High Point Disaster Relief efforts with Samaritan’s Purse…

Towards the end of March, we spent 2 weeks in North Carolina while Vaughn and the 3 oldest (with us) were volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse ice storm cleanup efforts.
We were camping near High Point, NC, which is located between, and just south of Greensboro and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  High Point is known as the furniture capitol of the world for it’s huge upholstered and wooden furniture industry.  In fact, the city is home to over 40 furniture outlets.  Looking for new furniture?  High Point is the place to shop at!
Being the Furniture Capital of the World is a title they have long embraced, and are proud of…   😉 This set of drawers stands at 38 feet tall, with 2 socks dangling out of a slightly opened drawer, as a nod to the cities textile/hosiery industry. (Daniel and Joel ran across the street to be in the pic for me so it would be easier to tell just how tall that dresser is!).  
There is actually another set of drawers in the city that, at 80 feet, is twice as tall as this one!!!  It is not freestanding, however, and is attached to the front of the Furnitureland Bureau building – we didn’t make it out to take a picture of that dresser, but it sounds cool!

The reason that we were near/in High Point was to help out with cleanup after an ice storm went through and created a lot of tree/power line damage.
Vaughn, Beth, Jacob, and Thomas all spent 2 weeks volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse to help homeowners clean up the mess left from the damaging ice.
Now that Beth is 18, she can run the saws…  
Jake is my muscles at home – apparently he is good at using them to help others too   There were over 150 work orders completed in High Point (we were here for only half of the time as we were volunteering in Augusta the first weeks that Samaritan’s Purse was in High Point).
The work was all tree debris clearing – some homes had just a few limbs that an elderly homeowner would not be able to take care of themselves, and others were lots of cutting and dragging.  The most tedious job happened to be scheduled for a cold day when it was pouring down rain – the crew needed to take out a huge oak tree that had lots of big, sprawling limbs (no, of course they didn’t take any pictures! :/ ), and located between 2 homes.  They had to whittle away at the limbs, working towards the trunk, taking off pieces that they could control to keep from dropping the limbs and trunk on the homes.  It only took about 90 minutes with everyone pitching in.  (pic from diff job site)
My crew met lots of wonderful people, both other volunteers and the homeowners, and they were treated to some fabulous black gospel singing by one of the homeowners.  The kids got practice stepping out to lead in  group prayer and to present the Bibles, signed by volunteers, to the homeowners (Thomas did both for the first time here in High Point; so proud – it can be really intimidating).  My crew spent almost the whole stay working with team leader Bruce, and had a great time! (you can learn more about Samaritan’s Purse here)

While they were off working, the other kids and I were busy checking out the area – and just staying home; things can be a little crazy when part of the family is getting up at 5something every morning, and not getting home until after 9pm.  The littles want to stay up and see them of course, and nights get pretty hectic and late.
When we are traveling, we love to try out anything that is unique and local when it comes to foods.  When we had been in Augusta, right before High Point, we noticed that their food court offered a BBQ sandwich – complete with coleslaw on it!  I had heard about that before, but never tried it.  It’s marvelous     So while we were in High Point, we made pulled pork, and those of us that like coleslaw had it on our sandwiches!  Yum. And for the record, in case I forget and have to come back here for reference, creamy coleslaw is better than vinegar. 😉
Of course we had sweet tea. all.the.time.

While we were in High Point, we parked at 2 different RV parks.  Most of our time was spent at Forest Lake, which is just south of Winston-Salem.  Even though it was a good half hour from the campground to the Samaritan’s Purse host church, we stayed there because it is one of our membership parks and we could stay there for free!  The kids loved it here.  Those poor middle boys spent so much time finding these adorable baby turtles for the girls to check out…They were the cutest!  If I had MY choice of a camper pet…well, let’s just say that the girls were making progress with their debates on the pros of having more pets (as if a haughty cat isn’t enough pet!).  But we did NOT adopt any wild turtles from the campground.   They were SO CUTE tho!!!
Caleb loved Forest Lake – lots of rocks to play in, water to fish in, a fun playground area, and lots of wide open areas to run around in. This campground even had fire rings!  Yay!  You would not believe how many campgrounds do not allow fires of any sort, meaning no campfires either!  Caleb practiced keeping his hot dog/marshmallows out of the dirt.   The boys had fun on the park’s mini golf course, and spent some time fishing in the small lake. It was the perfect campground to stay at while the volunteers were volunteering.