Month: September 2018

Sunday, September 9, 2018

It’s Sunday and we again chose to worship at OU UMC, Oxford-University United Methodist Church. So it’s a little confusing to us outsiders but in the town of Oxford where the University of Mississippi is located and the church is right next to the University so somehow over the years the name became as above. And everyone in Oxford thinks nothing of it. Very welcoming church membership spanning all ages. Seems to be a healthy congregation. We have heard messages from both the senior pastor and associate pastor, both very good. The church is active in student support as you would expect but has active ministry to all ages. We have enjoyed our time at OU. We do miss our home church though and are so glad they stream the services. We came home today and listened to both last week’s and today’s message from Lester Memorial. We are blessed to have Pastor Harvey.

We are still getting rain here and had a nice afternoon rain. What could be better for a Sunday afternoon nap? Nice! We were invited to dinner tonight to meet some of Camp Lake Stephens Board. We actually met one of the members at church today as well. We also got to meet Rich’s wife tonight. Nice dinner with good conversation. They have a good ministry team here at the camp. We may come back here and do some drop in work. As all church camps, they can always use some extra hands to accomplish their work.

Did not get our usual exercise today due to the rain but still got our 10,000 steps, but only 3.8 miles.  Hope every one attended worship at the church of your choice today. Be sure to pray for your pastors during the week as they prepare for next Sunday. Remember that they face many of the same challenges that you face each day. Also, please be in prayer for all those in the path of our next hurricane.

Saturday, September 8, 2018

We had to make the most out of today because of our “short” weekend. We were too tired last evening to do much other than a load of clothes. Today, our dear friends Barry and Donna drove over from home and we met them in Pontatoc, MS, along with Mariel and Shannon for a bike ride on the Tanglewood Rail Trail. We really enjoy the rail trails. The ones we have ridden have generally been well maintained, in very pretty areas, and they usually have more gradual inclines because, remember, the trains had to climb those hills too. Today we started at the Pontotoc Gateway which is at MM 25 of the trail and road north to Ecru. The entire trail is 40 miles. We didn’t have a set distance for the ride today but had thought we might go about 10 miles out and then back. The ride out seemed pretty easy, first through town and then out through soybean and cotton fields. A nice ride. We stopped at the Ecru whistle stop for a little water and rest break and then road on. Unfortunately, we weren’t too much further up the trail and Max had a flat tire. He ran over a very sharp object and punctured his rear inner tube. He was able to pull it out of the tire and then removed the wheel and placed a patch on the tube. He used our little portable pump to air the tire back up and then tried Barry’s and Shannon’s but could never get it fully inflated. We didn’t know how long the patch would hold so we headed back toward the truck. That was when we discovered we had had a tail wind going out and were fighting a head wind going back. We all also agreed that it seemed that maybe we had been biking slightly downhill because it seemed like we were having to pedal harder and slightly uphill on the way back. Besides it had gotten pretty hot. Maybe it was a good thing Max had a flat before we got too far away. We ended with 15.5 miles round trip. A good ride and a pretty day.

After loading the bikes we headed into town for lunch. Donna had found a Chinese restaurant that sounded really good and we were all set to try one of their appetizers. However when we arrived there was a note posted that they are closed until September 11.

We all pulled out the cell phones and settled on Happy Day Cafe. It’s also a bakery, so that’s not bad. Cute little place with friendly and attentive staff. We all had good sandwiches and then some baked goods and specialty drinks. We had a banana/strawberry smoothie that was very good and brought home a cupcake and some cinnamon buns for tomorrow’s breakfast. It was a fun morning with good friends. So glad Donna and Barry made the trip over. We are missing them.

After getting back to Oxford we made a grocery store stop and then home to finish the laundry. We still had to do some walking because we didn’t have our steps in for the day. Glad Mariel came over to ask us to walk with her.  Otherwise, we might have gotten lazy.  Even with the 15 mile ride we still got over 10,000 steps. We are feeling better since we have returned to the habit of getting more exercise.

It was a good day! Thanks Donna and Barry and Mariel and Shannon for joining us.

Friday, September 7, 2018

We are stuck on 70 degrees and 95% humidity. This morning we also had fog. The forecast high was 91. Don’t know what the actual high was but everyone was very hot and really had to drink fluids to avoid dehydration.

Even though it was Friday, the team worked today since we were off Monday for the Labor Day holiday. We know it was still just a four day week, not an extra day but we were all very tired by the end of the day. Part of it was surely the heat and humidity. Maybe the rest was just because we knew we were working on Friday.

For our former team members who follow this blog, we want you all to know that R3SM, our Hattiesburg agency turned the keys to his house over to James this week. So happy that he is finally back in his home, a totally new house. James has been restored to a better situation than he had before the tornado. You all worked very hard and played a big part in this wonderful gift to him. Praying he has many wonderful years in his new home and thankful for all the NOMADS who worked so hard in Hattiesburg.  (Click here to read our blog entry of our last day there.)

The Board of Directors of Camp Lake Stephens will be meeting here beginning Sunday afternoon. Therefore, we spent a lot of today trying to finish up some things to make the camp look great for the guests coming for the weekend, and the Board Sunday. Today we (Max, Anne and Kitty) completed the Restful Cottage and one of the Board members will be staying there Sunday night. We repaired the lavatory drain, moved the last of the IKEA furniture from the Lodge to the cottage, washed the new dishes, pans, utensils and towels and placed then in them in the cottage. We also installed tissue holder and towel rods and generally just cleaned up the cottage. We are pleased with the outcome. Hope the Board is too.

Dave and John worked at the barn to get it looking good and then joined the rest of us in the main part of camp helping wherever they were needed.

Shannon, Del and Peggy completed the “Maypole” area – officially the sail shade structure. Late this afternoon we all sat around under the shade. Nice.

The garden fence and gate were also completed by Mariel and Carol with the help of John, Shannon, Dave and Max.

Carol and Dave met with Rich our camp director and they told us that he is very pleased with all we have accomplished for the camp. He has never worked with NOMADS before and as usual is surprised by how much we get done in a week. We are all very tired tonight but it is a good tired.

Our weekend is one day short but we still have a play day planned for tomorrow. It should be fun.

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Today was another day of intermittent rain but nothing even approached severe. We did get more rain overnight and don’t know the storm total for this area but definitely had enough rain for a while. When we walked this morning it was again 70 degrees and 95% humidity. At lunch it was 80 and still 95% humidity. We are ready for some dryer air.

When we walked this morning we saw what we think we two foxes run across the road in front of us. They were in the shadows, so we couldn’t be positive but they looked like foxes to us. On our afternoon walk we saw a beautiful rainbow. Walking is good for the body but also good for the spirit.

Peggy had our devotion today and as God often works when He is trying to tell us something, Peggy used the same scripture from Mathew that we had in our Seedbed devotion from Mark 4:35-41. It’s where Jesus is asleep in the boat during the storm. The main point is to not panic during the storms of life, but to trust Jesus. Even if you don’t usually read Seedbed Daily Devotion, you should read today’s. It’s a good one.

After devotion, we went back to our rainy day assignments from yesterday. Kitty completed the curtains for the retreat cabin and Carol and Mariel (the curtain crew) hung them this afternoon. They look very good. Kitty joined the Ikea furniture crew (Anne and Peggy) and they completed the three drawer chest they started yesterday and then completed a large cube storage unit and then put together a bed.

Dave, Del, John, Shannon and Max continued the barn remodel. Max and Shannon worked on electrical rough-in while the others completed framing in a window and then moved on to insulation. Dave helped out wherever needed.

By the end of the day all the curtains were complete and all the furniture was complete. We will have to see what they need us to do tomorrow.