Month: July 2018

Blessed to be working with “Friends of the Elderly” in Palacios, TX. Mark Hewitt has helped advise their direction on how to change their mode of operation from a government-based facility to a faith-based facility. The goal is to provide more service to the community and to allow the community and local churches to participate more, thus having more resources and providing more services to more people that come here. Currently, this facility is for the elderly. They have a new Executive Director, my friend, Becky Rusk. Her staff has been working so hard to improve all of the services. There is so much going on, and there is so much to do. I am honored to have had a minor hand in their projects this week. They serve hot meals and provide activities for the seniors at the center. John Anthony Guerra, their Senior Center Supervisor, is working hard to help deliver these meals to the home-bound in Palacios and the surrounding communities. They have amazing vision for all the new things they are doing. God is present everywhere. Thank you, FDLIC, for helping to make it possible for me to be here on my sabbatical this week. Your prayers are felt for these people. I work for an AMAZING company!

James. John Anthony Guerra. Me. Linda. My new family.

My mom volunteering and helping me break down old metal chairs to be turned in for cash for metal.

Ripping the old fabric off metal chairs.

Old metal chairs seats separated from the metal frames. They recycled the scrap metal for cash.

Doug and my mom. He entertained us during our work with his piano playing.

Taking a break with Toby. He comes here every day for a hot lunch and dominoes with his pals. So many stories about growing up in Palacios. He was my favorite buddy!

The entrance.

Linda is the facility Activity Director. She has a heart for these lovely people. She’s a jewel! In the pink shirt.

My new friend Doug. He’s waiting for his lunch!

Friends of the Elderly facility.

Bagging 150 pounds of rice in quart baggies. My job for one of the days I was there.

One of the gals in the kitchen carried this 50 pound bag like it was a pillow. No messing with that girl! She was a beast.

Bagging the rice for the facility.

Tammy. Maggie. Me. Susie. My girls in the kitchen. Love them.

Tammy and Maggie working hard to get out a nice hot lunch for the elderly.

The theme of my time away was rest. I needed to get out of the routine and be refreshed so that was my goal. I spent some restful time on the beach in Jamaica with my family. While I hoped this would be a highly intentional family-focused time together, my teenager and tween had other ideas when it came down to it. This time is difficult for parents and kids are pulling away and becoming increasingly independent. That is a good thing and when I step back and assess, it is healthy and is truly natural. However, it can be a struggle as we figure out how to navigate this pulling away and still have intentional relationship. For me, this has absolutely been the case. I love that my boys are independent and confident but it’s tough when they choose friends over my wife and I. Again, completely natural and a good thing, but is still tough in the execution. After getting home from vacation, I served with Love & Care Ministries. What a time of blessing this turned out to be. I attempted to plan out my service time (what’s so wrong with being a planner?!) but was unsuccessful. Thus, I had to simply show up and get put to work. This worked out great as I knew I was exactly where God wanted me to serve. I spent my week serving in the soup kitchen. Some of the time was in the actual lunch room serving meals, talking and interacting with homeless and impoverished people of our Abilene community. Other times I participated in taking food to the streets, the way the Love & Care ministry began many years ago. It’s humbling and incredible to be reminded of just how blessed I am. There are so many things as simple as air conditioning, clothing, the abundance of food and many more that I easily take for granted. I took the opportunity to take each of my boys with me to serve. This also was incredible and very rewarding. Each of my family members serve in our own ways but to be able to serve together was a fun experience. It bonded us in new ways and provided a new commonality for us to experience together. Another aspect of service while I was away from work was serving my family. With my boys, I looked for ways to tell them yes almost every time they asked for something (wisdom and discernment first!) and I looked for ways we could build relationship by doing things together. With my wife, I tried to lighten her load. Being a stay-at-home mom and homemaker, she never gets a true vacation. She always has laundry to do, people to be fed, etc. So while I was off of work, my goal was for her to never cook a meal (me and the boys helped on this, plus eating out was our friend) and I did as much laundry as I could. She was a little sneaky on this front though as she tends to just jump up and get things done when necessary not wait for someone else to get it done. All in all, I had a fantastic time away on my vacation as well as helper of people leave. In addition to spending a very large amount of time with my family, serving and enjoying vacation, I was able to watch a ton of soccer which was a real treat for me. Thanks for everyone at Parkway allowing me to be off. And I’m grateful for DIG and the opportunity to enjoy helpers of people leave. I’m grateful for our set of companies and all of the incredible benefits.

My 2nd week was spent on vacation.

A few days before I left on vacation, my car starting acting up.  Perfect timing, because Bobby, the mechanic I use, got the car in right away and fixed it within a few hours.  My bike also spent some time getting a tire fixed right before I left.  Gary, the bike mechanic is efficient on getting repairs done quickly.

I went to San Antonio for several days.  I took my bike and drove to New Braunfels to ride up and down River Road, which is next to the Guadalupe River.  It was so pretty and very relaxing.  After my bike ride, I found a fun bakery named, 2Tarts Bakery.  They make their baked goods every morning.   I sat outside at one of their tables, kicked up my feet, and enjoyed the morning and a delicious cinnamon roll.

I very much enjoyed my time in San Antonio with family.  We had a great time visiting.  I can’t wait to go back.

Kris, thank you so much for this time.  I took advantage of daily naps.  I liked not worrying about the time on the clock.  I had a great time both helping with Meals on Wheels and spending time with family.

Monday, I returned from my mini Sabbatical.  I had a wonderful two weeks, and I would like to share some highlights.

I had planned on taking my dad to Italy the day before Father’s Day.  We were both excited, since we didn’t even need our passports or would experience any kind of jet lag.  Italy, TX has a bike ride that we have never done before.  So we got up early that morning and headed to Italy to take part in the 63-mile ride that is called, Tour d’Italia.  We both had so much fun that we are planning on going next year.   I enjoyed my day with Dad.  And he finished 5 minutes before I did.  Way to go, Dad.

My first week of my mini was helping out with Meals on Wheels.  This is something I look forward to and like visiting with others.  It is sad to think that sometimes, that is the only contact they might have with people all day.  There was one day that we were able to take a box of fresh tomatoes and could share with those on our route.  I took the box home and divided up the tomatoes into bags and delivered them the next day.  The tomatoes were a popular gift and sure did bring a smile to everyone that received them.

I am so happy that my first week was spent delivering meals.  I  hope that I brought joy to others, because they sure did bring joy to me.