VoiceThread - Starting a Conversation

I have reached a good point where I can pause in sharing about my life. Last week I shared about our move back home to Charlotte where we presently live. I have added a VoiceThread on my Blog, titled at this point as the Life and Times of Glenn A. Gurley, Sr.

Here is a link to a new page that has my VoiceThread which will be easier to use.

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If you have been a reader of my blog, I would like for you to consider adding a comment to my VoiceThread. I have taken some of the major events of my life and put them into a VoiceThread. A VoiceThread is a Web-based digital-storytelling application that allows me to share my stories through audio, images, videos, or text. It also allows visitors, that is YOU, to make comments on my stories different ways:

• voice with a microphone or voice with telephone,
• text,
• audio file, or
• video with a webcam.

I am asking that this week, and the weeks to follow, that you help me tell my story. Please comment if you have something to share around these events. It may be on one of the slides or several. Perhaps you have never met me but read my blog and grew up in the country or served in the armed services like me and would like to share a memorable event that took place. You may have known me during the times of these events or want to comment on my life story. The topic of each page surrounds the picture you see; click on comment to add something to the slide. I have already added audio stories on some of the slides. Whether you know me as Glenn, Mr. Gurley, Dad, Paw Paw, or that 81 year-old man that has a blot about his life, I hope this VoiceThread becomes a place for rich conversation among folks whose path I have crossed during my lifetime.

Unsure of adding to my VoiceThread? Go to this VoiceThread, What is a Voice Thread? It is great and well worth the time to learn more!

Settling in at 1014 Cathey Road in Charlotte, NC

We finished moving into our new home the first week of January 2000. It was an easy move since we had David, Eric, and Glenn Jr. to help us unload everything. On our first Sunday back home, we joined Mulberry Baptist Church; we have always believed when you moved your bed it was time to move your church membership. We felt at home the first day with all of the old friends that were there. We moved back near our old neighborhood and right around the corner from Glenn and his family, it seemed like we were at home again. We did miss our friends that we left at the beach but we have kept in close contact with the beach bunch and visit them as often as we can. It was good to be back in Charlotte to be close to our three children and seven grand children and five great grand children which has been a great blessing within itself. We have always been a close family and enjoy time spent together. We started having what we called Family Sunday once a month with a big dinner and an afternoon of fellowship at our house. This picture is looking out of our front door after the snow that fell on March 1. 2009.

After being back in Charlotte for a short while, Hazel felt led to open our home to have a ladies Bible study and asked Betty Peele to lead the group. The ladies Bible study started in September of 2000. Betty taught weekly until her eyes began to fail and she moved to West Va. to be near her son in 2005. The Bible study continued with Lucille McNeil as the teacher and the study is still going strong meeting every Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m.

Another highlight on returning to Charlotte are the five new great grandchildren and the many new friends that we would never have had if we stayed at the beach. Pam, Glenn Jr, Mike's families and many friends gave me a 75th surprise birthday party and we did the same thing on Hazels 75th birthday. At the time I thought that 75 was old but now I am blessed to be going strong at 81.

I love and cherish my family and dear friends and would not trade them for all of the gold in the world. I realize that without God and you I would be nothing. Keep checking my blog I will be adding to it as I can remember things of the past.

Moving Back to Charlotte

In October 1999, Glenn, Pam and Mike's and their families decided to have a fiftieth anniversary party for us at Mulberry Baptist Church in Charlotte. It was on a Saturday and we had a great party with many of friends. One of our lifelong friends Tom Worthy was not there. I asked his wife Margaret where he was and she said that He was not feeling good and did not think it wise for him to get out. She shared that he was going to see his doctor on Monday and he would find out was wrong. On Monday night we called Margaret to see what the doctor had to say and Tom answered the phone. He said that I should talk with Margaret; she shared that the doctor said that Tom only had three to six month to live. The next morning at 4:00 a.m. we were on our way back to Charlotte to see them. After a short visit we went by Glenn"s to tell him about what had happened. He was not at home but we saw a house 1214 Cathey Road for sale which was right around the corner from his house. We went on over to Pam and David's house to tell them and after hearing about Tom, Pam ask us if we would move back to Charlotte so we could be together so we could help each other should something like should happen to us. I told her that we would stay at the beach and not consider moving back. She asked us to pray about it I said that I would pray but I would never move back to Charlotte. On the way home we did much praying about what we should do.

That night we called Glenn to let him know what had happened to Tom and the we came by to see him but he was not at home. I also shared what Pam had asked us to consider. He shared that the perfect house was for sale just around the corner and we ask him to see what was the price and let us know. In the meantime he asked a realtor friend of his to check, well she did and set up five other houses for us to look at as asked him if the next Wednesday morning would work. We decided to come on back up and look at them and visit a little with he and Robin. We arrived at Glenn's a little before nine and met with Lisa Nobles. We first went to see the yellow house on Cathey road. After looking at the house Hazel said that she did not want to live in this house. I ask the lady if we could come back later that day by ourselves and she said we could. We did not like any of the other four houses that Lisa showed us. After lunch I got a pad and pen for Hazel and ask her to write down everything that she could not live with and we went back over and we l took a good look around and after we had she said that she loved and wanted to buy it.

We went back to the beach and in a few days we made an offer on the house. After some going back and forth we finally bought the house and we closed on it after Thanksgiving. The couple needed to stay in the house for a couple weeks which was fine with us. By Christmas we had most of the painting and other things done and were able to move in by the first of January 2000, we joined Mulberry Baptist Church the first Sunday in January 2000. We could see first-hand how fast God can work in the lives of his people. We are so thankful that Pam asked us to pray about coming home to Charlotte! Listen to me tell about our move to Charlotte.

King's Karpenters in McClellanville,SC

When returning home from Charlotte after Hurricane Hugo, we discovered that some of the men from North Myrtle Beach First Baptist Church had gone down to McClellanville which had been totally destroyed by Hugo. They took water, chainsaws, and any thing else that that the folks down there may need to keep going.

When returning to North Myrtle, I joined together with other men and went back to help repair damage in our town. After a couple days we saw that there was a small community north of the town that no one was helping so we got as many men together as we could find and went back to this little comunity. We met Robert and Mary Lennen who had lost everything that they had in their home. They had an old warehouse that was given to them to be used as a headquarters for our work teams. They planned on living in the warehouse until everyone had been placed back in their homes then we could help them. Robert and Mary's house was one of the last two homes that we help build.

After a couple days we saw that we could not do all that needed to be done alone so we approached several other churches and we had three others that said that they would go down one day each week. We started repairing the houses that we could do the in the least amount of time and by doing this, let the people know that we would be on a job five days a week untill it was finished and fount that they started helping us some. Not too long later the other churches kinda dropped off but before they did we had repaired about twenty some homes and had built one new one. The men at First Baptist keep on going as much as we could and this is the time at that time decided to name our group The Kings Karpenters.

After working in McClellanville for two years we was not needed there any more, We left McClellnaville with memorys that will be with us as long as we live and I hope that someday people will read this and say a prayer for those folks that God will continue to bless then and their children. We returned to North Myrtle and started doing work around North Myrtle and it was not long the need was so great in and around the county we were repairing homes in much of Horry county.

I left the group in 2000 and moved back to Charlotte but I will always be a Kings Karpenter. When we were formed as a team our first leader was Ben Martin who led us well for a few years but due to bad health had to turn it over to Leary Baker who let us for couple years untill he fell off his golf cart and had to give it up, but he still worked with us until the end. Bill Taylor took over and led the group until now and they are still doing what he and others can for the needy people in and around North Myrtle. Bill is one of the most faithful men that I have ever known. Even through much sickness and hospital stays Bill just keeps on working every Thursday and sometimes other days and it has been for over twenty years. Hazel and I love you Bill Taylor; May God keep on blessing you.

Hurricane Hugo

The men on the Jamaica Mission trip formed a group of men called the King's Carpenters. This video shows the results of the efforts of these men and members of the church taken from video taken during the trip.

Shortly after this trip an event was about to happen that would provide an opportunity for the King's Carpenters to help folk close to home. Hurricane Hugo was on his way to the coast of the North or South Carolina. Hazel did not want to stay at the beach and we chose to come to Charlotte and keep Betsy and Kati while Robin and Glenn went to Raleigh, NC to attend a school conference for a few days thinking all would be well. We came to Charlotte and settled in and was ready to have a few days with our two grand kids. We stayed up until midnight to see what Hugo was going to do and wondered if it would come inland near our beach home. At midnight all power went out in Charleston, SC and we decided to go to bed because Hugo would only come ashore for a few miles and then back out somewheres along the coast of North Carolina. Little did we know what Hugo had in mind for his travels! About four in the morning Glenn knocked on my door and ask me if we were going to sleep through Hugo's visit to Charlotte. I got up as fast as I could and boy was the wind a blowing and we could see that all of the trees were bent almost to the ground. All of a sudden it got really calm and the winds stopped blowing. We all thought it was all over but just in a little while it started again and this time it was relay bad! We saw some green lights as transformers blew out.

When daylight came we could see trees and power lines down everywhere but Glenn and Robin did not have any damage to their home just no power. I got to thinking about the four great big oak trees near Pam and Davids house as envisioned them all down on their house. I told Hazel that I was going to try to get over and help them and would only know how they fared the storm by going there. I started out on the five mile trip and with all of the damage it took me one hour to make the trip and I only was able to get to within about one half of a mile. I ran the rest of the way and was relieved when I got to the house I saw all of the trees around their house were standing tall and was not blown down on the house. However, they did have about twenty five big oak trees to blow down in the woods near the house but no damage was done to their home. This is another way that God was looking after my family.

We told Glenn and Robin to go on to Raleigh to the conference that they had planed and we would take care of everything. We had a freezer full of frozen food and a camp stove and plenty of gas for the stove. Every one's power was out but Pam had a gas water heater and still had city water. With Glenn's gas stove and Pam's water we did real well. Betsy and Kati liked the camp cooking and all the candles as we did our best to make do with what we had. Glenn and Robin made it to the conference, had a great time, and returned to find that all was well. Little did we all know that for the next two weeks they had to be with out power. It even took longer for some others.

We went back to the beach to find that Hugo did not do any damage to our home only a few very small limbs down and part of a couple shingles from the roof.

Church Building Trip to Jamaica Pictures/Audio

For the past two weeks I have shared about my two trips, one to Haiti and the other to Jamaica. I have some pictures this week for second trip so you can see the work that was done for this community in Westmoreland Parish.


Listen to me tell about these trips.

• Haiti
• Jamaica

Church Building Trip to Jamaica

Upon returning from Haiti, we started planning another trip down to the island with a target timeline to prepare and return within one year. We shared the events of our trip and enlisted fifteen of our friends to go. We completed the pre-planning of the trip and before we could make the travel arrangements found that the political situation was getting really bad so we could not return due to safety issues.

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One of the men, Fred Morris, knew Pastor Moore in Jamaica, he was Fred's yard boy many years ago, was led to the Lord during his time there, and later became a pastor to the people up in the hill country of Westmoreland Parish and Burnt Ground. This area was five miles from the two nearest Baptist Churches. The people had to walk almost five miles to go to either of the churches and they had been working on a church at Burnt Ground for about two years; they just could not get the construction started. We decided to make plans to go down and complete the construction of this church. We shared our plans with Pastor Moore and requested that he send a list of what it would take to build the walls and to put on the roof. The next week we received a letter that contained all the information we needed. In the next few weeks, we raised enough money and planed a trip down.

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We arrived on Monday night and were taken to the Baptist Bible College for the night. Early the first day we went to see what we had to do; to be honest we did not think we could do what they needed. The entire team got into a circle and had prayer. Fred and Pastor Moore went to buy the materials. It just so happened that on that day the money exchange was much better than it was on most days. We had taken enough money to put the wall up but now with the extra money we were able to buy enough materials to put the roof on. By noon that day all of the materials were delivered and we had made plans as to how we were going to do the job. I had taken a four foot level and enough line to get the building laid out the best we could. After we had lunch we started laying the concrete blocks and prayed continuously that we had the building level. The blocks were made with equipment that was use years ago when blocks were first being produced in America; the blocks were not uniform. The only sand that we had to mix with the mortar had rocks as big as marbles so we had to learn how to work around that hurdle. By the end of the week we had all of the walls up and when we got to the top we were only two inches out of level and Pastor Moore thought that that was great.

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The work went so well that we had our last day to take a trip around parts of the island and were able to see a number of sites. We left them with enough supplies to put the roof on the church. We had made some wooden benches and they held services in the Church the first Sunday after we left even though it did not have the roof and the floor was dirt. On the tenth day we headed back to North Myrtle Beach. It sure made us feel good to have got so much done in just eight days.

Listen to me tell about this trip to Jamaica.