Was this Sunday???

As I sit here and look at the clock telling me I should have been in bed nearly 2 hours ago if I wanted anything near 8 hours before getting up and starting all over again I have to think back over this entire day!

We started with church service this morning -- a packed house with 53 volunteers in attendance! They had to set up extra chairs -- surely God was smiling!

From there Monty and I immediately headed out to the local airport to pick up the 4 members of our incoming Iowa team. The rest of them (6) were already on their way -- driving. We did manage to stop along the way for some lunch -- a real treat -- especially since this team feels like family. I think they have come and worked with us who knows how many times!

When we headed to one airport Diane was heading to another. She was picking up our one volunteer coming from Oregon. He plans on being with us for 6 weeks. Each week he will be working with whatever teams we have at the time. He will have a huge!! family when he returns home!

We returned with the Iowa partial team, got them settled in Diane's trailer where they could get a bit of rest. This church has another service in the evening and so teams are not allowed inside the church building from 3:30 to 8:30pm on Sundays, unless they are attending the service.

As soon as that was done Diane was back, along with our 45 from Georgia. She took 5 of the team leaders and I took another 5 -- this is a very highly skilled team! She headed to Galveston to preview some of the jobs for this week and I headed to San Leon to do the same. Looks like both Marie's and Hai's are going to see tremendous transformation by the end of this week!

These tours took nearly 3 hours. By the time we returned the rest of the Iowa team had arrived. After visiting with them for a few minutes we realized that it was nearing the 8pm hour and we had not eaten any dinner. Diane, Monty and I walked the block to the Mexican restaurant, woofed down some tacos and headed back to meet the Indiana team who would be the last to arrive. They are from the Greenwood Vineyard and have made quite a few trips here. This time all but 1 of them are new!

Getting cots and rooms and things set up for 75 volunteers is quite the feat! We have filled every single kids Sunday school rooms, all the youth rooms upstairs and any other room that could be found but we made it. The room with 20 men is the most crowded but all they requested was another box fan to keep the air circulating a bit more!

Diane stayed and waited for the 45 Georgia to return from their dinner to go over a few details from our tours. When I returned to our trailer at 9:30 pm they weren't back yet!

Yes, we hit the floor doing 90 mph all day and are more than worn out. Even at this hour Monty is outside trying to get the propane tanks working on the separate shower trailer so we will have 4 more showers in addition to the 4 we already have. YES -- do the numbers --- 4 showers for 75 people! And you thought the lines for Christmas shopping were long!!!>???

This week is our largest team week and we are really excited to see what God has in store for all of us. We pray for our kitchen workers --- one already called and said she couldn't make it tomorrow morning! And just as we thought -- Convoy of Hope team to the rescue!!! The girls said they would get up and be in the kitchen before 5:30 AM!!!! to help! Isn't God amazing how He sends us just who we need just when we need them!

Be sure and stay tuned this week. I promise to do my best to blog each night -- but -- if I do miss a night you'll know why! Please keep all of these teams -- and homeowners -- in your prayers. We pray for a safe week, not only for us but for the family members who are staying home to allow their folks to come here. To all of you ----------we thank you for sharing your precious ones with us and the county of Galveston!

Until next time . . . be blessed. Susan and Monty