July 1, 2002
Widows of Retiree Builders keep volunteers in prayers
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___They never hammered a nail or sawed a board. But they felt they were a part of each of the nearly 250 building projects on which their husbands worked with Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders.
___Gracie Christian and Opal Barron of Chandler and Mary Ann Boubel from Pleasanton spent a combined 28 years on the road with their husbands as part of the Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders team.
Mary Ann Boubel, Gracie Christian and Opal Barron
___Boubel's husband, Louis, died in September 1993. Christian's husband, Arvin, died in July 1998. Barron's husband, Charlie, died in January 2000, just five months before their 50th wedding anniversary.
___The widows came to the Texas Baptist Men Retiree Builders reunion earlier this year to renew acquaintances with people they consider extended family. And they came to catch up on news about people they pray for daily.
___Arvin and Gracie Christian served 14 years with the builders working on 119 projects, including construction of the original Hospitality House for inmates' families in Huntsville.
___"I pray for Texas Baptist Men every day of my life," she said. "We lived together, worked together and worshipped together for 14 years. We're just like family."
___Boubel feels the same way. She and her husband traveled full time with the Retiree Builders from 1986 to 1993, pulling the tool trailer for the crew on 78 projects. Texas Baptists provide tool trailers for the Retiree Builders through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.
___"We were the only ones at that time who were living in an RV full time," she recalled.
___Boubel feels she has extended family in every church the retirees built and on every Retiree Builder team, wherever they are serving.
___"I can travel anywhere up and down the state of Texas and find family," she said.
___Opal and Charlie Barron traveled to 50 projects. He generally specialized in doing the plumbing work on job sites.
___She makes every effort to keep in touch with the builders wherever they travel.
___"If they're anywhere close, I go to see my brothers and sisters in Christ and fellowship with them," she said. "I pray for the group and do what I can in terms of encouragement and enlistment. We are as close or closer than we are to some of our own kin. I'll always be a part of this family."
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