Volunteering at Slumber Falls

Bill and Mary at Slumber Falls

2011 February Update from Texas

Greetings from Texas! Yes, we do get around and are just as glad to be in the southern USA and away from the stormy north this winter! Thanks for your holiday greetings and news of you and your family.

Our last update was sent in late November soon after we moved into our newly refurbished home in Tennessee. We then kept very busy getting settled while also enjoying holiday festivities and events at Uplands Village.

On December 28 we began driving to Texas and are so glad to have neighbors, Bob and Elaine, checking on our TN home. Our overnight stop and delightful visit was with Caby and Betty in MS, fellow volunteers from our Heifer Ranch experience in 2005-06.

Eating lobsters, a Christmas Eve family tradition, was enjoyed this year on New Year’s Eve with Cindi and Mike and family. Sawyer (15), Brynne (11) and Luke (9) got involved with the preparation and then the feast.

Slumber Falls Camp & Retreat Center is an ideal ‘summer camp for kids’. The 20 acre facility borders the Guadalupe River and in the 1930’s was a tourist attraction with cabins for vacationers. In 1958 it became a church camp. You can check us out at www.slumberfalls.org. The ‘falls’ are where the Guadalupe River and Plum Creek meet in New Braunfels, TX. This area is known for ‘Toobing & Rafting’ down the river and also attracts many to its popular “Schlitterbaum” water park. We’ve discovered a local museum all about this area’s German immigration in the mid-1800’s. The nearby town of Gruene is an historic area and, among other interesting things, has the oldest ‘saloon’ in Texas. And we have lots more to explore before March 31!

Our volunteer work at Slumber Falls has Bill creating an Access database for their Retreat business and Mary is ‘friend-raising’ their constituents and designing an annual appeal process. We live at the camp in a small house used for staff during summers. Usually we work regular office hours M-F, 9-5. But one night a group of 30 college students (Texas State) were having a retreat and the camp cook took ill suddenly. At the last minute we were in the kitchen helping other staff members put together a lasagna dinner, serving the meals and washing the dishes. We know we were in the right place at the right time! And then last Saturday we ‘did’ a Camp Fair in Austin for SFC. Our opportunities to serve remain varied!

Grandchildren are adding a great dimension to our TX assignment. We’re about 3 hours away and are seeing them some weekends as they ride motor-cross, jump rope, play basketball, hit golf balls, show animals and play board games with us.

Community involvement enriches our local experience especially when our volunteer assignment is rather isolated. We’re attending contemporary worship at Friedens UCC in Geronimo TX about 10 miles away and participating in a Wed. night study group.

Susy Garcia and her sons, Vittorio and Gian, are coming to visit us soon from Nicaragua! Susy, an AFS student from Ecuador, lived with us in 1983-4 in Connecticut. This will be the boys’ first USA visit.

Football story from Mary’s recent interview: http://www.wickedlocal.com/wellesley/news/x925302268/A-Wellesley-High-uniform-returns-home

Mary and Bill Ruth, Refired 2/3/11