Temple to Alamo, TX

This is pretty much what Texas looks like from San Antonio south. North of that it looks like strip malls and gas stations.

Not the most scenic part of the country. And not the warmest this January of 2016. Mid 40s and rain. Bibleville is a conference center/RV park with some permanent mobile homes as well. Orlin Anderson from our church up north, winters here. It was his wife Karen who worked so hard to get Steve on the preaching schedule. Unfortunately, she died of cancer last winter. She leaves a big hole here.

We arrived about 2:30. In the rain. It is a gated community and we had no pass code. Everyone was in the Saturday afternoon gospel concert. Eventually, someone came along and spotted us at the gate, but it still took more than an hour to track down the key to the speaker’s efficiency. We were glad it wasn’t ten o’clock at night. As it was, I took Mom to the little library next door and we chatted with a retired missionary to Yemin for a while.

The efficiency is a good-sized room with a king bed, a couch a couple chairs, TV, dining table and kitchenette. They had put in a comfortable roll-away for Mom. (I gathered it was new.) It was in the middle of the room between the couch and the TV, but we managed to shift things and find a place along one wall. Most of the cupboards and drawers had stuff in them (extra sheets, towels, tissue boxes etc), but again we shifted and made drawer space. The kitchen is stocked with snacks and breakfast things, but we are invited out for most lunches and suppers with various people.

Saturday there are two concerts, one at 2 and one at 7. Between them, they take the singers out for pizza and the whole community goes along. It was a Peter Piper Pizza, which is a lot like a Chuck-e-cheese for northerners. But it was big enough and the games on one side, so we could mostly hear for conversations. Except when someone’s pizza was ready and the loud speaker announced it. We never understood a word, but the person who had ordered our pizza did, so that was fine. There were a whole bunch of tables reserved for Bibleville. The Peter Piper Pizza people must love them since they come every week. In winter at least. If you bring your own Peter Piper mug, you get free drinks. And free ice cream. Having recently been diagnosed with diabetes, Steve abstained from ice cream.

The concert was a quartet called Forgiven. It was Southern Gospel Music, not a genre we are familiar with. We didn’t recognize a single song, even when they said it was a classic. I always knew the south would be a cross-cultural experience. I understand the afternoon was packed with about 500 people. Because of the cold and rain the evening only had a couple hundred. I guess they come from all the RV parks around. Should be an interesting week.