To Texas and Back Again

About 24 hours at a rapid pace southerly, just short of 1500 miles, lies the ghost town of McAllen, TX. This month, I donned my boots and hat and set of on horseback for the dried-up ranches of Texas... well, something like that anyway.

Now, for the real story:

God has been answering many prayers for Taylor Christian School, a WGM school in southern Texas, located in the city of McAllen, less than 10 miles from the Mexico border. As a part of these answers to prayer, they're switching to computerized curriculum, that will allow for better quality education and more individualized learning. This is a big change, as they have not been heavily computerized in the past. To accomplish this change, they needed their building outfitted with the electical capacity to power the needed computers, and an adequate wireless network over which they could connect to the internet.

A couple from my church and myself went down as a work team the beginning of July to accomplish three tasks, one for each person: I was setting up the network, one was doing the electical work, and one was setting up their finances on computer. We drove the almost 24 hours in each direction (about 12 hours of that in Texas alone), for a total driving time of almost 48 hours (two days of my life consumed by driving...). We were there for 6 1/2 days, and through the Lord's strength and the help of some of the works at the school, we were able to accomplish all that we set out to do and more. I did a lot of wiring and rewiring (not rewiring my own work, but rewiring the old that they did have), configuring and reconfiguring, etc.

The weather was different. It was over 100 degrees every day. The day we go there, it was 107. In the evenings it usually cooled down though, to upper 80's or lower 90's. :) It was pretty dry. The corn we saw was all dried up. We saw one pond that was entirely dry. There were a lot of cactus, but they weren't the cool big ones that you see in western movies. They were just the short ones that will jab through your clothes if you touch them (though some of them did grow taller). It did rain some, but not much. It started sprinkling one day, and everybody was exclaiming "it's raining!"

One highlight of the trip was that another team was coming from Michigan and got in a few days after we got there. It just so happens, that this team was from the church where I did my internship two years ago, so it was fun getting to see all of them again. They came to do some general work on the school and do a VBS.

Along with all the work, there was also time for fun. I went motorcycling with the missionary, and we drove out to the Rio Grande (Big River), which was about the size of the north fork of the Kentucky River (in other words, you could very easily cast a fishing line to the other side, or swim across while holding your breath - that is, if you can swim and hold your breath). I also went dirt bicycling (here it's called mountain biking, but they call it dirt biking, because you would have to have mountains to go mountain biking, and they mostly just have dirt). I went with the missionary and we rode about 7 miles: in and out, up and down, all around, in between trees, dodging cactus. One spot was walled by cactus on both sides, so falling off or making a wrong turn would not be advised, if you get my point :) I also watched a live soccer game, played by mostly South Americans (go figure) - they were good. Finally, we took a trip out to the beach at South Padre Island. I refrained from swimming, which would necessitate the ability to do so. Rather, I took a walk out to the end of the peer, a good-sized rock dividing wall more than 1/2 mile into the Gulf of Mexico. It was pretty neat. The waves were hitting and splashing up. I saw some dolphins and turtles swimming out in the water. I also saw a crab just about get swept out into the deep.

I think that about wraps up the trip. Overall, it was a good experience and I enjoyed it greatly. I thank the Lord for the opportunity and all that He helped us accomplish, as well as for everything that He is doing at Taylor Christian School.

Want to know what others say about Texas?

"I feel safer on a racetrack than I do on Houston's freeways." - A. J. Foyt
"I thought I knew Texas pretty well, but I had no notion of its size until I campaigned it." - Ann Richards


Texas Sayings (taken from various places)

"It's so hot the hens are layin' hard-boiled eggs." "It's hotter than a stolen tamale." "It's so hot, the chickens have to use potholders to pull the worms out of the ground." "It's as hot as a billy goat in a pepper patch." (Hot)
"You can't tell how deep a well is by measuring the length of the pump handle." (Looks can be deceiving.)
"I've seen cows hurt worse than this and get well." (A reference to a poorly-cooked or rare steak.) (That's the truth...)
"Everytime I stand up, my mind sits down." (Unable to think clearly.)
"He's got more guts than you could hang on a fence." (Brave)
"So poor I had a tumbleweed as a pet." (Poor)

"I won't say it's far, but I had to grease the wagon twice before I hit the main road."
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
"Don't worry about bitin' off more than you can chew. Your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger'n you think."
"The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket."
"Throwin' your rope before you make a loop ain't gonna catch the cow."

Two more:
"How's momma and them?" (A greeting meaning, "How are you?")
"We've howdyed but we ain't shook." (We haven't been formally introduced.)