Men’s fishing trip, Maggie’s move, Brittany’s move, Grandma’s move

The men from our church have made the trip to Lake Texoma for a fishing trip for thirty years and though Mama and I have been attending this church for over ten years, this was the first time I had taken the opportunity to tag along. Several of us left the church in Decatur about 8 am Thursday morning and drove the hour plus to the Walnut Creek Campgrounds. Three trucks were in the small caravan leaving the church, two were towing boats and one was towing a trailer with a side-by-side loaded on it. Both the boats and the side-by-side got many hours of use over the time spent at the lake. We met up at the lake with those who had already arrived and set up the camp.

Fishing was terrible. Nothing seemed to be biting because recent rains had muddied and cooled the water and the areas where we had access to fish from the shoreline or from the docks were busy with patron trying out a variety of lures and bait. The many young fishermen on the docks did not give the fish a moment’s peace as they shouted and played while pretending to fish. I spent Thursday out on the lake in a boat that had seen many years of use. It had a manufacture date of 1981. We set out juglines and fished from the boat in a variety of areas known to the pilot to be “good holes”. I caught several keepers on those excursions while the baited lines we set out produced no fish and my two companions in the boat caught no fish at all.

Friday, I did not get invited to go out on the boat, so I fished where I had access to the lake and in the six hours of trying different lures across different access points, caught nothing except very small fish. No keepers. Those in the boats had no luck either, but several of the baited lines produces some nice catfish. All in all, we had more than enough fish to feed the thirty people at the camp for our meal Friday evening. Although, most of the fish we cooked for that meal had been brought to the camp by those who had enough experience with the lake to prepare in advance to assure we had ample fare for that particular meal.

It was a great experience. Everyone had a good time even though we did not catch much. Everyone was safe. All the very used boats ran well enough to get us out on the lake and back safely. In some cases, that was just this side of miraculous. With our Pastor’s boat (manufactured in 1878), the bilge pump runs almost continuously while the outboard motor may or may not run well. But we made it – and we had fun joking with each other, spending a relaxed time together, eating very well, encouraging the young men in our church, and making memories.

Several of our children are moving or in the process of moving right now. Aaron, Maggie, and the kids have made the trek from Upper Michigan to the shores of Virginia and are currently looking for housing in the area they relocated to - a challenge in this time of economic turmoil. Andrew, Brittany, and the girls are moving in-state to get closer to the church in order to save Brittany and the girls time in transit to her job at the church. Again, securing a house is a huge challenge but in Brittany’s case, they may have successfully addressed that issue. We are praying so. Everything for them is an issue of timing the move. In Maggie’s case, nothing is settled, and they are finding it necessary to look further away from Aaron’s duty station to secure a rental property. The current market is a landlords dream because rental properties are highly sought after.

Right now, large real estate companies are buying up all the houses they can because of the demand for rental homes. This does two things. First, it makes the competition for homes very difficult for individuals or families to compete against the buying power of large conglomerates for the available homes. Secondly, because of the competition engendered, it raises the price on homes available on the market far above the budget of personal buyers. Both Brittany and Maggie are finding the competition fierce even to find a home to rent. Please pray for them as they continue to search for the right home.

Meanwhile, Grandpa called Mama last night to ask her to begin looking for places near us for them to park their little travel trailer – their current residence. They are making the final decisions about relocating back to Texas. That is something Mama and I have been praying for. We need them closer so that Mama is available to help provide the care they are starting to admit they need, and Mama is the right person to provide that care. Grandma and Grandpa were supposed to travel over to see us this month, but those plans were abandoned when Norman scheduled a nine-hundred-mile side trip to West Virginia followed by a thousand-mile trip to Texas, with a twelve-hundred-mile return trip to their campground in Florida. Grandpa wisely bowed out and now they are strongly considering moving back closer to Mama.

Grandpa admitted last night that he is getting to the point where he cannot care for Grandma on his own. Considering the remoteness of their current setting, he is concerned that he would not be able even to get her into a vehicle to get her to a hospital if needed. They need our prayers as they consider and plan this move.

It won’t be easy, but the outcomes will be well worth the effort.