September 4, 2017

Kudos to Diboll Firemen! Fire Chief, Gary Jones, was seen eating lunch at Los Jarritors with several other firemen on a Saturday during a workday for the department. Others enjoying the delicious food included: John Alvarez, William Courtney, Joe Parish, Keith and Gary Dover, Raymond ‘Shadow’ Ryan, Grady Courtney and Aaron Smith. The guys spent the day doing general maintenance at the substation on Neil Pickett and also poured a foundation for a communication tower. Little did they know a few days later, after Hurricane Harvey made it devastating landing, some of these same guys would be packing up and driving to Rockport to help people in need.

Diboll FBC Pastor Kenny Hibbs and his wife Carrie have two daughters in the Rockport area; April and Mike Striedel and Amanda and Bobby Bickle. Amanda coaches Rockport Pirates girls’ volleyball and basketball teams. After the storm she went to the campus and the gym where they recently played was no longer there. Kenny and Carrie left on Thursday for Rockport and members of the Diboll Fire Department left on Friday, including: Gary Jones, his 12-year-old grandson Ben Smith and Ben’s dad, Aaron; Joe Parish, Larry Lucas, Chris Hambrick and Grady Courtney. They met up with Bro. Kenny who had made arrangements for them to stay at the Assembly of God Church in Portland. Previously, in making the arrangements at the church, Kenny was surprised to learn their pastor, Woody Woodard, pastored and lived in Lufkin at one time. Woody asked Kenny about Steve Comstock who is pastor of Diboll’s Assembly of God…small world!

This group of volunteers from Diboll put the experience behind their tools and cleaned up debris left from the storm. They worked on an elderly couple’s garage that had fallen on their vehicles and removed the metal beams of the garage to get both of their cars out. They were strong enough to roll tin down from a mobile home and put a tarp over it. They also helped erect a large tent on the grounds of the First Baptist Church where they had services on Sunday and stretched tarps to cover the end of the church that is missing. Another elderly couple in Taft was grateful to these guys for cutting up a large tree. These guys found it hard to believe that so many people were offering them water and food. Aaron Smith said, “This is what makes you proud of Texas”. April and Mike Striedel prepared two meals for these appreciative volunteers. If you are interested, go to Diboll FBC Face Book page for the link to Youtube.com and watch the video “Rockport Cleanup-Diboll” with Stephen Curtis Chapman singing Beauty will Rise in the background.

Diboll First Methodist Church got busy after receiving a text from a former pastor, Jeff Stuff, that Buna needed help. Lists of items for “flood buckets” and “hygiene bags” were distributed for anyone who was interested in providing the items. Melanie Goodwin, the pastor’s wife, was in a store checking out with items on the lists when the person behind her in line paid the bill. The church put together 32 Flood Buckets, 134 Hygiene Bags and 50 loaves of bread that was delivered to Central Baptist Church in Buna by Pastor David Goodwin, Brandal Porter, Teresa Medina, Gene and Ronna Winchester. People were lined up to get the buckets and bags when they arrived.

Members of Faith Family Church traveled to Batson, Texas to “clean up” and later Pastor Leo Lytle and Randy Pilcher went back to drop off $7,000 to $10,000 worth of much needed donations to a new shelter that was opened at the Assembly of God church on highway 105. Leo said, “The church bus was packed tightly with literally no room to spare with donations from the area. Special thanks to Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Abeldt’s Pharmacy, The Medicine Shoppe, Trinity Baptist, a generous donor and dozens of people who brought what they could right up until we left at 11AM”. Bro. Leo also said that while standing in the checkout lines that people were giving him donations.

Diboll FBC Super Seniors thoroughly enjoyed having Margie Harrell at their September luncheon. Margie, who grew up in Diboll and is the Director of the Diboll Housing Authority, says she is not a speaker but once she begins to talk about Diboll there is no slowing her down. She LOVES Diboll, its people and is proud of her heritage and we are proud to call her friend.

It was good to see Theresa Lyles come in with her husband, Roy Lee. For years she worked across the street at the scale house but we never got to see her. She is no longer working and Roy Lee is taking good care of her as her health is improving. Arthur Bean from Corrigan came in with his adorable 3-year-old granddaughter, McKensie, who was not intimated by any adult and spoke freely. Mr. Bean has worked 37 years at what is now GP in Corrigan.

C.W. Loftin came in to buy his hunting/fishing license which were, first time ever, at a reduced price this year. He checked his cell phone and let us know that the Neches River was at 14.32 feet, down from Thursday’s 15.03. He was feeling kinda bad because his 4-wheeler wouldn’t start that day; he had spent more than he wanted to with eye issues and the pump had gone out on his aerobic system.  Some others that have been in buying their new licenses were: Christi Quarles, Barley Lenderman, Randy Nerren, Melvin Linton, Sr., Bubba Nevills, Jeff Capps, Allen Bailey, Woody Ingram, Jay Shands, Trey Denman, Jr. Grandgeorge, Bob Davis, Hunter Stewart, Jason Cook, John and Carolyn Richard, Richard Rainwater, Angela Havard, Randy Havard, Cody McLin, Mason Ford, and John Cassata . John Wallace also bought his license and called back to ask Andrea if she undercharged him. She had to remind him he too has had a birthday that permits a reduction in the price of his license.

Come see us…’round the table.