First Week in Albany

It’s hard to believe that we arrived in Albany, Texas a week ago today.  My last post was from Monroe, Louisiana where we were enjoying the hospitality of the Baer family.  A cold front had blown through and so we left on a frosty Friday morning heading for Texas.  We had a smooth trip and arrived in Tyler, Texas a little early, so we stopped at Wendy’s for lunch before driving over to the East Texas Storage Center, which had generously donated space for storing our shipment from Africa.  There we were met by the some men from the West Erwin church who did a great job of packing our belongings into the 26 foot Penske truck that we had driven from Birmingham.  We were a little short on space, however, so we had to rent a small U-Haul trailor to pull behind the truck for the rest of the journey to Albany.  In Tyler, Dale and Carolyn Blackstone welcomed us strangers into their home and treated us to dinner at The Shed, where I ate the best catfish ever, in the charming town of Edom (find it).

Andy Wilson, our teammate from Benin and current assistant principle in the Albany schools, hitched a ride to a little town about 40 miles from Tyler, and I picked him up a little after midnight.  He helped us our greatly by driving the truck (with trailer in tow) to Albany so I could relieve Maureen who had driven our car from Birmingham.  Stopping just for lunch at Chili’s in Weatherford, we made it to Albany around 2:30 p.m. last Saturday.  Within a few minutes we had a full work crew from the church who unloaded out stuff into a storage building owned by Steve Hudmon, our youth minister.

It has been a great first week.  We have been staying with Ken and Marilyn Thompson.  Ken is an elder in the church here.  We closed on our house yesterday and plan to start painting today. (Thanks to Bea Ruff of Clear Fork Realty and Matthew Breston of Iron Harbor Mortgage for all your help!)  We are going to have the hardwood floors buffed and put a coat of polyurethane on them before moving in, hopefully next Saturday..  This is much less expensive than refinishing and should have the floors looking nice.  There will be quite a few projects to undertake as we go along, but it seems easier to do these before we move in. (Thanks for the advice, Mom!)

Since we haven’t really started unpacking yet, we have had a little time to explore the town and meet people.  Jeremy started school here on Monday and he really loves it.  His teacher is Mrs. Fields, who happens to be the wife of the local school superintendent.  The kids in the school have been very welcoming and inclusive.  We’ve enjoyed walking down Main Street.  We’ve explored “The Daily Grind,” the local coffee shop, the pharmacy, complete with soda fountain, and the Heritage Gallery, operated by local artist Cheryl Smith, visited with church members (and north Alabama natives) Jess and Helen Philips in their shop and toured The Old Jail Art Center, a truly remarkable facility for a small, west Texas town.  I attended a meeting of the local ministerial alliance and was able to meet ministers of several different local churches and become aware of several opportunities for ministry.  Two local families lost their homes in fires just last weekend and the community is responding to help.

Most of all, the people here have just been so welcoming.  Everyone seems genuinely excited to have us as a part of the community – even the DPS officer who let me off with a warning last night.  (I learned that the speed limit on two-lane country highways drops from 70 to 65 mph after dark—and they are serious about it!)