It's All About The Beer

First, just a quick reminder that the third post is up on my other blog: www.aservantsjourney.blogspot.com.

My husband and I are traveling this weekend...we're headed to Abilene, Texas for a Volunteers in Missions training. Naturally as I made the travel plans I pulled out my trusty Quilter's Travel Guide. Several friends had mentioned going to Stitchin' Heaven in Quitman, Texas so I quickly looked to see how far off our path it might be. I suppose 'far off' is a relative term based on whether you're a quilter or you're not a quilter. Thirty miles didn't seem too far to me. :) My husband, bless his heart, doesn't mind at all when I want to make a stop, or two, at a quilt shop. He sits in the truck reading a book and every time I get back in swears I only stayed a minute or two. Now that's a good man!

Stitchin' Heaven is a nice shop with some beautiful fabrics, a lot of great tools, and a long wall of patterns to go with all the samples they have. The people working there were friendly and helpful and knew their stuff. I was glad I stopped. I found a couple of cute monkey fabrics that my friend Connie would love and bought two fat quarters of a fabric that had rodeo clowns on it. I have no idea what I'll do with it but it looked like something a little boy would love!

And to make the sidetrip even better we got to drive by a really great bass fishing lake that my husband had heard about and was excited to see. We noticed some RV campgrounds so I bet another trip to this little place will be in my future! It was a nice payback for him because he's so nice about my quilt shop stops!

We stopped tonight for dinner at a place called Humperdinks. It might be a chain - I have no idea - but I had a good hamburger there. It was a restaurant/brewery and there was a huge wall filled with different bottled beers. I had no idea there were that many beers in the world! And here's my question to you. Why in the world would there need to be that many different kinds of beer? Do you suppose they really, really all taste different? I mean I know there's a little difference in Coca Cola and Pepsi but really, how many different dark colas could there be if they all tasted different? And if you were trying to make them all different wouldn't the difference be so minute that you couldn't really tell it anyway? Obviously I'm not a beer drinker though I've had one or two in my life. And certainly I know the difference between Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper. But hundreds of different kinds? I don't get it.

And The Winners Are.....

First things first girls. For those of you following my other blog, the second post is up!

And.......

It's Monday my friends and the drawing has taken place. I cut up all those comments and threw them on the floor - yep, scientific wasn't it? I drew out two names and they are:

Gift #1 (the quilters gift) goes to Love Bears All Things and
Gift #2 (the non-quilters gift) goes to Tracy P.

I'll be contacting you both to get addresses so I can send these out. But I won't send them tomorrow or maybe even the next day - our weather is nasty right now. We have ice! Just a little but more expected tomorrow. I'm just hoping it's not enough for me to.....horrors.....lose electricity. :( We do have a generator and a fireplace but I like warm, really warm.

Mission Trip - Day Four

Day four of the mission trip was another day of sewing - and you know I had a wonderful time. This first picture is in the new sewing room built 2 years ago by volunteers. Ellen (one of the long-term volunteers) is shown here where I've been working this week. Long-term volunteers stay 2 or 3 months and serve in a variety of ways. Ellen has been here November and December and has been in charge of the sewing room. How cool is that! Her husband, Ted, is working out in the warehouse unpacking boxes as they are received from the many churches that send their donations here. That navy fabric you see here is what we made the drapes for the stage out of. Well I say made, really it's almost made. Today as I was halfway through serging the bottom so we could hem them the serger quit. We have three sergers in this room and all three quit on us this week! I don't have a serger at home but those of you who do will surely understand when I say the bottom looper thread won't stay threaded and no matter what words I uttered under my breath I couldn't get it rethreaded. And neither could Ellen. Since the hangers for the drapes aren't in we couldn't hang them anyway but I wish we could have finished the hemming.





This sewing room is just wonderful. It has wonderful lighting, rows of sewing machines (all donated Berninas) and sergers (all donated Janomes), two cutting tables, lots of shelves, ironing boards and irons, even a washer and dryer. Ted built a stand with a bar where bolts are placed and can be easily rolled onto the cutting table for cutting. Bolts of fabric (also donated) are used to make school bags, receiving blankets, baby shirts and jackets, and today we even made Christmas stockings to be given to some children here in this area when they hadn out commodities. That's another service offered by this facility.


I'm sure you've notice that I've mentioned "donated" over and over. Everything here is donated by churches and individuals from all over America. And I mean everything from the needles for the sewing machines to the toothpaste that goes in the health kits. Most of the labor is volunteer and care is taken to be kind to our world - they recycle extensively.

UMCOR Sager Brown in Baldwin, Louisiana is making a difference in our world. Last week a large shipment went out to Zimbabwe. Last month a large shipment went to Texas. Doesn't it just make you smile when you think of all the prayers said over the things shipped? When you pick up the newspaper tomorrow and you read all the bad things that are happening in the world, think about this place....it might not make the front page but it's way more important than what those headlines are telling you.

Mission Trip - Day Three

I know you all are waiting for a food report so you can rest your worries – it’s still good. Today for breakfast, sweet potato pancakes! They even had blackstrap molasses if you cared to try it. Some of you won’t know what that is but when I was a kid that and Karo were the only kinds of syrup I knew existed. This is sugar cane country and they are harvesting right now. That’s where the molasses comes from. This first picture is the cafeteria where we have our meals. (I have no idea why this paragraph is blue and underlined!)

Lunch was equally as good – turkey and gravy, creamed potatoes and green peas, yeast rolls, (they always have a salad bar) and blueberry cheesecake. Now you know how good for you blueberries are so I thought if I turned that down my health would surely decline.


Ellen, one of the long term volunteers, and I are making drapes for the stage in the old school gymnasium. The stage opening is 20’ wide and about 100” in height. We have gotten the two panels sewn together and drapery “header” sewn on the top and are beginning to pin the pleats. We aren’t using the three pronged pleaters but the small single pins instead so we will sew the pleats down and they will be hung on wooden circles that have hooks in the bottom. All of this goes on a great long pipe across the ceiling of the opening. The fabric is navy blue, very thick and really, really heavy with all that width and height. I feel like I’m wrestling with it just to get it still enough to sew on! Tomorrow I'll try to post some pictures of the sewing room - those of you who are stitchers will love it!



This next picture is one end of the warehouse where the kits and supplies are stored.













Those of us working in the warehouse sit at stations like this to make the kits. Others are counting, boxing, and labeling boxes so that they are ready to ship at a moment's notice.












Across from our dorm out in the bayou are shrimp boats and the crop in the field across from the bayou is sugar cane. If you’ve never been in the deep south it is just like you picture it when you read Gone With The Wind except I haven’t seen any Spanish Moss here. Yesterday we had a frost but today it’s warm and windy. December 3rd and it’s in the 70s…I know you folks in Michigan and Indiana are jealous! There’s a beautiful gazebo that goes out over the bayou but they warn you not to “wade” in the water – a picture of a 7 foot ‘gator hangs in the lounge to remind you of this.



There are some nice areas under the trees where you can go for meditation and prayer.
There’s a feeling here that I wish I could capture for you. I can’t describe it well but perhaps this will help you to understand…..you know that as you walk to work each day God is walking beside you.

Mission Trip - Day Two

Remember yesterday I said I could possibly gain 10 pounds on this mission trip - let's change that figure to 15! Ya'll they have got to quit cooking this good food every meal. For lunch today we had a shrimp boil - and if you've never sampled a Louisiana shrimp boil you don't know what you're missing. They boil shrimp, cajun sausage, corn on the cob and potatoes all together in the same water with the same spices. Yum. And tonight it was homemade pizza with homemade pecan pie for dessert. I go in with the intention of only eating a salad and there's temptation, calling my name. Thank goodness for all the walking I'm doing!

This mission campus was originally built as an orphanage/school for African American boys right after the civil war. It has, of course, been added to and improved on and changed to fit the needs of the times. The "depot" is a football field sized warehouse where disaster kits are assembled, packed and shipped to all the world. Their motto is "When the world rocks, UMCOR rolls." They put together school kits for children (school bags with notebook paper, pencils, etc.), sewing kits for women who want to learn to sew (bags with needles, pins, threads, etc.), health kits (toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, bandaids, etc.) and flood buckets (5 gallon buckets with cleaning products inside like trash bags, handiwipes, cleaners, sponges, etc.). Last week they did a big shipment to Afghanistan. It doesn't matter where in the world help is needed, UPCOR provides.

The campus was empty for 14 years until Hurricane Andrew hit when it was opened and used as a central point for distributing goods. Everything that goes through this station is a result of donations either of money or goods and with the exception of just a very few paid employees the work is done by volunteers. We not only pack kits, box them up, make the school bags we also do the kitchen clean up after meals. We don't do our own cooking, and that's a good thing cause everyone would lose weight if I was cooking! There's a verse in 1 Thessalonians that says something like "we work for our living so we won't be a burden on others." Paul was saying this to the churches he visited and it appears that this policy is being followed here - what a great thing.

I hope by tomorrow I have some pictures I can post for you. Even though we had a frost today the roses and perwinkles are still blooming right along with the mums. The dorm is right on the banks of the Bayou Teche - if you're a fan of James Lee Burks books about a detective named Dave Robicheaux you'll be familiar with that bayou. Dave's hometown, New Iberia, is a few miles up the road. And I understand the author's old home is here but I've not seen it yet. We do have the afternoon off tomorrow to do some sight seeing so I'll let you know what I've gotten to do.

Blessings, Marlene

Mission Trip - Day One

1. This has to be the coolest mission trip ever - they're letting me sew! God knows how much I love to sew. :)

2. This is a very small group - small enough that Jerry and I get to share a room. I can sleep in a room with other Christian women but it's so much nicer to have my regular roommate. :)

3. They are feeding us three very good meals a day. Very good. I might just gain 10 pounds this week. :(