The team left Knoxville, TN around 7:30 a.m. As they traveled through Virginia, they encountered some icy road conditions and evidence that the roads had been much worse before they arrived. Many cars had slid off the road and were in the ditch or median. They also encountered a traffic jam, which had resulted from a major accident on the highway. After some interaction with some truckers while waiting in the traffic, they learned of an alternate route... found a place to drive the van and trailer through the median... and headed back the other direction and home by a different highway. They lost about and hour and a half in that incident, and the rest of the trip was smooth sailing. They arrived home Sunday evening approximately 6:00 p.m., just a bit later than they had anticipated. Praise God for good times, safe travels, and blessings given and received! To view a video depicting the entire week, log in and go to "Other video resources" to see the MDS Texas 09 video slideshow.
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We left Anahuac at 5:00 a.m. this morning... I think it was warmer this morning than any other this week; it was a reminder that
we are heading into a colder climate! Nothing much to report about our travels, which is a good thing. So far we have been
blessed with clear roads and not much traffic at all. We arrived at our hotel in Knoxville just after 8--losing that hour today
was a killer. After a quick supper we are getting ready for bed--the call of the road will come early tomorrow. Even though
David offered to buy us all breakfast in the morning, we decided to stay and eat at the hotel and hopefully get on the
road by 7:30 a.m.
We all had a wonderful week but are ready to be home and share all the stories that we didn't have a chance to on the blog!
Hopefully tomorrow will provide another day of safe and uneventful travel--though I did see we might have snow showers,
so I guess we'll end the trip just as we started it! See you all next week!
Sarah--for the Texas MDS team
 
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It's finally the last day! We are tired and looking forward to coming home... but not the drive!! We have had a good week, but it's been tough work. The roof we worked on today had more nails than wood in it, and I definitely had lost my enthusiasm for pulling them all out. FEMA requires that the roofs are stripped down to the wood before they are shingeled--no putting new tar paper over the old; it all has to come up, and that leaves a lot of nails to pull. We didn't get the whole roof done (or I should say the ruff) because we stopped early today to come back, get the trucks all unpacked, washed and ready for next week. Doing that gave us some extra time, so we were able to drive down to Smith's Point and see Galveston Bay and some of the devastation. There is still lots of debris all over--the debris from Galveston all came across the bay and landed there. There are refrigerators all over the fields, even miles from the bay; it would be hard to imagine the water came in that far without the evidence.
We had a good supper and are starting to pack up, but we're waiting for Jay, Ray and Dennis to finish the dishes--it might be a while!! We are planning on leaving at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, so it'll be an early night for us all. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers; we're all going to be in one van this time... could be interesting...
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Hi Hopers,
Today was another red letter day. Our group went back to finish Bert Lewis' roof this morning because we ran out of nails yesterday. It was the LORD'S will. Bert is in battle wih cancer and isn't feeling well, but after we finished he called us in to visit and did about a 20 min. concert for us. That was like medication for him. At one time he was playing piano professionally and traveling around the world. Fame is fleeting and now he loves the Lord. It was a blessed time for him and us. We have some video to share when we get home. We then came back to find Jane and the other cooks lounging on the sofas to catch up on the sleep they lose when they get up at 4:30 a.m. The next several hours were spent playing chain gang cleaning the mortar off of bricks that were part of the sanctuary wall that collapsed at the church where we are staying. At 3:00 the shingles were delivered for another roof here in town, so we went and started to "deshingle" another roof till dinner time. Tomorrow we are planning to work till 1:00 or so and then wash the vehicles and then drive down to Smith Point to see some of the damage caused by Ike. While we were cleaning bricks Mark caught one of those little insurance guys that changed from brown to green. I have him in a baggie; but he wasn't enough for supper, so I guess I'll let him go. The meals have been great, and the fellowship and bantering has kept things lively. Sarah and Ali have been holding there own with the exception of Sarah somehow hitting her left thumb with the hammer. She is left-handed!!! Go figure. Hope all of you are keeping up with your Walk readings. Till later R.L.B.
Hey Y'All!!!!!! That's Southernese for Hi Guys!!!!! Jane here, reporting in from the kitchen again. Actually, Ohio Connie and I got out away from the kitchen today........... ROAD TRIP TIME!!!!!! Paul took us on a little hunting expedition for fresh produce for the the crew. Not much variety in town, so we had to widen our territory. We stopped by a roadside stand where they sold a marvelous variety of locally grown fruits and vegetables..... Connie and I were oohing and ahhing about everything.... We picked up some stuff for the rest of the week. I bought some oranges and grapefruit to take home to PA. Then we went to the grocery story in Anahuac where we spoke to some locals.... the cashier said to Connie and me........ "Y'all ain't from around here, are ya?" I said, "How can you tell, the funny accents?????" lol We came back and relaxed once we got things put away. Wouldn't you know it? The gang picked today to come home early and see us lolly gagging? heh heh Today was Angela's (from the Ohio Team) birthday, so we baked some cakes and had ice cream for dessert. I am getting really spoiled by all this T Shirt weather!!!!! Blessings to you all, see you when we get home.
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Greetings from warm (62 degrees) Anahuac, TX. It was a beautiful cloudless blue-sky day. The weather was perfect for roof work. I am not sure how much Ray was working today... I had my hands full keeping track of my helper Dennis. Seriously, Dennis and I worked together real well in repairing a flat roof that needed some rotted wood replaced and then new roll roofing installed. We got some flak for making the job last all day, but lets face it, some of us are just better at milking a job than others. The rest of our crew spent the day tearing off shingles, tarpaper, and old nails and then nailing down new shingles. We will be able to finish that roof tomorrow morning. I think we will then go on to start on another roof :). The man who lives in the house where we are working is Bert Lewis. He was a professional piano player, performing all over the world and playing with the likes of Willie Nelson. He now has bone cancer and does not see so well. When you ask him how he is, he always answers with a smile and says, "I am blessed." He also said we was as fast as greased lightning when he saw how much progress we had made. He also told us we might see a wolf, panther, or a crocodile from the roof of his house. Some of us thought Sarah could lay out in the yard as bait for a croccodile. (No such luck). Ali dropped something through a hole in the roof we were patching and went head first in after it. Some of the guys grabbed her by the feet and pulled her back up. She did retrieve what she had dropped. Last evening Ray had a sore back (I don't know why) but Lane gave him a wonderful massage with the guys looking on. It made for wonderful video, and you may get the chance to see some of it. I think the food here is delicious and am probably eating too much. As I am sitting here, there are several groups playing card games and the dish detail crew (Dave, Glenn, and Mark) are finishing up. I feel blessed to be a part of this group (with the exception of Sarah) and the opportunity to serve here in Texas. Continue praying for us this week.
God bless, Jay.
Greetings from sunny warm Anahuac, Texas. The weather is perfect to work on roofs and clean up some junk in the peoples places that we are working . Dave and I are working with a number of ladies and gentlemen from Ohio and Michigan. We worked with them the first three days. We may have different groups tomorrow. We removed the shingles on the first house on Monday, then started to reshingle the roof. We also cleaned up some junk in the yard. Dave is going back to this home tomorrow to install a new hot water heater. The old one is leaking and falling over . It is in a shed out back of the house. Today we started another home. When we got there this morning their was a peacock on the garage roof. We removed all the singles and resupported some of the wood. Later in the day we got alot of the new singles on. We are all very tired tonite.
God bless you all. Glenn
Some of the pictures are of the church where we are staying, and one of Jay and Glenn trying to figure out the computer... they both mentioned often that their wives handle the computer work, but I made them do it anyway! Oh and I've been informed no more "lessons" from the trip.. what happens in Texas, stays in Texas!!
- Sarah
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