Paul Alton MBA

Welcome to December. Winter is here for sure. Mostly. Normally (hahahahaha) we’d be south by now in our fifth wheel or at least prepping for Christmas with tickets to Nicaragua in hand for just after New Year’s Day.

The first day of the month we were in Regina. We drove there on the last day of November on clear and dry roads. Not a reliable given in December. So, we drove by car. No fifth wheel this year. Too uncertain when you must leave so late. We stopped in Saskatoon and had a short visit with Weldon & Alice before going out to lunch with granddaughter, Sonja.

“Papers, please!” is the process to enter even an A&W. You present proof of vaccination and picture I.D. to prove you are the person on the vaccination passport. Maybe the Dems could slip north of the border and fight eater suppression.

South from Saskatoon to Regina we joined Larry and Stephanie at their country home twenty minutes north of Regina. Apple maps took us to the Middle of Nowhere^TM, but Google Maps rescued us taking us the six miles back from there to their house. Stephanie gets up early for her work. We were on the road early to be in Toontown in time for lunch. It was a good visit that first evening, but we were all flagging by the end. Old folks. What can you say?

But that’s so last month. The old guy is slipping into the past. Let’s get back to December. How did You like that Taylor Swift classic Back to December? A young fellow was querulous when Taylor Swift popped up on my favorites on satellite radio. Juanita is so patient. Before I wear out your patience, dear reader, I’d better get back on topic.

Larry and I met up for coffee with a former co-worker of mine from the Regina refinery. We had a good visit. I learned a bit more about both of them in the back and forth. Co-worker had a sprinkles covered do-nut. Tastes change. It seemed mildly repulsive just to look at after over a year of low carb eating. That’s not sour grapes talking. Temptations of dietary and other natures abound but do-nuts with sprinkles aren’t on the list.

Stephanie and Juanita had a good visit without us.

In the afternoon I met up with another co-worker for coffee and we had a good visit and barely got up to date before it was time for him to pick up his wife at work and me to head back for supper. I stopped on the way and filled up the car with gas and a car wash. The car wash blew about a quarter of the paint off the license plate. After supper I drove back into town and exchanged the damaged plate for a new one with a new number to remember. Memory. Use it or lose it. Now what was I talking about? Why am I in this room?

Awake early. Up early. No lollygagging in bed, today.

The weather radar showed snow between us and the border. Consider alternate routes, consider waiting it out. We left anyway.

Snow! You call that snow?

It was just a dusting and wasn’t sticking. All that worry for nothing.

We stopped at the Canadian side of the border. I went in and asked if the USA border was open for non-essential travel. I didn’t want to do the loop to the US side, getting turned away and come back five minutes later to be told we had to quarantine for fourteen days because we had been “out of the country”. It has happened to others. The CBSA person said it would depend on the circumstances of our travel. I replied I wasn’t worried about what the rules would be four months from now. They could be anything. He said things could change tomorrow and finally saw my point I was only worried if the border was open and wanting to prevent a return today. Things were fine as far as they knew.

Took advantage of a washroom in the CBSA building. Back to the car. Phone our local insurer and ask them to update our AutoPak file with the new car license plate number. That took two people and a bit of time on hold. While that was going on a couple of border guards came out and looked in the back of a stock trailer coming from the states and sent the truck and trailer back to the States. I wonder if they would need a two-week quarantine or be stuck in between the border stations in no cow’s land. Before the rig got completely turned around, we scurried to get rolling to the border before it. Who knows how long that would take if we were stuck behind that trailer?

After a brief interview (Where are you going? For how long? Any medicines? Are they in their original containers? How much money do you have? Where will you be staying? Do you have a house in Canada? What do you do about it for the winter?) we were on our way. My first time to Plentywood, Montana. Juanita’s second. Pre-Covid, one of its main economic activities was to receive mail and parcels for Canadians. I have had an awning shipped there when the vendor wouldn’t ship to Canada. Larry and Stephanie have a post office box there. Stuff has been piling up since Covid closed the border to non-essential travellers.

We didn’t stop there.

I shut off cellular data on my Saskatchewan phone at the border. I can buy calling or data 24 hours at a time but will keep that to a minimum. My US phone doesn’t work around here. Juanita’s AT&T phone works but has no data. Google maps goes into a minimalist mode. It shows you where you are on your planned route if you don’t stray too far off that path and occasionally announces turns. A couple of hours into Montana it takes us onto a remote, hilly dirt road for what seems a long time.

We expressed gratitude that we were not driving our truck and fifth wheel trailer through the multiple blind spots at the top of hills on that narrow road. GM took us under a freeway on a narrow highway in a small town. We stopped. Discussions ensued.

We consulted our 2015 road atlas and took Interstate 94 to North Dakota and stopped at the first Flying-J for bathrooms and to update Google maps with Wi-Fi. That didn’t last too long, but with the help of the road atlas and our memories of past trips we made it to our hotel in Grand Rapids.

A trip to Sam’s Club to pick up new membership cards and a trip to Five Guys for supper and it was back home to bed to get an early start tomorrow.

Masks were absent almost everywhere today. Would have appreciated the young guy in line at Five Guys wearing a mask if he was going to cough so much, but he didn’t. He did help the lady in the wheelchair get through the double doors out of the restaurant so don’t judge an uncovered book. I guess.

We were both fresh so both woke up quickly and got on the road by five. None of the open McDonald’s in town were open that early so we stopped at a Hardee’s drive-thru.

Google maps went into pout mode without bandwidth, and we navigated by road atlas, memory and the occasional discussion, arriving in Morrill, Nebraska about nine.

We had a marvellous visit with Leonard and Karen Cook. They had 101 SOWER projects under their tool belts when they retired to Morrill and mostly remodelled an older house. Then some health issues interrupted their plans and he spent months in hospital in Denver and now can only work brief periods at a time. So frustrating for such hard workers. We worked together on several SOWER projects and have hooked up a number of times even when we were not working together. We miss working and fellowshipping with them.

Around noon we headed to a local diner and had lunch together before saying our goodbyes and hitting the road to Grand Island around two. GM told us to turn on a sketchy looking road. We demurred, turned "at the Walmart” and muddled our way through Scottsbluff to highway 71, which goes over some scenic hills to Interstate 80. 

Juanita drove for a couple of hours while I dozed. Then it was my turn again and we arrived at Grand Island, gassed up the car, found our hotel and crashed. Long day.

Texted Indira Stone and arranged to meet midday tomorrow in Edmonds, OK or thereabout. Details to be determined.

I was up early as usual. Showered and ready to go. I touched Juanita’s foot through the blanket to waken her gently. That was my intention. She sat up rapidly, startled out of a sound sleep. Not as bad as the time I scared the bear away with an airhorn, but not good either. She is so patient with me.

We’re up and on our way!

We have stayed in York, Nebraska many times. There is a sometimes Passport America RV park at the next exit to the east. York has good shopping and is on the junction of an east-west interstate and an excellent mostly divided highway that turns into a north-south interstate running through Oklahoma City. We took the York Exit at about five am and went north to the cluster of fast-food places. There were no signs of life at the McDonald’s and nothing else looked like a good prospect for an edible in-a-hurry breakfast.

We’ll find something.

We did. An hour or two later, in Concordia, KS.

Google Maps encouraged us with “time remaining to destination” and not much else. We crossed half of Nebraska, all of Kansas and around half of Oklahoma to arrive at Braum’s ice cream in Guthrie two minutes earlier than our agreed meeting time with Jesse and Indy Stone and family. 399 miles. Not bad. Admittedly, we set the time half-way through the trip, but pretty good travelling mercies extended our way. After a way too short visit catching up on bits and pieces of life since Covid and before that we finished our salads and hamburgers and went back to our lives today. They to the Christmas concert rehearsal and us to the gas station before getting back on the road. Hard to cram two years plus into a two-hour visit. Hopefully we’ll see more of them at the Big Feed after Christmas.

No shared driving this afternoon. I was fading a bit on our way to Dallas-Ft. Worth as I sometimes do in the afternoon, but Juanita was not up to the occasion, either. There’s a big difference between waking up early for a couple of days and being jolted up out of a deep sleep after three short nights.

Our hotel is across the highway from the Texas Motor Speedway and a Buc-ee’s. Braum’s is a must-experience Oklahoma original which has spread into Texas. Buc-ee’s is a Texas original which has spread east as far as Alabama and Florida, but not gone north into Oklahoma. Their newer gas stations are Texas-sized with the best gas prices for miles around and aisles of merchandise, baked goods, fresh-made BBQ sandwiches, jerky, sausages and more high-carb food than you can shake a coma at. The bathrooms are the cleanest bathrooms you will find anywhere. I pumped gas while Juanita went inside. “People, everywhere!” she said when she came back. I went in, used the bathroom and wandered a bit through the couple of acres of milling people and came back to the car without buying anything.

Then to our hotel to check in. It’s still light out! No snow and longer days. A twofer!

We walk to the nearby Popeye’s. Closed. Due to Covid? Still have the “Now Hiring!” signs in the window.

Back to the car to a Mexican drive thru and order a burrito for Juanita and a couple of tostadas for me to take back to the room. The hard taco makes a perfect plate. Fairly low carb if you don’t eat the plate.

Early to bed.

Both up and awake. Early to bed does that. We wend our round about way to a 24-hour Whattaburger and order breakfast and head south to the Rio Grande Valley. Not much to say about the drive. Better through Ft. Worth and Austin and San Antonio in a car than pulling a fifth wheel trailer. Better on a Sunday than mid-week.

Near Corpus Christi we turn on the highway to Harlingen and stop briefly at a Walmart. The Whattaburger looks complicated to access, so we get back on the highway and carry on to a Valero station at Riviera. The bathrooms are filthy. Used toilet paper overflowing the large, open trash bin in the stall. We order food and get into one of two long lines to pay for our lunchtime Valero hot Mexican food. I take the paid slip back to the food counter. We sit and eat near the two long lines. Hard to imagine that the variety of shapes and sizes of people are all the same species. Juanita bites into her lunch. She exclaims with pleasure, “we’re home”. Good food. Filthy bathrooms. Yup. Home, valley style.

We arrived at the Way of the Cross staff motel about 2:00. Martha Kroeger greeted at us in the parking lot and gave us the key. We unloaded the car and left in search of a few necessities at the 99 Cents Only store which no longer prices things according to its name. When we came out Ben called and said he was at the apartment. “Be there in five.” Good visit and a catch-up on recent events. “See you at the staff meeting tomorrow morning.” Byron Kroeger came by and finished setting up the Wi-Fi hub. A few more visitors and we went out for fried chicken (strict mask policy stated and mostly honoured, entrance-only and exit-only doors provided customer traffic flow) and ate it in the restaurant. Then a quick trip to Walmart for a coffee maker, etc. and back to putter and organize before an early bed.

There are people who say true socialism hasn’t been tried. That’s a convenient lie or naivety by those who want to try it again. It has been tried and it failed. Every time. Go away. There are those who say bureaucracy is bad. Likewise, not so. It was a successful low-tech way to impose a consistent operation by many people over long distances. The Russian Empire and the British Empire thrived through the skillful use of bureaucracy. Until they didn’t. We are shopping for smart phones to replace our US flip phones. Bureaucracies tend to be rules or process based rather than results-based organizations. They are neat and tidy and above all, follow the rules. “You can’t do that!”

Entrepreneurial organizations tend to be the opposite of bureaucracies. They may rely on what one textbook called a spider web organizational structure. In that case there is one person at the middle with strings outward to everybody else. These organizations don’t scale well and suffer when something happens to the spider. They are nimble. They can react to changing circumstances quickly but are messy. Above all, they value outcomes over process. “Git ‘er done!”

There are people who thrive in one environment and who would feel squelched it the other. I am somewhat in the middle. A bit of a plodder who values structure but who sometimes sees rules as obstacles to outcomes when the rules are taken out of context of their utility. I tend to appreciate the better points of any organizational culture that helps it accomplish its useful purpose. Form follows function.

As we have observed in the last couple of years there are polarized purists on any topic who can’t even fathom that anybody would think the other way. Emotion ensues. Lets not talk about masks, or vaccines or, heaven forbid, politics.

Normally we would head south in mid October towing our fifth wheel trailer and work SOWER projects until spring. We would start in the Rio Grande Valley and inch north until we make a final mad dash back to Canada during a break in the late winter weather. SOWERS are Christian couples who volunteer to meet the physical needs at numerous acceptable ministries. They do painting, carpentry, plumbing, wiring and anything else they can to help out. They work four, six-hour days, three weeks a month. These work weeks are laid out years in advance. There is a bidding process to get assigned to the projects and a strict guideline for when you arrive at a project and for much else. Their process works well for managing diverse, dispersed volunteers. If a situation comes up add a rule to cover it.

Way of the Cross is a ministry based in Harlingen, Texas with operations in Texas, Mexico and Nicaragua. It has one dynamic individual at the center. It is messy. It gets things done with a minimum of people and adapts quickly to changing situations, serving people’s needs and leading huge numbers of people to the Lord. A person who would be most comfortable in a carefully structured environment would be troubled by the chaos. Somebody was and it went from there. It is not currently an active SOWER project.

Our first SOWER project when we come south usually is Way of the Cross. It is one of the few SOWER projects that offers staff housing if you do not have a rig. It is also on time out from SOWERS. It is listed as “On-Hold” so there is no process through SOWER head office for us to work here. That’s good for our schedule. The official December work week schedule has the first week of December completing last week. We are starting a week late and living in an apartment, not our rig. It will be a different experience.  It will also seem strange not to be working at SOWER projects around Houston in February and March.

Happy Birthday, niece Kelli!

Up early, write, try to do some on-line banking. What I’m trying to do isn’t intuitive. E-mail personal rep for advice. Her brief reply is its simple. Just “Transfer”. L8tr.

Chapel, Oscar Brooks preached message about James, one of the most qualified of the disciples. The first killed. All that preparation and then suddenly gone before he can use it. Sometimes the journey is the destination. If you look you can find Oscar’s sermons on the Way of the Cross Facebook page. Send me a link. For some quirky reason we don’t do Facebook. I heard it was for old people.

Juanita continues working with the group filling bags with toys to go to Mexico for Big Feed

Paul – Assigned to get 20 bicycles ready for Big Feed (I sent myself e-mail reminder) and to help pick up a tent in Bayview at an WWII bomber airfield. First find ball for truck. That took a while. Install ball and hook-up cage trailer. Take cage trailer to burn pile and unload, get there almost on time, meet the tent owner at the junction with the highway to get two buckets of tent parts he forgot to bring to the airfield. We had a good visit in truck on way there and back.

I helped get sprayer out then ate lunch. I went to the hardware store for parts to install a strainer on the sprayer feed line. When I bring them back they fit but are only schedule 40 compared to everything else which is schedule 80. The strainer will be just at the side of the driver’s seat. I don’t think the piping failing and spraying Round-up at her leg. I put everything back together as found. You can never assume you will get back to anything, so it is seldom a good idea to leave things apart waiting for your return. On the way home I pick up 2 out of 3 fittings at the John Deere dealer. No ¾ close nipples? Not even a bin or a stock number. How can that be?

We visit the AT & T store. It’s simple when your 3G phone will no longer work in a couple of months. Buy new phone or beg customer service for free flip phone then carry as before on the same plan. Boost Mobile cancel your pay-as-you-go plan and sign up for an overpriced monthly charge, or cancel your account and lose your account balance and your existing phone number and then they will give you the new customer rate. Get a divorce after 15 years of marriage and we will treat you as well as the new girlfriend.

Drive to Sam’s. Stay in the car and have heated discussion with Boost rep by cell while Juanita goes into store to shop alone. Learn more about plan. It has changed since the last rep I talked to. I asked for an interaction number to document the promises. The prepaid account we have needs regular top-ups. With us being out of the country we have not been making calls on the US phone, so the account has been building up. One rep said we could buy a new phone with part of the funds. Subsequent reps deny this. They do not have a consistent story. We are supposed to love our enemies so I can’t recommend Boost Mobile to an enemy and who would do that to a friend. Avoid Boost.

At home I drop off Juanita to fix supper. Go to Walmart. Come home. Set up printer. Try the “just transfer” advice from the banking rep e-mail. Went poorly. Wiped out some bonus interest and put that chunk of money in a pool with some existing money with a maturity date 90 days earlier than I wanted. Looked at on-line options. Too hard to do when drowsy. Sleep typed a brief help email to personal rep, closed things down and went to bed.

Up super early. Wrote a bit. Couldn’t open web page editor. Skimmed emails. Remembered the bicycles. Will look at them after I do the sprayer mod if the sprayer is still at the warehouse and try to do any new assignments without forgetting about bikes for kids in Mexico. Will look at compressor and bike tool selection.

After chapel, Oscar preached. Byron helped set me up to work on bicycles to raffle off during the Big Feed. Then I dropped Byron at the motel to pick up a van to be taken for its annual inspection. On my way back I stopped by the John Deere dealership and went through the plastic fittings bin drawer by drawer until I found a single ¾” nipple. It had a different pattern of part number than all the others because it had a hex section in the middle.

With all the right parts I quickly installed the strainer on the mobile sprayer. Good thing. Byron said it ran about ten minutes before the strainer was completely plugged the first time. Without the strainer that stuff would have clogged the nozzles. That would be a bit more of a production to deal with. After what was in the tank got mostly sprayed out, Byron was able to clean it so the next, new batch of herbicide will be relatively gunk free.

While I hid in the near darkness sorting bicycles, Juanita filled bags with toys to go to Mexico for a while. Then she helped with the food line. 12 cars at a time surround the big open-sided tent. They get loaded up with free food, receive tracts and served a gospel message in English and Spanish. Juanita helped direct traffic and gave tracts to the drivers and passengers. I was tired at the end of the day. So was Juanita. She said the work was less physical than what she had been doing but she found it more tiring.

Our workday over we went to the AT&T store again. Then to Pep Boys to discover there is now a tire shop at their location. No more auto parts. Then to Harbor Freight, Home Depot, Walmart, and HEB. We tried to go to Office Depot, but that store is empty and barricaded. Covid mostly seems to nudge vulnerable people over the edge. The response to Covid has done the same to businesses teetering on the brink, as well.

Supper at home. A bit of surfing and call it a night. Posted some of this morning’s writing to web page.

Tomorrow, chapel is early. The semi-trailer to be loaded for Mexico is due to show up at 8 and leave by 1:30. Probably all hands on deck to load.

Goodnight.

Up not super early. Already 4:30 when I woke up and wrote a bit. Web host down for maintenance this morning so no posting.

Another barnburner sermonette by Oscar Brooks in chapel this morning. He spoke on the last two verses in the book of Acts. Paul was under house arrest in a rented house in Rome, waiting to plead his case to the emperor. He couldn’t leave home, but there was a steady stream of visitors he ministered to. There are parallels to how ministries have changed due to Covid.

With bikes all over the place in a back section of the warehouse I picked a row that looked like a team maybe had repaired and determined good. Yesterday I filled tires and sorted my way through that row and made a new row of bikes that were in working condition. This morning first thing I went through those that didn’t make it from that row and made a list of needed supplies. Juanita didn’t have anything to do at the warehouse today so after we ran an errand to pick up the parts she headed home to do some housework and catch up with a friend. I carried on working on bikes until quitting time. Several of us went for lunch at the Golden Corral. It seems to be thriving. I wonder why when many other buffets seem to be gone. I read online that our favorite Christmas Day buffet further up the Valley went bankrupt in the past year.

When I was picking up bike supplies at Walmart I bought a prepaid AT&T cell phone. When Juanita picked me up at the end of the workday we dropped by and the AT&T rep installed a new SIM and got it going and handed it to me. Easy-peasy. No charge, No hassle. No change to the plan.

After that we went to the Boost Mobile Store for my US phone. I asked the rep to deal with customer service to verify the plan they offered. He took me off my plan and said he couldn’t go back and there was no way to sell me a phone at the quoted rate. I asked to speak to a supervisor. It seemed to be a situation of not not being able to but of not knowing how. He hung up. I got a text on my flip phone, “Welcome to the new plan and thanks for the $20 we took from your account balance. Next payment due January 9”. The store rep couldn’t believe the hang up. She called again and got somebody else. They said the system won’t let you have the phone upgrade price deal on the $20 a month plan. He switched me to the $35 plan and said I will give you a $35 credit and I have put in a dated order to change you back to the $20 plan for next month. I got a text, “Thanks for the $35”. I bought my phone. Left the store. Went to buy keto bread, came out of that store and got a text, “We’ve refunded your $35”. Hopefully the switch back to the $20 goes through. Not only is it cheaper but it offers 67% more data than the more expensive plan. Don’t ask me.

There were hoops to jump through with Boost that didn’t happen with AT&T. There was also a non-negotiable $35 in-store charge to activate a new phone. Same type of pay as you go plan, same reason for switching (the death of 3G networks) but totally different customer experiences. Who would have guessed that AT&T would be an example of good customer service? Boo Boost Mobile!

My Summer Vacation by Carl

I got up. I went to the corner and hung out with my friends. I went home and went to bed. I got up… …back to school in grade eight. The End

I’ll still be writing a PAD but mostly not in the above format. This morning I wrote to fill in some of the gaps in the November Update. That said I did find somebody at a on-line banking call centre this morning who could explain why what I did went south. He made some changes so the situation will be livable when future maturations occur. Not perfect but 270 days from now it will be. A functional temporary repair.

Oscar Brooks delivered a message from the last verses of Jonah. A gourd grew and gave shade. Jonah was happy. A worm ate the vine and the shade went away. Jonah was so upset he wanted to die. God admonishes him. Jonah is not deterred from his mood. He handled a big fish but a tiny worm did him in. Do we let small things bother us and overreact? What does that do to our testimony? Oscar said it better. Look for him on Way of the Cross’s Facebook page.

Food bank Friday. Juanita helped with that in the heat and dust. I hid in the dark and worked on bikes for Mexico. Twenty-two done this week plus some trikes and scooters. That count is subject to a check on Monday for any where the tires went flat.

After a stop for tall drink refills at a Stripes and another to buy an item from a store that will be closed tomorrow we headed home for a quiet evening.

For a change of pace here are three Buddy Tales that were written in September but got overlooked for posting to the website until now. These and others can be found together on the Tales of Buddy page.

People sometimes romanticize their passing.

Buddy was working as a steward in the dining room on a ferry from the lower mainland to Vancouver Island. One blustery evening his boss asks him to go with this woman.

She was carrying her brother’s ashes. His request was that his ashes be scattered in Active Pass.

The ferry entered Active Pass.

She threw the ashes.

The wind caught them and slapped them against the ship’s funnel. The rain washed them off the funnel. They oozed across the deck into the scuppers and overboard. Buddy and the women went inside.

Probably not quite like her brother had pictured the event.

Early Saturday, Juanita made a run to the laundromat while I did a bit of keyboarding and made a start on setting up an envelope system to keep track of purchases for Canadian Customs. Around ten we wandered to Sam’s Club for a walkaround just to see what is there. Sam’s hasn’t restored free samples of food items. Then we headed up valley. We had planned on going to the Rio Grande Valley Outlet Mall to walk around and do a bit of shopping but the wind was massively blowing and we agreed an outdoor mall would not be a pleasant experience in such a wind.

We had been talking about where to go for lunch when we took an off-ramp to a avoid a stalled freeway. We travelled on the service road for several miles. At one intersection we were next to a semi in a right-turn-only lane while were in the go-straight lane. We planned on turning into the gas station on the other corner for some Mexican gas station food. The semi went straight but we out accelerated it and turned in front of it to go into the gas station. It had air brakes and a driver with good reaction speed. 

Fortunately.

The food was excellent.

Costco in McAllen was almost pre-Covid. There were mask wearing employees and a few mask wearing customers, but the free samples were flowing, and the food court tables were close together and occupied.

I got a fair bit of writing done on Saturday night and Sunday morning but the wi-fi was acting up so I made a quick, early trip to McDonald’s to have a coffee and use their high-speed connection to post a few things. Later, Byron found a bad splice on the cable to the router and it works fine, now.

Oscar preached Sunday about high places and using God’s standards and not excusing our actions because others appear to be getting away with something. After church we did some visiting, including with people we hadn’t seen for twelve years. We went to Chapitas our go-to Tex-Mex restaurant in years past. Sad when good things not only don’t stay the same but get significantly poorer. The only good result was I got to eat extra. Juanita’s chicken was so dried out she gave up on it. It was a little like those desiccated chunks of chicken in dry soup mix. We decided to make a new tradition to go to the Valero on the corner for future Sunday lunch. Better food for a third the price. Speaking of traditions, we used to meet people for Christmas dinner at Furr’s Buffet. Furr’s is no more. Looks like Golden Corral in McAllen will be the replacement.

After changing back home we drove out to South Padre Island. We drove to the end of the dunes nibbled highway stared across the dunes at the surf for a while then headed home in the dusk. Almost like a vacation.

Monday in chapel Oscar spoke about examples of times God had placed people in a “deep sleep”. First with Adam who had his rib removed to make woman. Second with the soldiers in a deep sleep while David snuck in to steal Saul’s spear.

I helped Byron tidy the shop area at the warehouse. Juanita helped clean the warehouse. I also went through the 22 bicycles that were “ready to go” last week. Sixteen were still good. Three had obvious flat tires. Three were a little softer than I remember leaving them. I set aside the three bad ones for new tubes later in the week and pumped up the three questionable ones and left overnight to check again tomorrow.

Tuesday, Oscar­­­’s message was about David referring to Saul as a dead dog and himself as a flea. He wanted no harm to come to Saul. What use is a dead dog to a flea? It needs a live dog to survive. Similarly if we are part of something we should have no part in badmouthing it. If we are part of a country or an organization, it is in our own interest that it do well. Bless, don’t curse, the place God has you.

Juanita helped get things ready for tomorrow’s drive-thru food bank. I checked the three bikes. They were still good putting the total to 19, so far, ready for the truck for Mexico. Byron and I went out to the training center. He worked on the riding lawn mower, installing the parts that arrived yesterday. I worked on the lighting for the cross garden area. I found some problems and needed some supplies. Byron was done with the lawn mower so we went to Home Depot and the day was done.

Wednesday, Oscar read examples in scripture of the wicked running when nobody was chasing them. When you realize you cannot outrun God you will seek His mercy and make it right with Him.

Juanita helped in the drive thru food bank. I went out to the training center and finished fixing the lighting on the walk of the cross area except for a couple of light bulbs. There is a small water leak at one of the RV sites. I couldn’t close the isolation valve completely. I considered shutting off water to the entire site but moved back onto my list and went back to the warehouse to work on bicycles. Added two to the stack making it 21. After worktime Juanita and I changed and went to the RGV Outlet Mall about half an hour up the Valley from here. It was busy, but not Christmas busy like in past years. Covid? Bidinflation? Both? Most of the shoppers were from Mexico. The clerks switch between Spanish and English seamlessly.

Today, in response to the Omicron variant, the Canadian government placed the whole world on travel advisory for non-essential travel. If we had not bought the Covid rider for our travel insurance we would have had ten days to return to Canada before our travel insurance was cancelled. Fortunately we did and are staying here facing a two day cold snap from a cold front going through on the weekend. We are not facing a long treacherous drive back home across the great plains in winter.

Thursday, Oscar based his message on God knows your name. Parrots have a unique name for each of their babies. The babies recognize it. If parrots can do that, is it any surprise that God knows your name. He knows everything about you. Seek the comfort in that.

It was a quietish day. Juanita worked at the warehouse and I drove out to the training center to deal with the pipe leak at an RV site. I dug and made up a parts list and came back at lunch time. We picked up lunch to eat in the boardroom and then I shopped for parts and we went back to the training center. After prepping the replacement piping I dug for a different isolation valve which mostly worked. Leaving enough other taps open dropped the flow enough to remove the old pipe and replace it. Success!

After coffee with a missionary to Mexico that lives on the property a couple of days a month we headed home, changed and went to Logan’s Roadhouse for supper. It was fine. If we hadn’t been patrons in the past, we might have said it was great. However, like everyone else they have chiselled at the edges of the value proposition. Blame Covid or Bidinflation or whatever. It’s still disappointing. Those pesky expectations.

Saturday was relaxing. We drove out to Boca Chica. A lot has happened there since our last trip to look at Space-X rockets, three years ago. Then there was nothing stopping us from driving onto the property. Now there are fences and security gates with guards. We drove out to the beach. Pictures will get posted shortly. In the meantime here’s a video of a couple who flew from Brazil to Miami and then flew to South Texas to rent a van and stay for three days across from Stargate to show their enthusiasm for Elon Musk.

Over the weekend I finally finished going back as far as May in the monthly updates and adding pictures and cleaning up the text a little or a lot, depending. There’s still book links to add, but not to the detriment of actually writing a bit each day. It may not all get posted here, but it might get a mention.

A cold front with torrential rain went through here Saturday night. Not cold by Canadian prairie standards but a change in an unpleasant direction. Couldn’t help but wonder how the Brazilian couple are doing in their uninsulated rented van. Might take the edge of their experience. Hope not too much. It must have been important to at least one of them to make the trip. Of course, that’s another a problem with dreams. Once you meet them, what’s next? Let’s just set that existential question to one side, for now.

We dressed up in our early spring weighted clothes and met up at church with others in their winter finery. Near the beginning of service, the weekly update video for WOTC was played. Juanita and I rated a cameo this week (see below). The main event of the service was a charming, well-done Christmas play. Kids sure grow a lot in three years.

Oscar’s Monday message was based on Luke 7:36-48

Jesus is invited to Simon’s house but is not accorded the normal respect toward a guest. Meanwhile a woman who everybody looks down on arrives with an alabaster box of perfume. Jesus’s feet were not washed and dried by the host, so she improvises and washes then with her tears and dries them with her hair before anointing them with perfume. We are encouraged to do our part even if nobody else does theirs.

Most of the people went to the Gateway base camp in Mexico to prepare things for next week’s Big Feed event. Our travel insurance restricts us from going into Tamaulipas state, so we stayed on this side of the border. We painted some games for the midway at the Big Feed and sorted snacks for next week’s teams. I worked on a couple of bikes while Juanita did some clean-up. Quiet day.

Oscar Brooks read from Luke 7:37-38 and Psalms 56:8 in chapel on Tuesday. The first about the woman of bad reputation who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears. In the second the Psalmist talks about God putting the Psalmist’s tears in a bottle and registering his sorrows in His book.

Man struggles with many things. The Psalmist calls on God to put my tears in your bottle. The tears don’t change anything unless they go into God’s bottle. He understood that some things are not answered right away. Remember these tears, keep them in your book,

Three times it is mentioned that that woman is a sinner. Her tears were the tears of repentance. Not just the tears of her eyes but the tears of her soul. The tears of bitterness go into the bottle - Peter betrayed Christ and wept. The tears of prayer. Hannah “give me a child”. All those tears go into the bottle

Other types that don’t go into the bottle. If bottle belongs to you and only contains your own tears. Then they will choke you. Keep you awake at night. Disturb your day.

When come to God with brokenness God sees. Maybe not answer right away but He answers.

There are many tears today. Those of people who have lost someone. Those who struggle to feed their children. Others.

Isaiah 53 – Jesus called “a man of sorrow”. The Father will see His sorrow and be pleased to help him. Sorrow will be turned into Joy when those tears are found in the bottle.

Again, most people went to the Gateway base camp just over the border in Mexico to prepare for next week’s Big Feed in Matamoros. Their task for the day was to prepare 1,500 gift bags to hand out to the kids. There were some tents to get ready to set up on the Big Feed grounds.

We puttered around the warehouse and the training center fixing a propane leak and a couple of bikes and doing some clean-up in a forgotten corner of the warehouse. Poco a poco. After the tasks were done for the day, we went home and changed and tried out some walking paths we had heard of. Juanita is missing her daily walk routine on our home paths. Time to build a new routine.

Oscar’s Wednesday chapel talk was based on 1 Timothy 5:9-10 (The standards for a widow to be supported) and Matthew 27:57-60 (Joseph of Arimathea asks for Jesus’ body and places it in a tomb)

When Oscar was growing up, he thought these standards to be high. He didn’t hear standards like that coming from the pulpit. Even lower today. The widow went through adversity but still had high standards of behaviour. Joseph had gone through adversity. He was a secret worshiper. He had kept his mouth shout because he didn’t want to upset the Jews.

God puts in front of people what He desires them to do.

Joseph had a friend who is also a secret disciple. Nicodemus went to meet Jesus at night.

There may be a point when God allows you to be a secret disciple but there will come a day when God calls you to stand up. People have rationalizations to justify staying secret.

Something emboldened Joseph to approach Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. Oscar thinks that indicates Joseph’s decision to identify with Jesus. He had to know when he put Jesus in that tomb that forever everyone would associate Joseph with Jesus. That tomb would become a witness of Joseph’s decision and a symbol of Christ’s victory over death. “Why do you look among the dead for the One who lives?”

Why do so many remain silent in this country. If you are so quiet in a country where it is supposedly safe, how will you behave in a Communist country? A Muslim one? You cannot stay quiet.

Wednesday was the last drive through food bank of the year. Juanita helped with that. I handed out some curved illusion tracts and worked on bicycles for Mexico. Afterward we changed our clothes back home and went for a walk. I enjoyed feeding the ducks until we came to the sign to not feed the ducks. Wonder what we do with the box of bulk crackers that are not suitable to hand out in the food line?

Thursday’s passage from Oscar was Genesis 21:14-17

Hagar, a young mother, was thrown out with her infant child, Ishmael, with a little water and a little bread. She was a servant with no choice in what happened to her. She wandered off and ran out of water.

She knew they were both going to die but the boy first. She lays the boy under a shrub and walks far enough away to not hear him cry. And she cries. Wants to help but doesn’t have anything she can do so she shuts herself off.

Christmas is a good time to care for the broken and hurting. When the baby Christ came, he came for the hurting. Hagar is told that God has heard the cry of the baby. God does not shut off the crying. He hears the babies, the widows, the hurting.

God had not run out of options. Hagar cannot stand there watching the death of her child so she removes herself a distance. God heard the cry of the boy and said He came to her because she could help him.

You cannot shut yourself off from the cries of those God has called you to help. Christ was sent as the answer “Joy to the World”.

Juanita helped with clean-up today and I worked on some bikes and another repair. In the evening we met with missionary friends from Oklahoma. We hadn’t seen them since our last time in Nicaragua. They used to work with Way of the Cross but have been on their own for several years now. They are in the Valley for the next week hosting an outreach event up the Valley.

With no food bank drive through for Friday, chapel was scheduled a little later than the usual Friday time. Oscar Brooks based his daily talk on Amos 6:3-6. The Lord is talking against his own people here. God mocks the inventors of musical instruments claiming themselves to be “like David”. A picture of lazy people living in luxury drinking wine by the bowl but not grieved over people of their own time going through hardship.

David dedicated his instruments to God. David was broken. God anointed David.

No aspect of these people was a relationship with God.

We are celebrating Christmas. People can all celebrate Christmas but does not mean all are in the presence of God. Look at how the church was built by holy Spirit in Acts. Now churches do surveys to find what not to do to offend potential attendees. An atheist can brag about being in a church for four years and still comfortable.

There is a process. Jesus said, I am the life, I am the way. The process. God grabs a person.

Why I preach this at Christmas? There are so many broken and needy. I pray you will cry out. Now, Joy to the world, just don’t forget the people who need help.

After some clean-up and some repairs everyone left early and met for a meal together, before heading home for Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas!

God sent His Son. We celebrate.

A low-key celebration, in our case. We opened a few gifts, chatted by phone to family in Canada, drove up the valley for a buffet lunch then drove further up the valley to Roma and looked across the river to Mexico. When we got home it was almost dark and we visited with our neighbours a bit over coffee.

Happy Boxing Day

We went to church and spent the rest of the day making yesterday look hectic by comparison. No Boxing Day here. No Boxing Day sales here, although there were a few Christmas items on a clearance shelf by the door going into the HEB supermarket.

This is the week of Big Feed in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Participants started arriving Sunday. Most had arrived by Monday morning. Monday, some of the arrivals had a day of shopping in Mexico and most went across to the Gateway camp to put together kids’ gift bags for Wednesday. All attended chapel at the WOTC training center where Oscar preached starting with Genesis 37:24

Joseph’s brothers threw him in a pit with intentions to kill him, but after some discussion sold him to a passing caravan of slavers and traders. Among the goods they carried was balm of Gilead.

Jeremiah 8:20 – 22 asks “Is there no balm in Gilead?” The balm was used medically, also used to ‘em-balm’, to preserve. People came from all over to obtain this expensive balm obtained by scoring trees.

“Is there no balm?”, was not talking about medical but about the broken, sad, hurting people.
If I have something in my hand that will heal your hurts why are you still hurting. He is better than a doctor because he can reach deep into your spirit and touch where no doctor can reach.

Joseph in pit. We’ll show mercy will sell instead of murder. His life is over as he knows it. This caravan is carrying the balm of Gilead. Sleeping right by next to it. God is saying. I am right here with you. Joseph may be broken but is destined to high position in Egypt. Hundreds of years later when the Jews leave Egypt they take Joseph’s body surrounded by balm.

Though you have gone through these things God has plans for you. The balm of Gilead is all around us if we pay attention.

Juanita helped in the kitchen Monday and Tuesday. I puttered at some minor plumbing and stayed out of the way.

Oscar’s Tuesday message began with his experience as a missionary and with taking mission teams through experiences that were uncomfortable for them. Experiences that Bible school had not prepared him for. He grew up with outhouses but many of the teams he had led had no experience with them and a general reluctance to use them. And then there were those times where there was not even an outhouse. He mentioned one team member with a fear of bugs in a place where there was nothing but bugs. Also his own experience preaching at night in Africa where they kindly placed a single light bulb above him so he could read his Bible, but that meant he was preaching in a fog of insects, many of which he swallowed. About being cramped sitting with no leg room in a canoe on a long boat ride. He stuck his legs out of the canoe. People started yelling at him about the crocodiles. He pulled his legs back into the canoe.

Listen to the missionary, is his advice to the teams.

He preached about a pair of words that appear only three times in the Bible.

Jeremiah 4:23-28 is like Genesis only going backwards. Without form… Void…

Isaiah 34:10- Genesis 1:1

Tohu (Hebrew) – formless, Bohu (Hebrew) – empty. From the very beginning. Formless & void.

God says there is a plumb line in My mind and you can measure everything by that

Founders said “In God we trust” . God blessed this nation. Sometime in 1970’s somebody decided to remove God and the wall has become crooked. A nation that calls right wrong and wrong right. Pence said he was never alone with woman not his wife. Current society went nuts over that statement.

Bohu - empty. Whatever job you have to do it has to have a purpose. Cannot be empty. There are times you know you are empty. God will fill in that emptiness and challenge your life and give you purpose.

Some can fast to seek God’s will. Other’s may say this is what I want and I/m going to fast until God agrees. Fast until you give me what I want = hunger strike.

We each need to ask “How do I measure up?” to God’s standards.

The teams headed to Mexico to prepare for the Big Feed. The next day one team went early to the Big Feed grounds in a field near the Matamoros dump to start the chicken cooking and everybody else followed at around 8 a.m. Juanita was up at 4 and headed to the training center to feed the early group and then the later teams. When Juanita was done with breakfast, we went to the lumber yard and bought the material to replace the ceiling in the hallway in our apartment. We’ll only be in it a couple of months but subsequent residents will benefit.

The teams came back tired, excited and happy about how well the day had gone. Around 5,000 were fed roast chicken, hot dogs, and popcorn. Many attendees won prizes in the free carnival booths and raffles of bicycles. All heard the Gospel.

Staff are off Thursday through Monday. Thursday, we took it easy, mostly. Ceiling panels come by the box. It took half a box to do our ceiling yesterday. The other half got used on Thursday to replace some water damaged tiles in another unit. Then we went for lunch with some friends visiting from Oklahoma. After lunch we went to the beach and walked around on the edge of the surf. Friday is even more relaxed with not much more than a trip to Costco planned before going to the annual chili cook-off and New Year’s Eve fireworks.

That wraps up December. See all y’all next year! Happy New Year!

Here is Benjamin Butler’s account of the week of the Big Feed from the Way of the Cross weekly e-mail:

Greetings,

All of Way of the Cross-would like to wish you a very Happy New Year and a prosperous one. 

I would like to share with you the Big Feed in Mexico was one of the best ever. The crowd was huge probably somewhere between 6 to 7000 people and the salvation were well in excess of 2500 praise the Lord! 

There was so many great things happening it’s hard to share all the great blessings. We had more Americans come than what we had planned on, which was great. Our transportation suffered a little because we had more people. 

Many of the teams arrived the night of the 26^th and the 27^th. On the day of the 27^th,we went to Mexico and loaded the trailers with the tents and bags we had packed that would go on the booths and started putting up tents. The wind was very high and I was concerned about tent staying up but God had everything under control.

We had lots of manpower the 28^th we spent part of that day putting together children’s gift bags and also loading and loading and unloading trailers at the Big Feed field. 

We had a tremendous amount of help on the American side as well as the Mexico side almost more people than we knew what to do with. We were very concerned whether we would have enough bicycles for the event but bicycles came in from every direction Praise God. We were also concerned about the literature that we were going to give to the new believers. A brother from Waco brought boxes and boxes of new Testaments and whole Bibles what a great blessing.

On the day of the Big Feed Theresa and her team went over early in the morning 5:30 AM and started the fires for the chicken and beans. They also registered the pastors and set up flagpoles on the church booths.  The rest of us arrived about 9:00 AM. There was no lack of things to do. We started out the morning with the dedication. The churches lined up on both sides of the tent with their flags. In between the lines, we had a man dressed to look like Jesus riding a white horse. When the white horse went between the rows of flags all the flags bowed down. It was a picture of us giving God all the honor and all the glory and asking his direction before the event started. We had an unbelievable amount of churches, set up their booth at this event. We started distributing food candy, toys and many other things to each booth it was unbelievable. I really guess that there was some place over 105 churches as well as many ministries involved in this event.

I think I was most surprised by all of the officials that came. We had two senators and one congressional representative as well as representatives from the mayor’s office from a number of different cities and the director from religious affairs for the city of Matamoros as well as the state of Tamaulipas. 

I praise the Lord because our staff did a great job. I was tied up with many politicians, which was very good that God gave us favor with man. The best part was Solomon gathered the political officials together and shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe that both senators accepted the Lord as many of the other representatives also accepted the Lord that morning. 

I must admit I needed a flexi cookie that morning. It just seemed like Satan was attacking me in many different directions especially with my time. I felt like I needed to be with everything going on the grounds but yet I was being tied up with many politicians. Which was not a bad but the bottom line was I sure felt out of control. Sometimes I forget who is really in control. My Lord and Savior knows how to handle things. I’m sure the Lord had a smile on his face even though I was very frustrated for a while.

We also had American doctors and some nurses doing medical. Mostly blood pressure, diabetes checks and other small procedures. They were extremely busy.

Arnold and Joe brought the kids up from the orphanage in San Fernando. They had a wonderful time there. They handled the bouncers and they stayed busy nonstop. John Hayes also bought his family up to help from the Aldama base camp. 

Many great things were happening.

All the staff from Shiloh will be off vacation and ready to go to work this coming Monday. A lot of their work will be getting ready for the missionary training school, as well as painting the inside of the houses at the Promised Land and lots of evangelism. 

The new bathroom facility on the Shiloh camp is coming along very quickly. They say they will be ready by the time the school starts. The staff is so eager to get back to work. Theresa will be flying back to Nicaragua on the seventh, please pray for an easy trip.

The Promised Land things are moving very fast there. They are still working on the driveway and have started to put brick down on the gazebo, everything is looking good.

We have a group coming in from Iowa to work on our facilities January 23. They will put a new roof on the 14-plex facility. A team will be repairing bicycles and many other things that need to be done around the facilities. This is always a blessing to us as our time is so limited.

I would ask you to pray for me I’ve been very sick since right after the Big Feed. I have spent most of my time in bed. It seems like there is always something trying to slow us down. I would ask you to continue to pray for Bethany, Sue Rowe, my daughter Rebecca.

I pray the Lord’s richest blessings upon you this New Year that your health would be good and your family would be safe.

God bless you,

Love Brother Ben

P.S. I hope you enjoy this week’s video

Not many books this month. Mostly been too busy to read. I know, but sometimes that is the way it is. Also partly due to being bogged down on one book, Four Thousand Weeks. That was followed by a couple of forgettable, but enjoyable, mysteries.

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Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. This was a slow read for me as I stopped to think about what the author was saying. It is not particularly prescriptive in terms of “this is what you should do” but it gives lots of chance to reflect on the author’s truths and how then we should live. The basic premise is that on average we get 4,000 weeks in our lives if we are lucky. We are not going to get it all done no matter how insanely efficient we become. Most things don’t matter. We might as well relax, figure out what is important and work at that.

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The Mechanic by Tom Fowler. The first of a thriller series with John Tyler as the hero. Moves quickly. Enjoyable read.

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Case of the One-Eyed Tiger by Tim Poole. A pleasant mystery. The first of the promised Corgi Case Files series. Has changed our opinions of corgis as a potential dog breed to own.