If you’re interested in getting involved in the Seadrift community, you are encouraged to attend the Chamber’s monthly meetings, held the third Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m. at the Train Depot. The next meeting will be Tuesday, September 21.

Seadrift Market Days

Seadrift Market Days is held the last Saturday of the month at the Seadrift Civic Center. Hours are 8:00 a.m. until noon.

The next Market Day will be Saturday, September 25.

Vendor spots are available for $20, or $10 for Seadrift Chamber of Commerce members.

Diane Cooley, Cindy Boone, and Otto & Alane Haardt view artifacts from the Book Club’s mock “Great 1900 Storm Museum”.

POC’s Book Club, “Hooked On Books”, held their monthly meeting on September 14, 2021, and it centered around the Club’s September book, Isaac’s Storm, by Erik Larson, about the “Great 1900 Storm of Galveston”. As members arrived, they were each given “passports”, which took them back in time to September 8, 1900, the day the Great Storm hit Galveston, killing over 8,000 people, and destroying 80% of the island city. Hostesses: Diane Cooley, Cindy Boone, Connie Hall, and Alane Haardt set up a mock “Great 1900 Storm Museum”, displaying original one hundred and twenty one year old newspaper and magazine articles, photos, and artifacts owned by Otto Haardt’s Great-Grandparents, who survived the Great Storm in the attic of their Galveston home, along with their three small children and thirty neighbors. Several other members shared their families’ harrowing accounts of their experiences with the Storm as well. Attendees “toured” the “museum”, and then were served refreshments, before settling in to discuss excerpts and characters from the book; the events preempting the Storm; the opportunities that were missed to prevent or lessen the cataclysmic effects of the Storm; and what the brave and resilient survivors did in the aftermath to prevent such a catastrophic event in the future. Everyone agreed that it was a very well written book, and that it was a great account of the worst natural disaster in American History!! The visiting, stimulating conversation, and delicious refreshments were enjoyed by all!!!

The next Book Club meeting will be held at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, and the Book of the Month is Almost Gone by .John Baldwin and MacKenzie Baldwin.

If you would like to join “Hooked On Books”, please email your information to alanehaardt@yahoo.com. All are welcome!!

-Alane Haardt

My first thought each morning of late is “How is Pastor Joane?” She has had successful open heart surgery and is recuperating faster than normal. Having a heart attack is no fun and having to wait a week for the surgery is torture, but hopefully she will be home very soon, probably before you are reading this! We sincerely appreciate all of your prayers and we even have some who fixed me meals – thanks!

To make matters worse, Pastor Joane’s brother, Johnny Gonzales, who was living with us, passed away while she was still in ICU! Thankfully, the surgeon is a Christian and helped us get through the initial shock. God always has a plan, if we will simply follow it! We are looking toward October 2, for a memorial service for Johnny. Further details will be forthcoming.

We have begun our busy Retreat season. This past weekend, we had men gather for a time of fishing and fellowship. The place was filled! On Saturday morning, Chapel provided breakfast for them and it was a great success. Eighty biscuits, twenty pounds of Dick’s sausage, six dozen eggs, and over a gallon of gravy was served and it was finished off, along with gallons of coffee and orange juice. We would have enjoyed more Port O’Connor men being present, but we will have another one before long and trust all will make plans to attend.

Pastor Joane will be leading a Ladies Retreat on September 24 and 25. On Friday, there will be a special gathering and on Saturday morning, a delicious breakfast. No, it will not be the same as for the men, but especially designed for our ladies! All local ladies are invited to attend. Please contact Pastor Joane for details at 361/648-4622.

The Ladies Retreat is the first of seven weekends of Retreats at the Chapel. Each weekend we have groups of people coming to take advantage of the beautiful coastal Texas. They will be coming from West Texan, East Texas, and all points in between! It will be a great time of rejoicing as we welcome people to the Chapel.

Captain Robert will be teaching another Captain’s Class at the Chapel on October 15 through 22. All who wish to be a part of that class should contact Captain Robert as soon as possible to reserve a place in this class. He can be reached by calling 361/785-6194. This is the last class planned for this year at the Chapel.

The Chapel is an interdenominational congregation whose goal is to help everyone we can along this pathway to eternity. We meet together on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. for Bible Study; 11:00 a.m. for Morning Service; and 6:00 p.m. for Evening Service. We also meet on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. for our Midweek Service. One will always find a warm welcome a the Chapel and all are urged to, “Come, grow with us!”

Saturday of Labor Day weekend First Baptist Church had another hot dog give away at Kingfisher Beach. There wasn’t a large crowd there that day, but we still managed to hand out almost 100 hot dogs, bags of chips, cookies and bottles of water that day. This will probably be our last hot dog outing until next spring. Look for our banner next year.

TEAM KIDS is off to a great start! For the first four weeks an average of 25 children a week have been attending. If you have children in grades 1-5, or know of any, FBC has a bus available to pick them up and bring them home. It is held each Wednesday from 5:30 until 7:00. Dinner is served at 5:30, followed by Bible study, songs and games. For information, call the church office at 361-983-2700.

SEE YOU AT THE POLE will be held at POC Elementary on Wednesday, September 22, at 7:00 a.m. If you are not familiar with this event, it was started over 20 years ago by students who wanted to have prayer time at their schools. This has spread all over the world and now every year at 7:00 a.m. local time students and others who want to join in praying, can meet at school flag poles. It is student led and student organized. Please come and support our POC students. We certainly have a lot to pray about this year.

The Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child is in full swing now. National collection week is set for November 15-22 this year. If you are not familiar with this wonderful project, let me tell you a little bit about it. Since 1993, these boxes have been delivered to over 160 nations and territories around the world. In addition to the gifts and treasures in each box, a Bible story book in that country’s language is also included. The delivery of the boxes is not the end of the story. Local church volunteers in each country encourage the children to participate in a discipleship program. Millions of children and their family members have come to know Christ this way and it all starts with your gift items that will fit in these special shoe boxes! Suggested items are small stuffed animals, shoes, jump ropes, washcloths, bar soap, hair items, socks, sunglasses, school supplies and jewelry Please do not send candy, toothpaste, war related items, seeds or any liquids. Thanks so much to everyone who donates to this wonderful outreach.

Each week, FBC has several activities for every age group. Join us for any one or all of them. Sunday School starts at 10:00 a.m., church starts at 11:00 a.m. Sunday evening services are at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. is ladies Bible study and the men meet at 7:00 p.m. On Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. TEAM KIDS and youth meet for dinner at 5:30 p.m. and start Bible study, games and songs at 6:00 p.m. We’re waiting to welcome you.

We are so grateful to paramedic Mike Monnig and his wife Anne, who spent their entire weekend educating several members of our community on two essential courses, Stop the Bleed and CPR Heartsaver Certification.

We are thankful for their kindness, generosity and time in teaching these important courses. We look forward to having them back soon at the Port O’Connor Library Branch
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Thank you to all of the members of our community that participated in these courses and learned some lifesaving skills.

Michelle M. Marlin, Librarian, Port O’Connor Library