I spent last week at the Mustang Island Conference Center for a meeting of the Episcopal Council for Christian Education (ECCE). The conference center is a ministry of the Diocese of West Texas and is located in Port Aransas, Texas on one of the barrier islands of the Gulf Coast. The center was designed and built to have as small a footprint as possible and minimal environmental impact on its site. On our arrival we were cautioned to stay on the boardwalks both to protect the dunes and becuase the dunes are home to rattlesnakes, at least two of which have been named by the conference center staff: Larry and Ben. We saw both Larry and Ben during our stay. We also saw another natural phenomenon during our stay. Sargassum seaweed, the organism that makes up the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, washes ashore and dies in the Spring. Large piles of it accumulate on the beach, and while it smells, it is an important part of the ecology of the barrier islands.
Getting to Mustang Island is a bit of a trek during the best of times. Most of us flew into Houston or Dallas/Fort Worth to catch connecting flights to Corpus Christie. In Corpus Christie Ken Shaver, one of the conference center's hosts, met us at the airport for the 20 minute van ride to Mustang Island. Tuesday proved to be a difficult travel day in Texas as a large severe weather system moved through the state. Some of our members were delayed in Dallas/Fort Worth and did not arrive until Wednesday and Thursday--one never made it out of Chicago due to the weather in Texas and the subsequent air traffic snafus. When I talked to my mother today, after arriving home late last night, she said she had been worried when she saw the "big red box" on the weather maps for the area.
I spent a lot of time on my cell phone Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning staying in touch with our delayed members and helping them with hotel and flight arrangements. All in all, however, we were lucky. Wednesday morning at breakfast we learned that the cities of Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negra, Mexico were devastated by high winds, hail, and a tornado, which swept through the two cities while we were finishing dinner Tuesday evening. This was sad news not only for the diocese, but also for those of us in the Ministries with Young People Cluster of the Episcopal Church Center, as Eagle Pass is the hometown of one of our coworkers. We kept the people of both cities in our prayers throughout our time together.
Hospitality is a key concept in my boss' view of our work. It touches just about everything we do in the Office of Children's Ministries and Christian Education. Much of my work in organizing the logistics for meetings is making sure that everyone feels welcome and experiences a minimum of stress as far as transportation, accommodations, meals, and meeting space are concerned. Nita and Ken Shaver and their staff made my job easy for this meeting. From the moment I first spoke to Nita on the phone to arrange the meeting to time Ken dropped us off at the airport for our journeys home, we were welcomed with open arms and hearts--no detail was too small, and no request was too large. Their kitchen staff went out of their way to make sure that those of us with food allergies and health issues had meals that were as appetizing, varied and generous as those of the rest of our group.
If you ever get the chance to visit the Mustang Island Conference Center, go!
Peace,
Jeffri
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