We arrived on Thursday, October 29th. The camp is located just a few miles outside of Brownwood and has access to Lake Brownwood, a popular fishing and boating area. As we walked around the camp to get oriented, we noticed several sculpture carvings around the property. We learned that the Director, Rhonda Roberts, was an artist – and so were other staff serving there. It was going to be fun adventure here!
We served with Tim & Leslie Wacker, their third project. We also met up with Rob and Shana Carman – SOWER alumni who were now working as staff at the camp. They shared our three weeks with us in work, devotions, meals, and church – they were great!
You want us to do WHAT?
It was Monday morning, our first day at our new project, when we all meet to learn what our assignments will be. Rhonda explained that they are going to host their 2nd Annual Fall Festival outreach for the local community “this weekend”. They wanted us to help set things up for that. “So, we’d like you to help put together a corn maze using corrugated plastic panels and make some candy corn out of some giant foam blocks for one of our photo ops”. Our SOWER group of four were incredibly quiet as we looked at each other and then back to the Director.
Rhonda carved out some triangles from some giant used boat dock foam blocks – the girls painted them to look like candy corn. So creative – they turned out great! This is what you get when the camp staff are creative visionaries and artists!
Heart of Texas Camp takes “repurposing” to the extreme. We used the donated campaign signs of someone running for an election several years ago, along with T-posts and zip ties to create a “corn-maze-without-the-corn” in the center of an open common area. The college baseball team came in to give some umph to the planting of the t-posts (so thankful!) and then the guys used black paint and zip ties to create an awesome maze for the Family Fall Festival!
It was a great week getting thing ready and then helping at the Fall Festival event! We had a good turnout, lots of smiles, laughter, and fun! We realized that this was the first camp project we had served since joining SOWERs that had clients on campus to serve and interact with! This was definitely a different SOWER assignment for us but we really enjoyed it!
One of the highlights at the Festival was the camp’s Zip line!
Sitting on the edge of the 35 foot high deck contemplating about what the guides said, “just lean out and scoot off the deck” was very stressful! As we looked down it was pretty much terrifying! We can still feel that sensation every time we think about it. The green rocks below us spelled out “Fear Is A Liar”. I can’t say this truth helped, but after dropping off the edge – it was SO FUN! (I have to admit this was Lorree’s idea and she was determined to overcome the fear – I’m so glad I went with her!)
Oh, we had a list of other jobs lined up as well!
There were lots of other projects that we accomplished working together with the camp staff. We seemed to have gotten a lot of projects done in spite of few hands. We’ve learned that God multiplies the efforts as we make ourselves available!
We really enjoyed getting to know the staff as we worked, played and met together every day – so many stories! In addition to Rhonda (Director) we had Tom & Mary Dunn (Maintenance), Rob (Chef) & Shana (Housekeeping/Gift Shop), Carl (Grounds) and Brandon (Assistant Director).
The camp was blessed with five buildings that were moved to this great spot on the camp property. They are making them into mini condo type units – very upscale design and furnished inside! They call this area The Village. We worked to get a couple of the empty ones level so the next crew can start to finish them next. What a job – I learned a lot about leveling buildings using hydraulic jacks with cement blocks and wooden beams.
Oh….and we also tried out jumping real hard in one corner to lower it just a tad! Well it didn’t make much of a difference – but we had a great time and laughed a lot, great memories!
We enjoyed our 3 weeks at Heart of Texas! Just like every other project the time goes by so fast. We were a small group but very active and kept each other challenged and encouraged with spiritual truths as we worked.
Yes that’s us playing music together! We were talking one day and learned that all of us played instruments! So we met at the tabernacle one Sunday afternoon and had a great jam session playing hymns. Tom played his harmonica (not pictured).
We also took time to play games and eat together. It was a great three weeks serving with the SOWERS ministry. We’ve commented several times that it would be a great place to come back and serve at again. We’ll have to see how the Lord directs our path, we know it will be an adventure!