Mystery Trizip - Day 2

Wow! What a day! We got off to an early start with a fulfilling breakfast in the Rev. Dr. Joe Pool Fellowship Hall of FUMC Gainesville. We took a ride (movie time…Star Trek) to the exciting city of Stillwater (current home of OSU and soon to be home of Chris Marsh) we let all our excitement out at Boomer Lake Park with much throwing of Frisbees, climbing of trees, kicking of balls, and drinking of bottled water. We ate lunch (and bought t-shirts) at the world famous ESKIMO JOE’S restaurant. Once are all happily stuffed with burgers, beans, salads, fries, cheese, and lots of bacon, we get back on the bus to take us to our next adventure. We pull up in front of the memorial to the April 19,1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. The sobering memorial to the 168 dead silenced us all. We walked amongst the memorial and visited the museum and found ourselves speechless, at the magnitude of the act of terror. We didn’t want to leave but we had to. We wandered around the Oklahoma City river walk and then went to watch the Oklahoma City Redhawks (minor league baseball) cream the Las Vegas 51s. It was a very exciting game (much more exciting once runs got on the board at about the sixth inning) Now, we are resting at FUMC Oklahoma City all waiting for our turn in the shower to come up (number 19s time is almost up) and in shifts we are all visiting the memorial to see it by night. It is absolutely breathtaking, it makes you remember how blessed we are and how much we have to be thankful for. There are not words to describe the power in that sacred space…… Writing for FUMC Rockwall youth Mystery Trizip 2010- This is Jack Jack Eidson…Over and out

A Visit to the Pool Hall

We stayed the night at First United Methodist in Gainesvilles, TX. Here we couldn't go without a trip to Rev. Dr. Joe C. Pool Fellowship Center located at the church. After breakfast though, we had to say goodbye. It is always hard to say farewell to such a nice Pool hall.

Sweet Whirlyball

Upon embarking from FUMC Rockwall, we found our first spot quick with a detour for some ice cream at Henry's Ice Cream in Plano, TX. Then we stumbled upon a place to play Whirlyball. If you have never played, it is a cross between lacross, basketball, and bumper cars. We played tournament amidst our 7 teams: Poseidon, the Super Bananas, the Prancing Kitty-Cats, Team Poseidon Likes Men, Church Pants, Robot Unicorn, and Platypus. Our undefeated winners were the Prancing Kitty-Cats. Now back on the road to end up in our sleeping quarters for the night with much untold adventure in store for us on the morrow.

Untold Adventure...

The adventure begins...

On the way home...

After a wonderful day at the Corpus Christi beach and a great night at the facilities of First United Methodist Church of Corpus Christi, we are heading back home. With just enough sun to make us more tired and many many stories to relay once we get back, we are preparing for the trip home...see you when we get back!

Day Four - Last Work Day

We worked... We worked very hard... We did alot of good work... Now we're ready for the beach!!!...

Day Three

So, today was day 3. Expecting rain we carefully planned the placement of our tools and worked fast, becoming drenched in sweat (Phil being the worst, changing the color of his shirt and his jeans becoming a dark blue with no dry spots left). Our little princess twins, Phil and Sherwin, bought matching clothes to wear at Wal-Mart for everyday, today being hot pink v-necks. It wasn’t but about an hour after lunch for us to finish the roof; which looks professionally beautiful! We helped Alicia to clean up around the house and throw out some older things of hers, which she really appreciated. As a reward for doing so great today, we left early and went to a knock-off of Sonic called Stars for some refreshments during their happy hour… yummy J We went quickly back to the dorms, showered off, ate dinner and began a surprise drive to South Padre! We enjoyed some giant waves while body boarding. Besides a few jelly fish stings and lots of salt in our eyes, we had a wonderful time. Ending the night, we sang some worship songs while standing in a circle on the beach. We never had the rain we expected until after we sang and were beginning to walk off the beach. We’re ready to have a great time finishing off the house tomorrow!

- Emily Green

Oh yeah, we also met a cute dog from the neighbors named Ammo

Day Two

Day 2-

As I woke up today I didn’t know what to expect. Yesterday already proved that these workdays were going to be long and difficult…but I was ready for it. As I put my work clothes on and headed to go to the van for breakfast I didn’t know what to expect from today. When we arrived at the work site, we immediately started where we left off with finishing up with nailing the last of the tarpaper. As I began nailing the paper, I was already starting to feel the scorching power of the sun as its rays of heat landed on my back. I lost count of how many times I had to take a water break to keep myself from over heating. But despite how many times I wanted to throw down my hammer and quit because of the heat and the work I felt a little sympathy from God as now and then a few huge clouds would appear and block out the sun’s harsh light. It was like he was telling me ‘I know it’s bitter work but hang in there. You’re making a certain someone very happy with what you’re doing.’ Indeed I was making someone happy the owner of the house of whom we were fixing. The name of the lady who owns the house we are fixing is Alicia and her life has been anything but easy. She has two daughters who live in the DFW area. According to what I’ve learned from talking to her. She had a husband who died in a roofing accident leaving her a young widow to care for her young daughters. She continued to struggle through her life, as she had to save up enough to feed and pay for her daughters’ education through public college. A little while after her daughters graduated from college she got in a horrible accident that injured and nearly paralyzed her. I later learned she had two surgeries on her back. I learned that the first one failed and in the second one they inserted metal rods in her back to keep her up right. Naturally because of her bad back she’s lost the ability to help keep her house in line. It’s stuff like this that makes me realize how lucky I am to have a stable roof and a mother and father whose backs are healthy. Well anyhow after lunch break I was given the task to help put fiberglass in her household to help stabilize the roof. Trust me you do not want to get the stuff on your skin because it’s like getting a rash times 10…it SUCKS. After finishing up in the house we got to the back breaker of the day putting on new shingles. It’s not as easy to set up as one might think it sounds. I messed up once setting it up and I struggled with hammering it in as well. Once again I was at the point where I wanted to throw my hammer off the roof and quit ‘cause I was so aggravated, but once again God was there to calm me down. Except it wasn’t with clouds it was with popsicles that Mr. Sherwin bought us from an ice cream truck that was passing by. It was good by the way. So once again like earlier today I got back to work. I was tired but feeling good about what we did today and as I go to bed I look forward to helping out again tomorrow.

Miles Kirkpatrick