Pat, retired UMC pastor, brought our devotion today by reading the Easter story. She reminded us that no one should have been surprised by the resurrection, the return to life, since God gave us life to begin with.
If you want to know what our work day was like today, look at yesterday. The work assignment part of our morning meeting was short. Gary just told us to go back to where we were yesterday and keep doing what we were doing yesterday. We haven’t talked to the Groom Road crew to see what was acomplished there today.
At Norwich Drive, we finished flooring another bedroom and the living room. We still have a little left in the foyer, the hall and one more bedroom. We have no pictures of of flooring being put down because it would look just like yesterday. However, since we didn’t get any pictures of Pat working on the walls yesterday, we made sure we got one today. It was a good day.
Today was another great day. It’s starting to really warm up now and we have to be sure to stay well hydrated. Today’s high was 90.
Today Ruth Ann and Dave presented our devotion from one of Rick Warren’s writings. The Scripture was 1 Tim 6:7 and we talked about fear and what that does to us. Why are we afraid to let people get to know the real us? They encouraged us to take the first step in opening up to people and to trust God. Thanks, Ruth Ann and Dave.
After devotion, Anne, Max, Roger, Pat, Janice and Marvin headed back to Norwich. Gary, Sharon, Ruth Ann, Dave, Bob and Virginia went out to Groom Road. We understand that they got the kitchen sink installed which is one of the big three in getting people out of the FEMA trailers. They have to have a working bathroom, a working kitchen and one bedroom. They started installing the flooring in the bedroom and some painting done in the bathroom. At Norwich we continued to work on the flooring and since the tile guy finished in the master bath, we were able to begin the drywall finishing there. Pat worked hard on the sanding today. The rest of us worked on flooring and are making progress. The counter tops were installed over the weekend and look very nice. As our homeowner said, “It’s looking like a house again.” It was a good day.
Today was another beautiful day. Of course, we went to church this morning at Francis Asbury. Pastor David was out today and the NOMADS were asked to speak. Anne was selected. She began by sharing a little history of NOMADS and the statistics for the number of hours NOMADS donated to our agencies last year, 120,056 hours – about 2.96 million dollars worth. Over the past 10 years NOMADS have performed over 25 million dollars worth of volunteer labor. She then talked to the congregation about the real meat of NOMADS, our members attempting to be the hands and feet of Christ in a world filled with needs and hurts. She shared some memories of various projects we have worked and ended reminding the congregation that we are all really NOMADS and we are all called to be in service to others, to love God and love others. She also used part of Gary’s devotion from last week to remind everyone that God has a purpose for them and if they look in the right place (and are willing) they will find it. The congregation seemed to appreciate the message.
The team went to Sammy’s for lunch, where the food is always good. They were crowded today and a little too noisy for good conversation but everyone still seemed to enjoy it. We had our usual 6:00 meeting and welcomed our new couple, Roger and Pat from Ohio. We look forward to working with them and getting to know them better. It was another really good day in Baton Rouge with some time to rest up before starting back to work tomorrow. We will be really pushing the next two weeks to get the two homes as close to complete as possible before we leave. Hope you all had a great weekend too.
We are becoming quite spoiled to beautiful weather. Today was gorgeous. High in the eighties, some breeze, sunshine and blue skies.
Suzanne getting ready to leave
We slept in a little this morning and then readied our bikes for a ride. But before we left we we had to say “see you down the road” to Suzanne. Such a good friend. We will miss her. But, she plans to be at annual meeting in September so we should see her then. We then headed to Mandeville, LA , about 65 miles east of Baton Rouge on I-12, to one of the trail heads of the Tammany Trace Bike Trail. Tammany Trace is a great 31 mile asphalt rail trail. It begins in Covington and ends in Slidell, LA. We rode about 7 miles from Mandeville eastward toward Slidell, for a total of 15 miles including a couple of side trips. The trail goes through wooded areas and bayou areas. We saw beautiful water lilies in bloom, as well as a water moccasin crossing the trail and a small alligator in a ditch. It was Saturday so there was a good group of people using the trail today. It was nice to see the families out riding the trail.
Tammany Trace
Water lilies starting to bloom
Little gator beside the trail
Sorry for the poor picture. By the time we (we??) got turned around the water moccasin was off the trail.
In Mandeville there was the kind of farmers market we really like – lots of locally made food items with plenty of samples. Of course we had to make a few purchases. We have a great butter praline pound cake as well as some other goodies.
Community Market in Mandeville
Lot of vendors at the Community Market
Butter Praline Pound Cake
After the ride we returned to FRED to relax the rest of the day. Our new team members, Roger and Pat arrived early afternoon. We have not worked with them before so we will be making new friends this week.
Roger and Pat arriving
Remember to pray for all the church services tomorrow. May the Word be spoken, and heard.
Any takers? (This a a business we drove past in Baton Rouge.)
RVing With a Purpose 