Back to Sumatanga

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Sorry we didn’t post yesterday. Yesterday was a very busy day, with hair cut, grocery shopping for some of the ladies, and handling a lot of business items for Aunt Jean. We didn’t get back home until about 5:15 and then it was nonstop loading out FRED until we went to bed. We decided we needed to move FRED to Sumatanga early this morning because bad weather was predicted for later in the day and Anne has to unexpectedly go to Tuscaloosa early in the morning.  Max still shouldn’t be trying to set up by himself.

We departed the mountain a little after 9:00 this morning and had an uneventful drive to Camp Sumatanga. For those that are not familiar with the camp, Sumatanga is the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church camp and retreat center. Sumatanga has a special place in our hearts because we both came here many years ago when we were kids. We rode Max’s motorcycle to the cross on top of the mountain here, on our second date. Our church has at least one picnic here each year and we have now returned here to work on several NOMADS projects and done drop in work at other times over the past several years. It’s such a peaceful place and they do such good work here. We checked in with Lee Padgett, camp director, and got hugs from him and others on the staff. It’s like coming home. Everyone is almost like family. We also met the Dennis, the facilities manager, to find out what needs to be done. There are tent platforms to complete and new ones to build. There are walls to be taken down and others to be built. There are organizational projects and possibly some painting along with some pressure washing. If it goes like other projects here, there will be other things to do that no one has even thought of yet. There is always work at Sumatanga. We are sure it will be another great project and we just pray that our team accomplishes whatever it is that God needs us to do while we are here.

Today there was a crew from Cutters for Christ working on taking down trees in preparation for the zip line that will soon be installed. They have more than 84 trees to remove. They had 8 men today and tomorrow there are suppose to be a few more. Needless to say, it will take several more days to clear the path down the mountain. Since the Cutters were here the camp was preparing lunch and we were invited to join them. Donna and her staff as usual out did their selves. From the picture you can see why it is very hard to not gain weight on this project. The roast beef here is some of the most tender and flavorful you can find. And they make a dish we have never had anywhere else. Tomato Pie. It’s tomatoes and onion and cheese and we really need the recipe because we don’t know the other ingredients and it might not sound good to you but wow it is very good.

We have the campground to ourselves tonight and we are enjoying just looking out over the lake. Can’t wait for the rest of the team to join us. Some will be arriving tomorrow and the rest Saturday. Drive safely all you NOMADS moving to new projects this weekend.