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.As they had the day before, Alice, Mark and June held an informal Bible study beneath the shade of a canopy during the early afternoon break Joe had mandated.To Alice’s delight, Ellen and the twins joined them, as did Gina and her friend Edmund, the third member of Mark’s team.The verse Alice chose to discuss came from 2 Corinthians: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal” (4:18).Alice posed a question for the group.She asked if the fact that life on earth is just a “temporary assignment” should change the way one is living and how.They just finished a lively discussion and a closing prayer when a group of people who had gone to town came walking past them.“Did you pick up some ice?” Alice asked.“Ice and water,” Corinne replied.“I heard this heat is supposed to break on Sunday.”“Figures.” Ellen slumped in her camp chair.“We’re leaving Sunday.”“Hey, we’re leaving Sunday too,” another woman said, gesturing toward her companion.“We’re taking dogs home, so we figure the return trip to Nevada is going to take close to three days if we stop at night.We want to be home for Thanksgiving.”“I have to be home for Thanksgiving too,” Ellen murmured, as she raised her arms in a gesture of surrender.“I have fifteen people coming to my house for dinner!” Expressions of sympathy followed her announcement.“We were planning to leave Monday,” June said.Several other camp volunteers made similar comments.Finally, Mark chuckled.“Looks like I may be one of the few sticking around.Guess we’ll be a little busier than usual.”“Sticking around for what?” Joe had come up behind Alice.“Thanksgiving,” Mark said.“Oh.Yeah.” Joe’s voice was glum.“A lot of our volunteers are leaving to go home in time for Thanksgiving.It’s going to be tough here.And frankly, I’m worried about how many volunteers we can count on after Thanksgiving and throughout the holiday season.It’s all too easy for the world to forget disasters.Folks might assume our work is done.”“Why don’t you ask every person leaving to try to send down a replacement?” Alice suggested.She knew that if she had not made the trip and seen firsthand the scope of the disaster’s impact on pets, she might indeed assume help was no longer needed.“That’s a good idea!” Joe scribbled on his clipboard.“And I can ask them to post requests for help on some of the online bulletin boards too.If people understand that our need for assistance is going to last for many more weeks…”“But that still doesn’t solve your Thanksgiving problem,” June pointed out.“No, it doesn’t.” Joe’s customary cheery facade slipped for a moment, and Alice saw the fatigue he hid so well much of the time.He straightened his shoulders.“Hanna, Corinne, Riley and I will be staying, as well as Mark, Gina, Edmund and a few of the volunteers.I guess we’ll just have to manage somehow.No more intake, that’s for sure.”“No more intake?” Alice was aghast.“But who will take the animals the teams find?”“We won’t send any teams in.Other shelters might, depending on how their volunteer rosters look.”Alice tried to hide her dismay as Joe went on his way.She suspected those shelters would be facing the same manpower crisis, which meant animals in need would not be rescued for days.She feared rescue might arrive too late for many of them.She had seen how thin and starving the latest arrivals had been.Further delay would cost the lives of who knew how many suffering pets.She could hardly bear to think of it.From their silence as others put their Bibles away and went back to work, she was pretty sure they felt the same way.The heat broke on Sunday, just as Corinne predicted.When Alice awoke just before dawn and stepped out of her tent, the air was noticeably cooler and fresher.She should have been happy, but all she could think of was that she would be leaving in just one more day.Ellen crawled out of her tent next door.“It’s about time.Doesn’t this cool air feel heavenly?”“It does.Is there anything I can do to help you pack?” Alice recalled that Ellen and the twins were leaving today.“What time are you planning to leave?”Ellen hesitated.Finally, she grinned and shrugged.“I don’t think we’re leaving.I drove into town last night and called my husband.There’s so much need here that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy a holiday meal.All I would be thinking about is how many dogs still need to be walked, how many animals need their meds, how many more still are out there waiting to be rescued.So I asked him to call my mother and sisters and see if they were all right with having dinner elsewhere—without us.”“And what did they say?”“I don’t know yet
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