Stauffers of Florida

We awoke this morning to a gradual cessation of rain.  News reports said we had received up to 9 inches of the liquid snow since yesterday morning and the third dripping evidence of the storm appeared inside FROG when we entered the galley.  Slowly, drip by drip, water was leaking off the handle of the TV antenna raising device in the ceiling by the refrigerator door.  It was time for some blessings to balance the burdens and as Mona took her shower, they did.

I received a call and an email from the UMC of North Merritt Island, Florida. Karen, their Administrator, and Pastor Joel, are happy to have us stay with them for a week or so.

Audubon Road, along the Banana River, the closest a non-VIP can get to the launch pads at Cape Canaveral, is only one mile east of their parking lot.  If she flies, we’ll see the ORION go up next Thursday… Mona still says, “From the bedroom window and in her bed”.

Our second blessing was from Coastal RV in Cocoa, Florida.  They can take a look next Wednesday at the leaks we still have and hopefully ID and plug them. And answer some questions about our battery usage and some play in the rear slide hydraulic system as well.

Today we took a one hour drive southeast to Osteen, Florida, where an acquaintance of my earliest SKH (Stauffer’s of Kissel Hill) days resides and manages his business.  Rick Stauffer, son of Earl and Linda Stauffer, and wife Lynn live in a nearly 6,000 square foot home and small farm where they raise breeder Brahma cows and invite kids and grand kids to ‘come on down’ to Florida.

Their daughter (I did it again!!!  So sorry I did not write down your name dear!!!)    and son-in-law Christian, and their two boys, Aiden and  Dominique were with them and we had a great lunch together.  We talked for hours about old times at SKH, and since.

Rick and his partner live near each other northeast of Orlando in what Rick calls ‘old Florida’; small paved or sand roads and miles of wooded or jungle land.  And farms.

Their company brokers produce from growers to food retailers down here, and grows on about 1500 acres up in Pennsylvania to sell directly to the retailer.

The Stauffers love animals.  Rick has pet birds, and he and Lynn claim their big bull mastiff, BO, and two pup herding dogs whose breed I cannot pronounce, as family.

  

The grandsons love pets too.  Black widow spiders, tree frogs and snakes seem to top their list this week.

We headed north to pick up some groceries and make dinner in the coach.  When we arrived home a note taped to the door invited us to join Pastor Ken and family at the next door parsonage for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow if we had no plans.

Of course we have plans.  We’ve been invited to join the McDowell’s for their family Thanksgiving at the River Grill, on the Halifax River near Daytona Beach.

So Ken invited us to stop over on Friday morning just to chat.  He has Pennsylvania connections, and his daughter wears a Penn State Sweat Shirt, Matt Kessler!

-Ken

Raindrops KEEP falling

Rain, Rain go away.

Well, we aren’t singing it very loudly while our kids are singing their own songs to the weatherman. 12 inches of snow or more forecast for Central Pennsylvania and much of the northeast tomorrow, and winds of 45 mph with gusts much higher today that are trying to blow Nederland, Colorado clear into Kansas. Oh, and snow.

But the torrential rain which began this morning here in Central Florida will not end till tomorrow morning so we sun-seekers had to find our own shine today.  And we did.

Just a couple of miles up Rte 17 is Barberville, home to the Barberville Florida Pioneer Village and Art Center.  But its even more famous as the site of the amazingly colorful, and therefore decidedly SUNNY, Barberville ROADSIDE. ‘Roadside what?’ you may ask?  Well, check this out!

And its right next to the Amtrak mainline where we saw the southbound Autotrain heading for Orlando.

 

For a start, HUGE yard art.  Continuing along, Spanish style Talavera pottery coming out someone’s something or other.  And on, and on, and on.

Including owner Carlos’ fantastically trained Parrot.  I think the birds name is ‘Parrot’.  He/she (I can’t tell) can do three tricks and next season maybe four.  Carlos and his pet make a really funny team.  I told him they need a stage. ‘Next year, also!’

On to Pierson, Florida, a couple more miles up 17 and into the local library.  The librarian told us this building was originally the town hall and jail.  They had to remove the manacles from the wall to put in the shelving. Do NOT accumulate library book fines in this town!

We swam north a bit farther to Crescent City and on the way passed a field of Thursday dinners fattening themselves up.  

Say thanks, everyone.

And after the library visit in CC we hit their ever popular lake side park (except on torrential rain days) to see the wildlife. 

Yes, another BIG WHITE BIRD.  

But always lovely to see, in our book!

Speaking of books we turned TOAD around and headed back to FROG at de Leon UMC to get in some solid reading time lulled partly into nap time by the gently and continuously falling rain.  But thank you JESUS! NO raindrops fell on our heads from anywhere inside the coach!

             ---------------------OOPS! Flash! Breaking News!: Drips are dripping slowly from one of the AC interior bolt-covers.  Ah, well. A bucket is working, and we'll tell the techs at the next shop we stop at whats up. It is SO hard to find a leak in any roof, or roof accessory, like our Air Conditioner.  Just ask any roof owner!

Tomorrow we drive south on Rte 17 to Sanford, where our friends the Fishers, who met us at Sonny's Saturday night,  live. We've learned that an old acquaintance of ours, Rick Stauffer, lives there also, with his family (though his kids are pretty much well grown by now) and they've invited us to their home in Osteen for lunch.

Oh, and there are more libraries down that way too! 

-Ken

Thanks Giving for 600

It’s the fourth Monday at De Leon United Methodist Church and that means its FOOD PANTRY Monday.  And its Thanksgiving Week, so the crowd of those seeking food supplements will be at its largest for the year.

  

Over 150 bags of donated, government, and ministry purchased groceries are filled and prepared. Freezers full of meats are ready.  Hundreds of dozens of fresh donated eggs are also stashed in the refrigerators.

At 12:00 pm Dotty, the leader of this ministry arrives.  Her team of 6-10 other leaders begins to arrive soon after The  line of clients started forming at 11:30 outside.  2:00 pm is the start of this 2-6pm project.

At about 1:00 pm we walk across the rear parking lot and  join Dottie’s crew.  The rest of over 20 unpaid servants arrives by 1:30. At 1:50 we round up for prayer.

And at 2 the doors open. By 3:30 there are only about 25 bags left in the grocery room, where I have been stationed with retired Pastor Dan. Servants from another room come in led by Donna to start filling more bags.

Mona has given away about 4/5ths of the eggs.

David has distributed half of the meat.  And there are a couple of hours to go. 

But now things slow down, and by dusk, at 5:30, there is only a trickle of cars coming  into the parking lot.  We were left go at about 4, and rested and watched from the coach in the church back lot.

Pastor Ken was not able to be present today, so when the young lady came in crying that God hated her and she was hopeless someone came to get Pastor Dan or I. Dan allowed me to attend.  Dotty opened the church office and she and the young lady and I counseled, prayed, cried, and sought how best to help this dear soul.

‘What do you need most of all?’ I asked. ‘Not what do you want most. What do you need.’

‘I want my two boys back but I need my birth certificate and social security number so I can get a job.  They have been stolen.’  How do you get them, I wondered.  ‘And next?’

‘A place to sleep tonight’. Where might that be?  De Leon is tiny, and Deland, not a big town, is 7 miles further south.  It was then that God once again proved He is in control.  In walked Jan.

Jan leads the local WISHING WELL Christian job and housing for desperate people ministry. She had walked in to see how the food pantry was going and heard a pastor and Dotty were with a desperate one.

Final report: the young lady has a bed tonight in a local shelter, her boys are safe with their grandparents, and Jan is picking her up at the shelter tomorrow morning to process her through a new birth certificate and social security card and start  to find her a job.

It’s the fourth Monday of the month at De Leon United Methodist Church. Its 6:00 pm. Over 600 people were supplied with up to a weeks worth of nutritious food. And at least one desperate young lady who thought God hated her, met her true Father today.

Tomorrow is the fourth Tuesday of November, and the pantry here is closed. Other desperate persons will seek God.  Where will they seek Him?  Who will be His feet and hands tomorrow?  Me, you?  Only if we are ready to say, “I will”.

-Ken