Author: rvingwithapurpose

Thursday, January 2, 2022

Today was another beautiful but busy day. Elaine led us in devotion time sharing from one of the daily devotions from “Right From The Heart“, a devotion on courage based on Deuteronomy 31:6. She asked us to consider the questions; Are you living a courageous life? How do you define courage? In what areas of your life is Jesus asking you to live courageously? It doesn’t have to be in some big, important way. We need to live courageously in our every day stuff of life. Thanks, Elaine for sharing with us.

After devotion, we began saying goodbyes, which then continued throughout the day and will continue through tomorrow. We have grown close to this group in a short period of time. It’s unusual for your entire team to change out the same weekend. We will miss them. But God has more NOMADS on the way.

The team all went to Dennis’s this morning and then after Jim let us know the door had been delivered, Steve and Max headed back to Sugarloaf Key to install a new front door at Bob’s. Of course it wasn’t exactly the same size as the old door they removed so they just framed it up and put some temporary trim around it to keep some of the critters out. Next week we will have to return to remove the temporary trim with the correct trim. But the door looks nice.  After lunch they returned to Dennis’s for the final clean up.

At Dennis’s house Larry and Dennis got started on completing the priming of the walls and ceilings in the bedroom, closets and hall. Elaine also worked on cutting in the corners and edges in the same area. We were very pleased to see that the blue paint in the living room and kitchen areas dried nice and evenly. Glenita and Elaine did some touch up on the areas painted yesterday while Anne and Kathy completed rolling out the walls. After getting all the painting done we began cleaning up. The next two projects will be texturing the bedroom, closets and hall, and starting the installation of the flooring in the kitchen and living room. Before starting those two projects it was time to take a break, and do some serious cleaning. We needed to move the supplies we won’t need for a few days back to the trailer, and make room for the flooring. We also swept, vacuumed, and mopped the floors in the living room and kitchen to try to eliminate as much of the drywall dust as possible. The bedroom and hall were also emptied of unneeded tools to make room for the texturing. Very pleased with the way the house is coming together, and it’s now ready for a new team to begin work next week.

Many, many thanks to this team for answering God’s call to serve the people of the lower keys. Please join us in praying for their safety as they move on to other projects next week. We look forward to the new team members arrival Saturday and also pray for safe travel for them.

Wednesday, January 1, 2019

Happy New Year!! We slept through all the fire works except the early ones at about 9:00. Today was a regular work day for us so we had to get some sleep. Kathy and Larry led us in devotion today. Kathy used a lesson from the Upper Room based on Psalm 121, “Where does my strength come from? My strength comes from the Lord.” She read the entire Psalm substituting “NOMADS” in all the appropriate places. You could also substitute your name to personalize the message even more. Read it aloud using your name. Faith comes by hearing the Word.

After devotion and some daily planning, the team headed back to Dennis’s house. We all hit the ground running and worked hard all day. Today the kitchen and living room ceiling received the ceiling white paint. Looks good. The same two rooms walls were painted blue – almost all the walls. We don’t know the color name but some called it sky blue. It looks good and Dennis is happy with it so that’s all that really matters. It wasn’t quite dry when we left today so it was still looking a little splotchy. We will have to see tomorrow if it needs another coat. The drywall in the back bedroom was completed and was also primed, along with three closets also primed. The drywall in the hall should be ready for a light sanding and priming in the morning. Once that is done we will be ready to get the sprayer back out and texture the ceilings and walls in bedroom and hall. That will probably be one of the first projects for the team arriving this weekend. Completing the back bedroom is important because then Dennis will move into that room while we complete his bedroom and bathroom. A lot of work completed today. We are tired.

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

It’s New Year’s Eve and yet again another beautiful day. Not quite as warm – 80 degrees – as the past few days, but great day for working. Glenita and Steve lead us in our devotional time today and we had an added treat of Glenita playing her ukulele for our songs. She then talked to us about hands and the hands depicted in the stained glass windows of the sanctuary. We thought about Mary holding the hands of Baby Jesus and Joseph holding his hands as he learned to walk. Then there were the nails in the hands of Jesus and Thomas not believing until he touched the nail scared hands. There is that sacred moment when we hold someone’s hand as they die. God holds us in his hands, and as we go about living our lives, we are to be the hands of Jesus as we serve one another. That’s what NOMADS do. Steve closed the devotion time with Isaiah 6, “Here I am, send me”. Thanks, Steve and Glenita.

Some of the stained glass windows in the church

We decided to keep the team together today and we all headed out to Dennis’s house. Today was the day for texturing the walls. Dennis decided he wanted a light texture with knockdown. After covering the doors, windows, air conditioner, light switches, plugs, etc, we mixed the drywall compound to a thin consistency and were ready to go. It took all of us to keep everything going. Someone with the hopper spraying, two holding the shield to protect the ceiling, someone moving our lights around so we could see what we were doing and also keeping people from tripping over the air hose, two people for the knock down, and someone to just keep us all coordinated. Everything worked great and Dennis was very pleased with the results. We have been making progress on the house each day but today was one of those days when you could really see the results. It was a good day for the team. This afternoon we were back working on the drywall finishing in the bedroom and hall.

It’s New Year’s Eve so the team elected to gather in the fellowship hall tonight for appetizers and game time. Tonight was Mexican train. It’s always interesting when you get people from all over the country together for games. Rules are not necessarily the same in Nebraska, or Minnesota and Florida. We had a fun evening and now, we will celebrate the arrival of new year in some other time zone because we will be sound asleep for welcoming the new year in Florida. Happy New Year’s everyone. Hope you have a great new year.

Monday, December 30, 2019

Everyone is probably tired of hearing it but today was another gorgeous day in the Keys. The high was the same as yesterday, 83 degrees, with beautiful blue skies. Love it and getting very spoiled!

We had devotion today. We talked in yesterday’s blog about how God nudged us outside at just the right time. We know he was trying to make us more aware of those moments when we were trying to decide what to use for devotion today. The agency gave us a little devotion book for Christmas and when we looked at the one for December 30, it just went along with what happened yesterday and with what so often occurs on NOMADS projects. God Winks!

Before heading back to our job sites today, we first needed to help Jim, our construction coordinator, with 5 pallets of vinyl laminate flooring. We knew it was to be delivered today but Jim was not expecting a 6 am call this morning advising him it was on the way from Marathon Key, 30 minutes away. Forty-three boxes, which NOMADS will install at some point, went in the church in the David Hill room. At lunch we got Dennis to meet us at the church to move eighty boxes (two pickup loads) to his house, and the remaining 17 boxes went to Jim’s office for use at various other sites. With everyone working together it really didn’t take very long to get it all to the proper locations but there may be some sore muscles tomorrow.

Max, Glenita and Steve went back to Sugarloaf Key and by lunch time had completed the last punch list item at Peggy and Danny’s house and touched up drywall and painting, sealed the vent pipes, and removed the drywall patch they installed last week at Bob’s. Now the area can dry out and be permanently repaired.  After lunch they worked at the church finishing the trim in the sound booth, caulking and resizing a return air intake in one of the rooms.

The rest of the team went back to Dennis’ and completed preparing the kitchen and living room walls for texture. The remainder of their day was more work on the drywall in the hall and back bedroom. We are tentatively planning to do the knockdown texture first thing in the morning. We are looking forward to completing that milestone. It was another blessed day – we were allowed to be in service to others and everyone remained safe. Hope you had a good day too.