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Posted on 08/24/2005 9:50:25 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog
New verse:
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Upon the hearth the fire is red, |
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Still round the corner there may wait |
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Home is behind, the world ahead, |
Hehehe.....you need gypsygirl to pick your restaurants for you.
Heh, she understands when go out and come back with a box, there's a treat inside. The person carrying the box gets her undivided attention (until the treat is made available that is).
Well, I'm back.
It didn't go as expected.
First off, I thought we were going to camp Gruber, an hour and half or so away, to deal with about 2K evacuees. In fact, we were going to Falls Creek Baptist encampment to prepare it for about 35K evacuees. No problem. After we get to going I find out it's about 4 hours away. That's ok too! I was riding in the church van.
So we drive out there and on the way it was fantastic...just exciting as can be! From OKC down to Falls Creek (about a 2 hour drive) it was one Baptist van or bus after another heading down there to help out. Baptists from every part of Oklahoma! Also, Oklahoma Food Bank trucks...18-wheelers...hauling food and the Army National Guard caravaning down there with what looked like medical supply trucks.
So we finally arrived and it's literally bumper to bumper traffic going in...hundreds and hundreds of people. (We had over 50 people in just our group.) But as fast as we were going in, people were coming out! What gives? Why was everyone leaving?
So we finally got up to the gate...the entrance to the encampment and can you guess? FEMA had shut it down to volunteers! Apparently FEMA was overwhelmed with so many volunteers that they asked the BGCO to restrict it to 500 people and they managed to keep it down to 600! We had to turn back!
As we left, we stopped at a fried pie place (that's a big thing here in Oklahoma...fresh homemade fried pies) right at the turn-off to the encampment. And not just us, but several different churches stopped and used the fried pie place bathroom and of course bought fried pies. (The poor elderly fried pie lady was cranking 'em out as fast as she could, with her grown kids helping her like an assembly line and her husband, in a wheel chair, manning the cash register!)
So after everyone went to the bathroom and bought a fried pie (I had a coconut cream fried pie...hot), we all met...all these churches, in the fried pie parking lot. That's when we found out that there were SIXTY busloads of evacuees in route to Falls Creek. Something like 3,000 people coming.
So we started praying, all of us. It was awesome. We prayed for half an hour in that parking lot!
Afterward everyone visited for a bit then we all loaded up in our buses and vans and went home. I'm exhausted from all the driving and feel regret that I didn't actually participate...but I still feel pretty good.
Sweet gig!
Not 35K...3500 people.
Well that sounds more exciting than straightening out the garage!
LOL! Yeah...it was pretty exciting and just unbelievably moving to see all the aid heading in one direction!
Hate to think about what it cost to fill all those buses up just to have them turn around.
Sorry 2J - Sounds very exciting and then eventually disappointing. You know... right now people are very keyed up to help. If they indeed have to remain in these shelters a while, I wouldn't be surprised that in a week or two, they could very much need your help when the volunteers they have now have done their part and gone home.
Oooh, lucky girl!
Thanks... not sure what to hope for right now!
You DID participate, except you did it with prayer.
I know it was probably a blow to some of the smaller congregations...I'm not too worried about ours though. Did you hear we were going to take up a collection to buy an 18-wheeler with a mobile kitchen? We had to collect $11,000 *just* for the mobile kitchen. (The BGCO paid the rest.) We did it!
BGCO = Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma
We don't take up a collection using collection plates in my church...we have wooden boxes at every entryway that you can drop your tithe or contribution in. Boxes about the size of a large countertop microwave, I guess.
Yesterday, after the second service, people were stuffing their gift in...literally cramming it into the boxes because they were so full! People gave above and beyond.
Sorry the trip fizzled. Curious about those pies, though. Got a recipe??? (I'm craving carbs.)
That's right...and the people in the general area will be the ones to step up to that plate and I really believe they're up to the task...it was awesome to behold.
Tulakogee is another encampment about an hour south of here, that's where we'll likely be helping out the most, evacuees are coming there too, only a few hundred.
The evacuees were not even at Falls Creek yet, we were just going to help prepare the facilities.
They just had a lady on the news that is at Camp Gruber and she was tickled to death. Said "Everyone is so nice!"
Yep! It was great! None of us felt all that bad!
Wonderful!!
You should feel good about it - you all were there, ready to help. Wasn't your fault that the FEMA folks weren't ready for so much good will.
This will be a long term operation. I would be surprised if the BGCO isn't there for six months to a year. They will likely be rotating volunteers throughout the period.
Yep...
I laughed out loud when I saw the military on one side of the highway, caravaning along and a whole buncha Baptists on the other side, heading all in the same direction!
Whoda thunk it.
Heh, she has a pretty good deal now, but in her case, it wasn't always so nice. We're glad we were able to adopt a dog like her. She is a sweet dog.
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