Month: July 2017

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The rain began about 4:00 this morning. Boy was it hard to get out of bed. Listening to the rain on the room and snuggling up in bed – we could have slept several more hours. The rain was pretty much over by 9:00 and it was already starting to be muggy. By noon the sun was out and the temperature was rising quickly.

Larry and Carol had our devotion today, using “hands” as the theme and “He touched me” as our song. We were reminded of how Jesus touched the person with leprosy, and the children, and how we are to be the hands of Jesus and touch people. The NOMADS motto is “Rebuilding lives, homes and facilities with God’s love and our hands.”

Today for the first day since we arrived, we split the team. Hated to do that, but it was the best use of our time and talents. When we first headed to work, Max went with Anne to the NC Disaster Relief warehouse that Anne visited yesterday afternoon and then to the new job site – Leon and Virginia’s house since he had not seen that house. This house is a two bedroom, one bath house and more typical of the homes we work on for disaster rebuilds. We understand that originally all the homes in a several block are were all mill homes, exactly the same floor plan, owned by the company, but then later they we sold to individuals. Currently the plumbing and electrical are not complete. There are only two plugs that are working so we used one for lights and the other for fans. There is no water in the house yet. This entire neighborhood was devastated by the flood and there are not enough licensed people to get all the plumbing and electrical work done. We took the before pictures this morning and then Anne, Ray, Cathy and Larry began the work on the drywall. We started on the ceilings which we will stipple a little later. The mudding was started previously but needs a good deal of additional work. The drywall work will take several days.  Oh, Leon came over to the new job site this afternoon so we got to meet him. He is an elderly gentleman who seems very nice. He is so anxious to get back in his home. So glad we can help in that process. Maybe his wife will come with him sometime later this week.

 

Max, Suzanne and Carol went back to Mary Elizabeth’s. They began the laminate installation in the dining room. There are pantry shelves to work around and shorten as well as another door to be shortened. We all met back at the campground for lunch and then back to more of the same for the afternoon. The laminate is now about 75% complete in the dining room and all that’s left is the kitchen.   Since all the dry wall was already up when we arrived, we couldn’t write scripture on the studs so we have decided to write on the sub-floor before we place the laminate.  Another good day for Mary Elizabeth and Elizabeth because Elizabeth’s new mattress and box springs were delivered.  One more step in their return to normalcy.  It was another good day.

 

Monday, July 17, 2017

It rained off and on during the night and was still raining when we got up this morning. By time for everyone to come to our home for devotional time the rain had stopped for the day. We were thankful that it remained cloudy and hoped that meant a cooler day. We had a little more drizzle during the early part of our work day, but it was a way cooler morning to work. Wonderful. Since it was Monday and half of our team was new today it was a little slow start, but then we really got moving. The best thing about today was that we got to assist Mary Elizabeth in moving her curio cabinet back in it’s place in her living room. She then spent the remainder of the day polishing it and then placing her precious dolls back in their home. They have been safely packed away since the flood. Mary Elizabeth is just so happy. She is finally feeling that she is getting her home back. It brought tears to our eyes today just to talk with her and watch her.

We worked on the caulking and painting of trim in the living room. We also finished the trim around the fireplace and the stairs in the hallway. The next big project that was completed today was the re-installation of the cedar boards in the dining room. With water up 2.5 feet in the dining room the boards had to be cut and the insulation removed and replaced. That was done shortly after the flood. Now we had to put the boards back in place – which was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. But the re-installation was completed as far as we could get today. We will have to purchase more cedar to complete that job and will then install a cedar chair rail where the boards were cut. Now it’s time to install the laminate in the dinning room which should begin tomorrow.

We also went to a new job site this afternoon. It is a much smaller house just maybe 2 miles from Mary Elizabeth’s. The home owners are not living in this home because it had to be completely gutted due to mold. All of that has been removed and the interior walls rebuilt and drywall installed. We will divide the team and part of us will start there tomorrow while the rest will work on the laminate at Mary Elizabeth’s house. This new site will begin with drywall finishing. Sorry, no pictures today of the new site because the phone battery was almost dead but we will get pictures before we start first thing in the morning. That’s about it from Lumberton today. It’s 7:30 and we are waiting for it to cool off some more before we get our afternoon walking done. We understand it is going to be a really hot week at home, too. Y’all stay safe and drink lots of water!

Sunday, July 16, 2017

This morning was nice and cloudy. We again walked about 6:30 to get some exercise before it got too hot. It was only 73 when we walked today, humid, but with the clouds, certainly much better than yesterday.

The team went back to Chestnut Street UMC today since we wanted to introduce Larry and Carol to our host church and show them the supply trailer. There was a large group of youth from Pennsylvania in worship today. They are here for the week to work on homes in the area. They will be working on some roofing and window installations. Not sure what else. The message today was on the parable of the sower. Pastor Lowry reminded us that the different soils represented the different problems of our heart. Excellent service again today. Again such a warm welcome and much appreciation shown for the volunteers in town working to restore Robeson county. We really like working here and are praying about returning fall of 2018 for more work here. BTW – that let’s you know how much work there is to do here. They have already scheduled a NOMADS team for fall of 2018.

After worship we went back to Pier 41 again. Again the owner visited with us and thanked us for working in his community. Again we all enjoyed our food. Today we had broiled shrimp and it was oh so good! Always really good food, large portions and very reasonable prices. After lunch we took Larry and Carol to what will be the new UMCOR campground for volunteers since they will probably be moving to the new location while they are here. It was then back to the fairgrounds and waiting on our last team members to arrive. Ray and Cathy arrived safely, about 2:45 and got parked and settled before the rain began. So we have our team for this week. Yea!

We had our team meeting at our RV at 6:00 and since it was National Ice Cream Day we made home-made peach ice cream to serve the team. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and it was a good time of getting to know our new team members and familiarizing them to what we are doing here. Seem like another good group. Looking forward to this week and what we will be able to accomplish for the home owners.

You again ask “what about the Mexican Rodeo?” Well it is now 9:30 and we are sitting in our RV listening to very loud Spanish music. It seemed to get started mid afternoon. We saw a few horses, no bulls or anything else rodeo-wise. Of course it did storm late afternoon so that could have changed their plans. Anyway we were a little disappointed we didn’t get to see bucking bulls. All we have seen much of is a lot of dancing and loud music. We are about 2 football fields away from the gathering and it is loud and we can feel the bass vibrating FRED. Everyone seems to be having a good time. We do hope it doesn’t go too late since we have to work tomorrow. Sorry, no pictures of people flying off bulls.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Today was another hot one. The temperature started upward quickly this morning. We did our walking at 6:30 am today to try to beat the heat but the sun was warming it up quickly. Heat index was predicted to be 105 but since we weren’t working and were staying in the air conditioning we didn’t ever check it today. We stayed home all day and relaxed, did a little house cleaning (vacuumed and mopped), and watched movies. Love the fact that we can clean the whole motor home in so little time! Our first couple joining us this week arrived about 3:45 this afternoon after a hard drive with lots of backups on the interstate. So thankful for their safe arrival. Larry and Carol will be taking over leadership when we leave at the end of the week. We have another couple that should be arriving tomorrow afternoon.

What about the rodeo you ask? We are wondering about that too. No signs of a rodeo today. No bulls, no beer and all is quiet. There is something going on inside one of the buildings here at the fairgounds with a fair number of cars but otherwise no activity.  So sorry – no interesting pictures of bulls bucking people off. Tomorrow?? We will see.

Late this afternoon we had a severe thunderstorm come through and the temperature dropped almost immediately. It is currently 73. Nice! Actually the high for tomorrow is only suppose to be in the 80’s and the first of next week should be cooler. That will be a welcomed relief. After the rain we had another beautiful sunset – in both the western and eastern skies.

 

Please continue to pray for the safe travel of our NOMADS this weekend and remember to pray for the pastors of all the churches tomorrow.  Hope you are having a great weekend!