Our Trip To Galveston Texas

We did our usual "stop as we travel", and witnessing along the way, from Palestine, Tx to Galveston. We met many nice people who were interested in the Bible. As our usual thing we left them our magazines and continued on our way. One man in particular, who is quite nice, accepted a book from me and thanked me for doing God's work. I showed him a chapter from the book that will help him to understand WHY God allows suffering, and he marked the page so that he could read it later-on. He told me to keep up the good work. I thanked him and left elated from the conversation we had. Just think! another person would have a chance to build their faith in the Bible.

When we arrived in Galveston, it was already dark, but we felt fulfilled that we did what we could in helping the people along the way, to think about the creator. Now it was time for us to speak to those in Galveston! Our most recent visits have yielded a trend, usually, at night. We have seen many, very poor, people, camped out, at various stores, asking for money. The people we saw looked very unkept, as if, they had no place to bathe, or shower. I thought to myself, there is an ocean of water out there, but then again, the ocean water doesn't smell very good, and where would they dry their clothes. This might have been what they did do for a bath, who knows?

The week prior to this week we had seen some very, poor people, and we happened to be low on money ourselves. We had about twenty dollars to eat on, and to put gas in the car. I ended up giving this man a couple of magazines and three dollars. He didn't ask me for money, but I gave it to him because he looked like he needed it. He thanked me very graciously. I felt guilty because I couldn't give him more or bring him some food. Of course, the thoughts we have concerning these things, are that most of the homeless we see here, will use the "little money" we gave them, to buy alcohol, just so they can drown out their sorrows. I thought that, perhaps, even if this was so, some might read God's word the next day, remembering the magazines which are loaded with scriptures. This alone can help a person to begin to cope with their problems. Perhaps these might find jobs as a result of their bible study...we've seen this happen before.

If these ones will read the magazines we gave them, it will build a desire to read the Bible. We know that these ones need the "real calm" that can only be found in the Bible. Alcohol may calm a person for a few hours but the Bible can calm a person for good. The Bible is a very powerful tool in building faith from the daily reading of it. It must be treated like food to produce good fruitage! My only hope and prayers are that these will take the time to read, building up an appetite, for the truth!

We met, yet, another man who was bearded with very long, uncombed, and matted hair. My son was afraid of him, and so I got out of the car and approached him, handing him the magazines with three dollars stuck inside. He thanked me and began to babble about armageddon, raising his hand up with the magazines like he would preach, and babbled some more unintelligible words. It is hard to see people in this kind of shape and not be able to do more for them.

This reminded me of the account when Jesus cast the demons out of the man who made his residence in between the tombs of a cemetery. I can imagine, that the man Jesus spoke to, was a rough looking character, and he didn't make any sense, either.

We have seen evidence that Bible truth changes people that are as rough as this man was. We weren't finished meeting the "Poor of Galveston" when at the next stop, after placing the magazines with this Spanish looking fellow, he asked for two dollars. We gave him two dollars and he proceeded to tell us that he loved the magazines because his wife would bring them home to him, but she had divorced him and he couldn't get them anymore. He was very happy to get them; so we left there feeling elated knowing that the man would read about God's Kingdom.

We were quite broke now, and I told my son that we needed to head home before my heart could be torn for, yet another, poor, and homeless, individual. We don't want to contribute to people's habit of drinking alcohol, but we could only hope that these might have used the money to get food. We couldn't be sure how they would use the "little bit" of money, and of course, we didn't stay to investigate. I turned to my son and told him that we would come prepared next time if possible. We would have to bring food for these "poor ones" instead of giving money.

We wondered how many calories and how much nutrition these could get from the quarts of beer that these would probably buy. I thought to myself, Oh well, at least some of them asked for money, instead of robbing and killing to get money. Someone who would look as bad as these folks were looking, with almost no dignity left from being left homeless, were not too far from being over the edge, anyway. Some were probably thankful to land in jail so they could have a decent meal. The store personnel were probably happy for them to land in jail because of the worry of their presence.

We didn't see this sort of site in Galveston, Tx before the Hurricane. This has been a trend "ever since" the Hurricane and has just recently gotten worse, probably, in part due to the downturn in the economy, and no jobs. These may be returnees who have no homes left and no where else to go! Who knows what their stories might be? We would find more strange things on Galveston Island as we traveled to the East Beach, where all the ships are, and we noticed animal bones piled up on the rocks. These were very big animal bones which were very unusual because there are no cows on Galveston Island. I wondered if they had washed up and someone had collected them, putting them atop the rock. This was a mystery I wanted to solve. I only hoped none were human. Only one bone looked like it could be a femur bone, but I refused to get out and look. I wondered if some of the graves had washed out, taking the contents and dumping it in the ocean...who knows? We know the Hurricane did things to the area that are still being discovered.

After our wonderful time of witnessing on the Island, when we had emptied our pockets, we decided we better head on home, as we were quite broke. We would get our usual McDonalds meal, without bread, so we could stay on our diet. There was only one problem that I would have to solve, the gas gauge read empty, and we had already eaten our food from the change we scraped up from looking in the bottom of my purse for dimes, and quarters. I told my son that we would get the cheapest gas and put it on the debit card, which had about two dollars in the account, but if we did it "automatic" at the pump it would only take one dollar, and the next day he could, as soon as he made enough money from his waiter job, call me. I would, then, have to drive to Tyler and deposit some money in the bank so we wouldn't have a hot check. We made it home, and the next day, I ran to Tyler with some money to deposit from my son's waiter job. Our life is interesting, to say the least! We feel like we accomplished alot!

Tune in Next time for more reports from Galveston Island and our witnessing travel!