RVing With a Purpose

Sunday, July 21, 2019

It was another very busy week doing similar things as last week in Tuscaloosa except this week was at our house and Aunt Helen’s. There were trips to Hope House and the church for the Mission Market donations. We also had a routine meeting at the nursing home regarding Jean, a doctor’s appointment for Jean and a doctor’s appointment for Max. Jean’s hand is continuing to heal nicely. It has been amazing for some one 96 years old to recover a quickly and uneventfully as Jean. In between all that Anne has been working on some NOMADS work. Our real focus was our house – trying to reduce our stuff so that it fits in the RV. Hard work! Max also spent a lot of his time digitizing slides and pictures. He has been a photographer for so many years it has been a daunting task. We were faithful with our exercise for the week, even thought it was still so hot. Looking forward to the predicted cooler temperatures this next week.

This weekend was Discovery weekend for the youth at our church so today’s service was done by the youth. What an awesome service. The Holy Spirit really showed up. We have really enjoyed being back at our home church. One more week at home and then we will be on the road again.

Sunday, July 14, 2019

OOPS!  Discovered tonight that we never posted the blog entry we made for last week. It has hung out all week in draft mode. Sorry about that.

It was another really hot week in Alabama. We spent a lot of the week cleaning out Anne’s mom’s house in Tuscaloosa and taking things to charities, A lot of progress was made since both brothers were there for a day or so. We will be glad when that job is complete but we aren’t there yet. We also worked on cleaning out our house and taking things to charities. We hope to put the house on the market in the next few months but not sure when that will happen. We are determined that our family will have little to do when we are gone. Still lots to do at our house too. Then there was the same at Aunt Helen’s house along with some more yard work.

Thursday Aunt Jean went back to the doctor for a dressing change on her hand. He was pleased with the healing and the “boxing glove” size dressing was changed for a much smaller one. It was a painful exchange but Jean is much happier with the smaller dressing. Next week the sutures come out. We have been very pleased with her progress and the fact that she has really had remarkably little pain. She is one tough lady.

Of course today we worshiped with our church family in Oneonta. The worship service was such a blessing. Great music and preaching. Hope you all have had a great Sunday too.

Update on The Constructors for Christ project at Hodge Missionary Baptist Church:

Much has been accomplished in the last two weeks. Most of the sheathing is on on the roof and sides, much of the electrical and HVAC has been roughed in, the second floor decking and stairs are in, and some windows were installed. Some of the replacement trusses were were delivered this week, also. Keep the project in your prayers.

Saturday July 6, 2019

Oops! It’s been a week and we haven’t made a blog entry. Well, we are still alive and well. On the assumption that you really aren’t interested in reading about our mundane cleaning out of our house as we prepare it for sale and taking care of things at Aunt Helen’s house, there isn’t much to say about this week. However, we do have a couple of lessons learned:

1.  Don’t buy anything thinking someone will want it after you’re gone.
2.  Never plant any kind of ivy or climbing vine near your house. At some point in the future it will cause you, or someone else, misery.

Oh, we forgot to mention last week that a friend installed a 50 amp electrical connection where we park Fred. So wonderful!

We spent a good deal of time in Oneonta checking on Jean and Helen this week. Tuesday was Aunt Jean’s hand surgery. She has an excellent hand surgeon who is very compassionate and was very careful in his examination so as to not hurt her. Jean entertained the staff making her funny little quips during all the waiting. The staff all loved her. The surgeon had to remove about ½ of the third finger on the left hand and released the contractures on the other fingers and wrist. The hand should now be in more of a resting position without the fingernails cutting into the palm of her hand and causing infection. She will return to the doctor for a dressing change next Thursday but so far things are going well. We spent part of the 4^th visiting with the LOLs and then took the rest of the day to just rest.

Today we decided to ride up to Cheaha State Park. It’s the highest point in Alabama and a nice little park. We received an email last week about the improvements they have made recently in the campground so we went to check it out. It was a nice little excursion but it was too hot to do anything outside today so we opted out of hiking. We did our walking this morning before it got so hot. Don’t forget to be praying for our pastors tomorrow.

Friday, June 28, 2019

First, thank you for all the prayers and support for the Constructors for Christ and Hodge Missionary Baptist Church. We have not yet heard the official cause of the partial collapse of the trusses but we do know there were some serious storms Saturday and Sunday and we experienced one on Friday night before we left Saturday. We also know that the Constructors have had a great week and made great progress. They had all of the collapsed trusses cleaned up by Monday night. We also heard “we are having so much fun” from some of the youth there this week. Please continue to be in prayer because this church is impacting their community for Jesus.

We have had a busy week although probably not very interesting to anyone else. Of course it was great to be back at our home church, Lester Memorial and our Sunday school class. All of our summer mission teams were back in town so there were lots of hugs for everyone.

For the family: Monday morning we were in Birmingham for Aunt Jean’s appointment with the hand surgeon. She will be having surgery July 2 to remove a portion of the middle finger on her left hand and hopefully release the contracture on the other fingers. She doesn’t seemed bothered by this plan and didn’t want to wait another week. It is planned for same day surgery so she should be back in her bed Tuesday night. Please remember her and her physicians and caregivers in your prayers.

Tuesday we were back in Tuscaloosa working to clean out Anne’s dad’s warehouse. Wednesday was doctor appointment – no problems, another visit with the LOL’s and then back to Tuscaloosa for a few hours. Thursday was errands and some donations to the Hope House and finally today we got to stay home. Still lots of work to do around here. But we are making progress.

Sunday, June 23, 2019

We just found out that at about 5:00 pm today many of the trusses at the Hodge Missionary Baptist Church build collapsed. The reason has not been determined, but it is suspected that the storms this weekend somehow weakened the structure. Please be in prayer for the church and the Constructors for Christ team this week that will be removing the debris and rebuilding that part of the building.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

First thing this morning we drove to the build site of Hodge Baptist Church to take one more picture. We found that the wind had blown our work tent over – even though it was anchored down by six five gallon buckets of water. Fortunately the building frame was not damaged. We met and talked to some of the church members who were also there. They are all so excited about the new building. Here are the pictures we took each morning to show the progress of the build:

We went back to the Bible Camp and flushed tanks, packed up and headed out. It was an easy drive back to Oneonta where we stopped to check in on the aunts and buy some produce. The Gym on State Hwy 75 across from the high school has a large parking lot that is never full so it is a convenient place to unhook the truck and run our errands before heading back up Pine Mountain.

Almost as soon as we finished setting up the rains came. We were under a severe thunderstorm warning for a while but only received some heavy blowing rain. There are still some strong storms in the area but we are not expecting anything severe.

Friday, June 21, 2019

We have continued to have summer thunderstorms and some intermittent rain. We awoke to the weather alert radio announcement of severe thunderstorm one morning. Today has been clear and very hot. Heat index of 105. Tonight we are suppose to have another nasty storm come through. Hope we can get some sleep.

Today was our last day here in Dutton, Alabama. It has been a wonderful week. The Hodge Missionary Baptist Church has been an extremely welcoming church. They truly know how to show Christian hospitality. They have brought us fresh vegetables from their gardens, wonderful cakes and pies, grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for us and even had the Little Something Extra ice cream truck come by last night with free ice cream. (Please take time to read the Something Extra story.  Very special people.)  We have made many new friends in their congregation and community and they will remain in our hearts and prayers as we leave. The progress on their new church building has been amazing, especially since we were predicted to have a very wet week. So glad that did not materialize. But, more importantly has been the demonstrations of their love for their fellow members and their community. Again we experienced several real God moments reminding us that our work is so much more than pounding nails and putting up walls. Yesterday there was a gentleman standing on the outside of the walls of the church, looking in. Hugh and Randy noticed him and told him to come on in. He said no and they asked him if he was a member of the church. He said no, he was an outsider, just looking to see what was going on. He lives in a house very near the church. They, again invited him to come on in to take a look around. He replied “well I’ve never gone to God but now it looks like He is coming to me.” This opened an opportunity for the guys to have a good conversation with him and hopefully plant some seeds. Would love to see this gentleman when we come back for the dedication of the church. He will remain in our prayers as well. Its been a really good week. We will continue to track the progress of the project and will try to attend the dedication of the building.