Author: rvingwithapurpose

Friday, May 3, 2019

Sorry for no post yesterday but we were tired. It was NOMADS Friday and everyone seemed very glad. The additional heat and humidity has made it more difficult this week. Thursday was another nice day. Cloudy at times and a sprinkle or two but nothing to bother us.

Janice brought us our devotional yesterday using Mathew 23:23, “woe to you hypocrites”. She used the analogy of washing dishes. Do you wash the outside and then use the cup again or should you not wash the inside first? We need to allow God to clean us on the inside first and then do good works. Thanks, Janice.

We all went back to work at our regular houses. Janice and Marvin worked on painting the base boards that were delivered Wednesday. They completed about 2/3 of the boards. Janice is originally from Minnesota although she has been in Texas for over 40 years. She calls the boards “mop boards”. Says they have always been called mop boards in Minnesota. Bless her heart. Anne and Pat began the day working on the master bath ceiling again. Max worked on installing doors with Pat assisting. She learned to use the trim nailer and did a great job. Roger worked on installing the faucets in both bathrooms and the kitchen. He did a great job working in the heat inside the cabinets. He couldn’t complete the installation because we didn’t have all the parts needed for the drains but he got the rest of the installations done. A lot was accomplished at Norwich last week. There is still a lot to do but we are continuing to plug away.

At Groom Road we understand the bedroom vinyl flooring was completed and work began in the hall. Progress was made in the kitchen as well. They also did a lot of staining of the wood walls in that house. The scope of work has expanded on this house so we are not sure how close to completion they are. Sadly, at this point we don’t think either of these homes will be complete when our mission is over next Thursday, but there are people coming after us that will get the joy of completing what we began.

Since we had three couples leaving this morning, we all went out for a nice dinner last night at Bass Pro Shop. Great fun!

We said “see you down the road” to Janice and Marvin, Pat and Roger and Ruth Ann and Dave this morning. Travel safely, dear friends, and we hope to see you soon.

After saying our goodbyes, Bob and Virginia invited us to visit Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center. It was really surprising to find a swamp in downtown Baton Rouge. It is a 103 acre facility in the heart of Baton Rouge, dedicated to conservation, education, and tourism. There are gravel and boardwalk trails out through the swamp and some really good exhibits inside the nature center. We saw fish, turtles, the largest barred owl we have ever seen, and numerous other birds outside along with all sorts of turtles and snakes in various terrariums inside the center. Lots of fun!

After returning to Fred, we ran our errands for the week because tomorrow predicted to be stormy. On the way back we stopped at Rice & Roux for some gumbo and fried fish. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Another beautiful day but it’s getting really warm and humid. High today was 93 so we were thankful for our shade and breeze. We still don’t have power in the Norwich Drive house – so no air conditioning. The electrician is hoping to call for the final inspection this week. Hopefully the delay from his call to the actual inspection is complete will not be too long.

We all headed back to work at the same houses as yesterday. The group at Groom Road are making progress. They are coming along on the flooring and cabinets but found out today they have also have to do some drywall hanging and finishing. They have finished the painting with additional drywall to install they will also have additional painting. At Norwich, we finished all the laminate flooring except the master bedroom. We are not installing that flooring until after the texture people return to re-texture the wall that had to be removed to install the roll-in shower in the master bath. Since the shower installation is now complete, the final drywall has been hung and we worked on finishing that drywall today. We will be close to complete on that by tomorrow afternoon we hope. It’s not looking good for us to complete either of these houses since the team is split but we will continue to try. We will have to trust God to provide someone else complete what we started.

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

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.

 

Monday, April 29, 2019

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.