Portland, TX

We left San Antonio on Friday and drove to Portland.  It is a Gulf Coast town near Corpus Christi.  It was so good to see palm trees, experience warm, mild breezes and arrive at this lovely congregation.  We had a great day with some friendly people on Sunday.   Saturday, after our arrival, one of the elders came by and visited with us for a while and invited us to his house for dessert that night.  It was so much fun to be with him and his wife and another couple. 

This church building was previously owned by a denomination and there's one building with the inscription "Children's Building."  We thought that very strange when we drove in but later learned that it was previously used for a school run by that church.  It is very lovely and the property is worth a fortune although they were able to buy the property at a very reasonable price.

Sunday afternoon, we drove back to San Antonio.  We had a nice visit with the Northwest church and afterwards went to eat with a retired doctor and his wife.  The doctor was leaving this Friday for a trip to Africa.   We had a wonderful visit with them.  They were neighbors and friends with Jim and Sue May who now attend at Peachtree City.  It was about midnight when we got back to Portand and to bed that night.   It was a long but very enjoyable day.

It has been a nice week but still a lot of work in spite of the Chinese New Year holidays and less work coming from China. 

Wind power is active in this area.  As we drove to the store for a few items, we saw the windmills in the far distance that went for miles and miles.  We were actually too far away for the pictures to come out very well but you can see them along the horizon in this picture.  Ron said it will become more and more prevelant in Texas.  The winds are substantial so it should really do well and provide an alternative power source.

Last evening, the preacher from Port Aransas picked us up and took us to the church there.  This town is located on Mustang Island, just north of Padre Island.  We drove from Portland to Aransas Pass, another coastal city and from there we drove onto a ferry to go to Port Aransas.   It was getting too dark to take pictures.

We went a little early not knowing how long we would need to wait to get the ferry so when we arrived, we drove down along the beach area.  The beach area goes on for miles and miles (there is some barrier between Mustang and Padre Island) but the beachfront actually goes all the way down to Mexico. 

We met with about 20 wonderful older Christians on Wednesday night.  They were from everywhere (many different states represented) since this is a very tourist area.  Some of the people come here every year; others were visiting for the first time.  Some people from Kansas and Wyoming knew people in their hometowns that support our work.   It always helps to make mutual acquaintances.

We saw several RV parks completed covered up with RV's and 5th Wheeler campers.  It is a great area for people to winter!  

We have appointments on Sunday (A.M. Corpus Christi and P.M. Ingleside).

A dear sponsor for about seven years lives in Ingleside.  We will meet her Sunday night for the first time face-to-face.  I am looking forward to being able to thank her personally for supporting orphans all these years.  I talked with her on the phone and we had a lovely conversation.  She told me she first read about us in the Christian Woman's Magazine (an article that appeared at least seven years ago).

Ron is checking about appointments at other congregations before we leave to drive on to Brownsville.