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.
Forgot to mention yesterday that while we were on the tour of the dairy with several other NOMADS, the ones who stayed back and assembling food kits for MMDC put together 1,920 food kits that will feed 11, 520 people. Extravagantly generous with their time.
Packing food kits. NOMADS even took and offering to help pay for the supplies.
Other NOMADS were sewing children’s clothing for MMDC.
Today was love auction day. After our morning Bible study, devotion and meetings the silent auction opened. Then at 3:00 pm the live auction began. Such a fun time! Crazy things happen at our love actions. Two watermelons were sold for $500 – each. A magnifying glass sold for over $700. One quilt sold for over $1,000. A love, or charity, auction is not a place to look for bargains. The bidders go into the auction having decided how much they want to give to the organization and have fun with it. Even though our attendance is down this year the auctions raised over $30,000. Extravagantly generous giving. In case you’re wondering, the money raised by the auction goes to help the agencies where we volunteer pay for materials and other expenses associated with our projects.
Silent Auction
Live Love Auction. Anne was on stage recording bids. Max worked as a spotter.
After Susan and Mike, the Auction Bosses, provided us with a delicious dinner of tacos and chili the auction team packed up all the sold items for pickup tomorrow.
Bill Koch, retired pastor and now NOMAD, brought our morning message. What does it mean when a preacher looks at his watch? Absolutely nothing.
It was another beautiful day in Illinois out here among the corn and soy bean fields. We start every day with a Bible study, a morning social time, some singing and a devotion. Today we also had our friend from Midwest Mission Distribution Center come talk to the membership about their mission work. Chantel the Executive director did a great job sharing MMDC’s story and mission.
The director of MMDC brought supplies to make feeding kits.
The rest of the day there were several options such as a tour of a dairy, work to get ready for the auction tomorrow, pack food bags for MMDC or a few other things. We spent part of the day going to Fair Oaks Farm‘s “Dairy Adventure”, then returned to do some work. The dairy was of interest to us since Max worked at the family dairy growing up and we thought some of the family back home would be interested in seeing the pictures. This was a huge operation, milking 350,000 gallons of milk per day. In the barn we visited they milked approx 2800 cows three times a day and they have 11 barns. The milking parlor used a 78 cow carousel taking 6 minutes to milk each cow. Amazing to those of us who grew up on farms.
Fair Oaks Farms silo
The Fair Oaks Farms climbing tower and birthing barn.
Inside the birthing barn. There was one newborn calf in the barn while we were there.
This facility produces methane from the cow manure. The methane is then used to produce enough electricity to run the entire facility as well as the Fair Oaks Farms tourist attraction across the road.
Silage is stored on a concrete pad covered in plastic. Tire sidewalls tied together hold the plastic down.
Young calves are kept in these calf pens.
When not being milked the cows are housed in a free stall barn. They can choose their own stall and come and go at will.
Each cow stays on the 78 stall milking carousel for about 6 minutes. There are four techs working around the carousel. The cows are trained to walk on when an empty stall comes by and then back off after they have been around once.
Each cow’s milk production is tracked by computer that reads a transponder in her ear tag.
Milk Tanks
About one percent of the milk is used by the farm to produce ice cream, butter and cheese.
Tonight we had a chili contest. We didn’t enter our chili which was a good thing because Max was asked to be one of the judges. It was a fun night with lots of good food followed by a concert by a quartet that is part of the “Country Theater Workshop Group.” They were very good and everyone seemed to really enjoy the evening. Another busy, fun day.
The rain came in as expected this morning but cleared as the day went one. It really didn’t interfere with anything. We started the day with a morning gathering time at 8:00 as all the NOMADS gathered for the first time. We then had a worship service with communion. After lunch there was new team leader training, experienced leader training, dinner with our new NOMADS, alumni (members no longer working projects), and the Board. Next was a meeting with the auction committee and then our evening worship and memorial service/time of remembering the 21 NOMADS who died since our last meeting. It was a busy day but it was so great to see so many friends. Some people we haven’t seen since last annual meeting. We also got to meet so many new NOMADS. It was great. The rest of the week will be busy too but it will all be good.
The NOMADS Choir performing during morning worship
RVing With a Purpose 