Greetings friends and family, my apologies, once again, to
those of you who actually look forward to reading my blog. (I understand that
there are a few of you and I thank you so much for your encouragement.) I had
planned on updating y’all on our time in Florida as soon as we were done
vacationing and settled into our next project. However, our next project and
other activities surrounding it, kept me busy enough that when I had some
downtime, I actually sat down but not in front of my laptop. I said all that,
to say this…I’ll write about our time in Florida later (maybe) as there are
some potentially interesting stories to tell. For now, let me tell you about
our return visit to Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center in Forest Hill,
Louisiana (less than a half hour south of Alexandria), our April project.
I say return visit because Tall Timbers was our first
official VMM (Volunteer Mobile Missionaries) project back in October of 2016.
In a way, it seems like only yesterday but on the other hand, it also feels
like a long time ago as so many blessings have transpired since that first
project. It was wonderful to return and
see the staff who had become our friends in such a short time. It was also
wonderful to share this project, once again, with the first VMM couple we ever met
at Tall Timbers in 2016.
The reason I was kept so busy on this project is two-fold.
First there was plenty of work for the ladies to do (and I’ll get to that) and,
second, I’m winding down as Financial Administrator for His House Christian
Fellowship. Last December, I told our Executive Director that I wanted to fully
retire by summer. I had no specific date
in mind but did want to be done (long) before going back on the road in fall.
Just wasn’t sure how that would work with being on the road trying to train
someone long distance. The good news, actually great news (praise the Lord), is
that a replacement has been found and training has already begun. A lot of time
and energy has gone into the many transitions taking place at His House (I
won’t go into all of them here as they are all good but they have added a bit
of extra work for me) that by the time I get done with my His House bookkeeping,
personal bookkeeping and house work, and project work, I’m not really wanting
to sit back down at the computer and write.
But here I am, ready now to tell you all about our time at
Tall Timbers. Our men got right to work on a building that was in the middle of
being transformed from a large meeting room into four separate bunkhouse rooms
each with its own bathroom. I’m so proud of my husband. His two least favorite
things to do are taping/mudding and painting and that’s exactly what he got to
do after they first finished the dry walling. 
The ladies, at least, got to be outside doing
our work. I thoroughly enjoyed our first task: re-painting lines on the parking
lots. It took awhile but we got better as we went along. When we got this done the ladies went on to another painting project. This time
we were freshening up one of the lodges. One nice thing about these painting projects is the great
maintenance crew took care of dropping off all our supplies each day where we
needed them and picking them up each afternoon when we were done. No clean up
for us. Yippee!!! We surely appreciated that blessing as we were pretty tired
when we stopped each day. I actually took a day off from painting at the
suggestion of a local chiropractor. From all the driving and sitting and
painting and my ongoing back, neck and sciatic issues, I searched out a local
chiropractor to give me some relief. Just so grateful, we are both, overall, in
good health and can serve God in this way. HalleluJAH! All Glory to God!
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| Tall Timbers Dining Hall |
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| Steamboat BILL's |
We definitely ate well on this project; I’m not talking about the many meals we
ate at home but about the good Cajun food at Steamboat Bill’s, Quebedeaux’s
Boudins, Billy’s Boudin & Cracklin’ Shop; and the Crawfish Boils at Abita
Brewery and one in Tall Timbers Dining Hall. Talk about some good eatin’! If
you don’t know what Boudins are, you gotta try one sometime when you’re in
Cajun Country. I gotta admit I’m not near as excited about the Crawfish Boils.
We met a nice couple out on the lawn at the Abita Brewery who showed me how to
get the meat out and shared a few tastes of crawfish. Pretty dang tasty! But when it came time to
choose between fried catfish and boiled crawfish for our meal at Tall Timbers,
I’m glad I choose the catfish. I still wanted a little bit of the crawfish
(because it really is good) I just didn’t want to work so hard for so little.
Well, one of our project friends shared a crawfish with me but instead of just
handing it to me she set it down in front of me. YIKES it looked like an over
sized ugly freaky bug and I just
couldn’t bring myself to pick it up. I couldn’t even look at it. Take it away,
please! Take it away! The catfish, by the way, was delicious and I ate plenty
of it.
The ladies did manage to take a day off and chose to go to
the Alexandria Zoo. I was thrilled with
the choice as y’all know I love zoos, but I particularly love this zoo. Bill
and I visited back in 2016. It is one of the most naturally laid out zoos I’ve
ever seen and has animals not often seen at many other zoos. I was so enthralled with the animals, I didn’t
take many pics but love this one as I have never seen such a large tortoise
actually move. The ladies also had the
pleasure of going out to a delicious Mexican restaurant with the three
delightful ladies from the Tall Timbers office who then took us to the small
community of Glenmora where there were several antique/flea market shops and
one shop called Cute & Classy & A Little Bit Sassy. Enjoyed the shop very much but loved the name
even more. J 
Bill got to do some fun things too (and he let me come
along). We visited the “remains” of Camp Claiborne which was the birthplace of
the 82nd and 101st Airborne. It was operational from
1940-45 and trained over 500,000 soldiers. We trudged through some fields and
forests to find the various buildings; one of which I couldn’t figure out what
it might be but Bill said it looked like the remains of a gymnasium. How do
guys know that stuff…he was absolutely right. Another day we went to the
Southern Forest Heritage Museum which highlighted a turn of the century sawmill
and included many of the accompanying buildings and leftover railroad cars that
made up its own little town.
Bill and I had an overnight getaway our second weekend in
Louisiana with a special mission. Sometimes Facebook comes in real handy even
though I’m on it a bit sporadically. When I posted the “Welcome to Louisiana
“sign, one of the students Bill and I became friends with from French Camp
commented that she was now in Louisiana. We both felt a strong desire to see
her even after finding out she was still over three hours away. No matter,
let’s make a weekend of it (or, at least, an overnight) which we did. Once
again, we were blessed to find an affordable Airbnb house with guest quarters
less than a half hour from where our friend lived. On our trip to visit her, we
stopped in Opelousas LA. We first stopped at the Welcome Center where it was
part of a collection of restored historic structures which were moved to this
one site to create a small village. So well done! I loved the fact that they also had an
historic walking tour brochure for the rest of the city even though we only had
the time for the downtown area (which included another 17 historic buildings). Other than visiting zoos, looking and reading
about historic buildings is one of my favoritest J
things to do (and Bill too).
Before returning to our accommodations, we stopped in at the
Abita Brewery where there was a Crawfish Boil going on (as I mentioned earlier)
and met some new friends. A lovely couple from Baton Rouge who did two, no make
that three, lovely things for us. First, they let me taste some crawfish without
getting freaked out. Second, they knew bad weather was coming and offered us a
place to stay on our return trip Saturday just in case the thunderstorms were
as bad as what was being predicted. (Although the rains were quite heavy at
times, Bill did an excellent job getting us home safely. Thank you, Jesus!) And,
third, and best of all they prayed with us as we shared a bit of our reason for
being in the area. What a huge blessing and encouragement to us as we were
meeting up with our young friend in the morning. Praise the Lord!
Our plans were to pick up our friend and her boyfriend, take
them to lunch, and then spend as much time as desired hanging out at a nearby
state park. That was a wonderful plan, however, the pouring rain and, at times,
thunder and lightning, put the kibosh on those plans. So we stretched out our
lunch for as long as we could without outstaying our welcome at a most unique
diner (Liz’s Where Y’at Diner). Because our young friend likes
animals so much, we went to the animal shelter dodging the pouring rain the
best we could and then wandered around Wal-Mart to have a bit more time
together (and stay dry). It was an unusual way to visit but it worked and we
trusted that God had a plan and a purpose. Not real sure of the specifics of
those plans or purpose but know, without a doubt, He used our time for good and
His Glory. After spending about four hours together, we prayed with our young
friends, promised to stay in touch, and said our goodbyes for now. Thank you, Jesus! We love this journey He has
us on especially at times like this!!!
God didn’t stop there. He ordained another very special
meeting and that was meeting the parents of yet another dear student we
befriended at French Camp. When this particular friend first found out that we
had a project at Tall Timbers and that we attended a nearby small church, she
got all excited. Her hometown is Alexandria and her family attends the same
church (the big one) in Alexandria. The details of this meeting most definitely
show God’s handiwork. We had no idea how well (or not) received our desire to
meet them would be, so Bill and I prayed a lot about God leading us, opening
doors or closing them. The first Sunday back at Tall Timbers, we went to the
smaller nearby church as that is the custom when a project starts. We all go
together. Anyway, that Sunday they had a pastor from the big church
substituting for the regular pastor. So, after the service we had an
opportunity to ask him about the couple we wanted to meet. He happily took our
information and said he would pass it along. We didn’t hear anything from the
couple in the week that followed but we did go to the big church the following
Sunday. It just so happened that there was no service at the small church because
of a guest speaker at the big church. We were thinking about going there
anyway, but this encouraged us greatly. After that service, we did not see the
pastor from the previous week but there were some ladies selling books written
by the guest speaker which I bought (Sharing
Jesus [without freaking out] by Alvin Reid). I asked one of them if
they knew the couple we were looking for and if they knew whether they might be
at this particular service. She was so very sweet as she came around the table,
took my hand, and led me over to the mom. The reception we received was more
than I could have imagined. The mom was very encouraged by our interest and
love for their daughter that we made plans to meet for lunch the following
Sunday after church. That lunch lasted two and a half hours ending in hugs,
prayers, and great blessings for all parties. Definitely new friends for
life.
Speaking of friends…we look forward to seeing all of our old
friends and family very soon. We’ll be back in Oshkosh the end of May. Be
blessed and be a blessing!
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