “Where are we now” for more details!) We made it a two day trip so we could connect with some SOWER buddies that we don’t get to see often enough!
    
    Such a wonderful perk of our life on the road is making these (somewhat) random connections!
  - And that brings us up to date! We arrived here at Oakridge on Friday, and started work today!
  - Oh, before I forget – Happy 5th Birthday to this little cutie!
    These kids need to slow down in the growing up department!
  Thanks for hanging out with me as I’ve brought you up to date. Maybe, just maybe, it won’t be so quiet over here in this new month! I wonder what exactly “Back on Track” will look like?