RVing With a Purpose

Monday, 10/26/2020

Work, Work, Work, Work. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Today. Its been busy. All four days have been spent cleaning out file cabinets, and cleaning out the warehouse and filling the dumpster. There were tax returns from back in the 1960’s and forward. And of course all the supporting documentation from the accountants. At least we had taken care of all the bank statements and returned checks several years ago. There were still lots of paid invoices to glance over. The things that took a lot of time were old deeds, mortgages and the like. Since Anne, Sonny and Jimmy all worked in the business at different times, it took all three to determine what to do with some items. Fortunately, in the end, the vast majority of the paperwork could be put in the shred pile. The shred truck should arrive Thursday morning. The warehouse is about clean enough to sell. The dumpster is full. The file cabinets are empty and some decisions were made about some real estate. It’s been a successful four days. Now if we can just follow up with our plans. Praying.

We have really enjoyed our time at Moundville Archaeological Park. The campground is small, and peaceful (except for some close by trains that didn’t bother us.) It’s only about 10-12 miles from interstate 20/59 in Tuscaloosa so not too far for an overnight stop. It’s first come, first serve and we don’t know what it is usually but it is wide open right now. All sites have water and electric and 5 or 6 have sewer. However, there are not very many sites that are large enough for larger rigs – maybe 4 or 5. You should call and check on availability and always avoid Alabama home football game weekends. We spent some time in the museum today. It is well done and informative. We learned that the museum building was built in the 1930s out of concrete, by the Civilian Conservation Corp and it still looks great! We also climbed the largest mound today. It is thought that it was the Chief and his family’s home. At it’s height, Moundville was the largest city between Mexico and New York. There were around 10,000 Mississippian Native Americans living here and it is called the Big Apple of the 14th Century. In the 1960s and 70s you could climb all the mounds but no longer as some are burial mounds and we are much more sensitive about such things now. We are headed home tomorrow before the rains from Hurricane Zeta arrive. Everyone stay safe!

Friday, October 23 2020

This week has been a busy week of working around the house, working on some NOMADS business and for Max mowing and running the bush hog over all the pasture. The good news is that the pastures should be done for the year now. The yard will still have to be cut a few more times but the rest is done assuming of course that we get a frost pretty soon. It always takes at least a week to get all that done when we get back home. Today we headed to Tuscaloosa to work in Anne’s dad’s office and warehouse again and do some repairs to a rental property. Anne needs to clean out file cabinets and there is still some work to completely empty the warehouse and be ready to list the office and warehouse for sale. When making plans for all that, we found that the Moundville Archaeological Park just about ten miles south of the office just reopened their campground today so we get to be their first campers since March. Check out the website to learn more about the park. The park director drove over to the campground to welcome us today.  Anne and her family came here years ago so Anne was excited to return. Such a pretty park. They have totally redone the museum and we hope to take some time to see all the exhibits and enjoy the park while we are here. We did a quick walk through today and will give you a report when we have seen it all. Today was driving, getting set up, walking around the park and making a quick assessment of the office. Anne’s brother Jim has also joined us in his motor home and is camping right across from us. We should get some visiting in as well as some work and spend our afternoons and evening in a very quiet peaceful setting. Tonight we are the only two RVs in the park. Really cool.

Saturday, October 17, 2020

For those who have been following us for more that a few months, you will remember our summer construction project working on a church here in Blount County, AL.  Yesterday morning prior to packing to leave Sumatanga, we went to Cullman for our annual physicals. (They say we are good for another year.) On the way back to camp we stopped by the Pine Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Rosa to see what had been done since we were last there. Our good fortune was that our friend Bill happened to be there so we could get inside to take pictures. It’s looking good. Constructors friends, we hope you enjoy the picture update. Everyone remember to pray for our pastors and our worship services tomorrow.

Friday, October 16, 2020

After the grueling day Monday of weeding and cleaning out the debris in the labyrinth at Camp Sumatanga, the work continued Tuesday morning. It was more of the same – weeding and cleanup and digging up rocks marking the trail that had, over time, become buried in the dirt. It was amazing the improvement by the end of the day. We finally had the entire labyrinth revealed. A couple of us actually walked the entire path and found it is ½ mile walk to the center and back out. There was also more grass cutting and bush hogging. Three of the ladies also began creating a sign for the labyrinth. Wednesday after working on the labyrinth until mid-afternoon, we celebrated the completion of the labyrinth and the installation of the sign. It was very much a team effort with the entire team contributing to the effort. We are very pleased with the outcome. We are praying that people who visit the labyrinth will find a place to pray and meditate and leave with a closer relationship with our Lord. There was also more general landscaping, mowing, and other work done each day.

Thursday the pastor at Gary and Sharon’s church in Snead, AL came for our morning devotion and served the team communion. It was a sweet time. Thursday we also cleaned out the kitchen in the lodge of out-of-date food and did some cleaning. Then in the afternoon we returned all the tools, mowers and the tractor to the maintenance shed. Sumatanga provided a wonderful barbeque lunch for us at the pavilion.

Some of the team members left Thursday after lunch and the rest left today. As we were preparing to leave today the incoming camp director came by to thank us for our work at the camp. Please pray for him and his family as they bring the camp back out of COVID hibernation.