It rained several times over night and throughout the day today. This afternoon we did have a period of sunny skies and we were able to hike down to the county park and check it out. There is an RV park there and the Sebewaing river runs through the park before emptying into the Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron. It’s a nice little river.
We decided not to walk on this trail at the county park since it was underwater.
An old railroad depot we saw on our walk
This morning the team all went to one of the about three local restaurants in town before church. The Lamplighter serves a breakfast buffet on Sunday’s and it came recommended by the camp director, Jeff. Some of the team went with the buffet and reported everything was good. We opted for a southern omelet which was very good, and big. It was “southern” because it had sausage gravy on top of the omelet. It was also served with hash browns and biscuits and we were glad we decided to share. We both ate so much we didn’t want lunch until about 3:30.
We worshiped at Trinity UMC in downtown Sebewaing. It’s an older, small church that seems very active based on the announcements and things listed in the bulletin. The congregation was very welcoming and invited us back next week to enjoy breakfast with them and view a life size replica of Goliath’s spear. Sounds interesting.
Our opening meeting was at four and it was nice to begin getting to know everyone. We have worked with about ½ the team on previous projects and it’s great to see those team members again. Now it’s time to get ready for tomorrow morning. Devotions at 8:00am.
Yesterday we woke up to the sound of rain on the roof. A couple of small showers went over before we ventured out. When we did step out God gave us a rainbow to start our day. Nice way to start our time of walking around the campsites saying our goodbyes. It’s always a little sad. May not see some of these friends until next year in West Virginia. One of our friends had some motor home issues so we hung around a little while Max and Bruce tried to help.
Around 10:45 we left Crescent City in route to Michigan. We were driving lead with our Michigan team leader Suzanne following in her new motor home and Bruce and Jackie brought up the rear. Traffic was very heavy and of course that’s when some people become a little aggressive in their driving. We had to make of couple of hard brakings. When we pulled into our first rest area we discovered part of the reason for the traffic backup. Pulling in just before us and still trying to get their rigs situated were two trucks transporting huge blades for the wind turbines. Looking at the blades generating power in the wind farms, you know they are big. Seeing them driving down the road they look even bigger, but up close and personal, standing beside the transport trucks, they are huge. They take up a lot of room at the rest area too. Michigan allows you to spend the night in their rest areas, so our little convoy did just that.
We were happy to get in front of these trucks hauling wind turbine blades.
Each time we stopped at a rest area we checked for geocaches. This was the easiest one we found.
We even found an actual ammo can geocache. We don’t see many of these anymore.
Our home on Friday night
Everyone reported good sleep this morning before pulling out for the last leg of our trip. We had much less traffic today and saw a really nice sunrise as we traveled toward Sebewaing, MI. We received a warm welcome from the Bay Shore Camp director around 11:30. After setting up we set out to explore the camp. The camp is on the shore of Lake Huron, the second largest of the great lakes, where we hope to get some good sunset pictures while here. We found the climbing wall, miniature golf, zip line, archery, lots of buildings, pool, ball fields, outdoor worship areas, a boardwalk out to the lake and a road out to the lake. We probably haven’t found everything yet. It’s not nearly as large acreage as Camp Sumatanga at home but nice with lots of amenities. The director told us there were two negatives here. One, the sugar mill doesn’t have a pleasant aroma when the wind shifts the wrong way, and the railroad tracks that run right behind our rigs are used once a day late at night. He warned us that they would disturb our sleep for about an hour but after that it would be over for the day. We may have to bring our the ear plugs. Let you know more later. It was a good trip from Illinois with three good friends. Looking forward to the next three weeks.
The camp director really made us feel welcome
Sebewaing Bay of Lake Huron
Right behind our home for the next three weeks
Update on our love auction – extravagant generosity from everyone including NOMADS that were not able to attend – over $52,000.00 was raised to use in funding projects to help our camps, children’s homes, community outreach, etc. Amazing!
Today was the last day of this year’s NOMADS annual meeting. On the agenda was Bible Study, sing-along, worship and a continuation of the board meeting in which the gavel was passed to the new chairperson of the board and the new board members were introduced. For some reason the outgoing chair could not get the smile off his face. Training today included classes on giving devotions, converting a regular bathtub to a walk-in tub, RV solar power, line dancing, first aid and “Women and Tools”.
Everett (with a big smile) passing the gavel to Bill
NOMADS Board for 2019-2020
Line dancing class
Making a walk-in tub is a noisy process.
We ended the day with a catered dinner and entertainment by “Natural High” a local singing group that included some of the members that sang on Monday night.
A great program of Christian music
Then came the sad task of saying “see you down the road” to friends we may not see again until next year. It has been a fun and busy week and we are looking forward to going back to work on a project to get some rest. Please pray for safe travels for the NOMADS this weekend.
We have been blessed with nice weather for this annual meeting. Last year we had a lot of rain which tends to make for muddy RV sites and problems pulling out on the last day. Looks like we will avoid those problems this year.
Today we started with our usual energetic morning music/singing time, announcements, and then a devotion by a young really energetic pastor from a church about 7 miles from the campground. She challenged us to develop new ways to share our faith and reach others. She presented some good ideas we will be thinking about and considering. She really encouraged us to tell our stories in new ways. Good message.
Cheri, Tammy and Rodney have been leading us in fun morning sing-alongs.
Pastor Kara from Watseka UMC brought us a very lively morning message. If we were going to be here Sunday we would attend her church.
We then had another business meeting and more reports for the membership. After that educational seminars began. We skipped two of today’s classes to spend more time in preparation for our seminar on First Aid tomorrow afternoon. We did go to the DR Leader training class. Tonight we had another pot luck and a great choir concert. It was a fun, busy and tiring day. But it was a good day!
During the morning session these NOMADS were recognized for exceeding the 50 project milestone this year.
Gene and Carolyn taught one group some techniques for finishing drywall.
Ron taught another group about working with electrical wiring safely.
We worshiped at Trinity UMC in downtown Sebewaing. It’s an older, small church that seems very active based on the announcements and things listed in the bulletin. The congregation was very welcoming and invited us back next week to enjoy breakfast with them and view a life size replica of Goliath’s spear. Sounds interesting.
RVing With a Purpose 