Author: rvingwithapurpose

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.

 

Sunday, April 28, 2019

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.

Saturday, April 27, 2019

We are becoming quite spoiled to beautiful weather. Today was gorgeous. High in the eighties, some breeze, sunshine and blue skies.

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

Remember to pray for all the church services tomorrow. May the Word be spoken, and heard.

Friday, April 26, 2019

Thursday was very cloudy and we had some rain in the morning but fortunately we had no storms here. Just a couple of hours north of us in Rushton, LA, there was a tornado in the early morning hours. There were at least two deaths. The director of disaster response for the conference, the person we answer to in our work, is already there assessing what the Louisiana Conference of the UMC can do to help. Please be in prayer for all the people in Rushton.

Gary brought our devotion yesterday, starting with John 14:12. He reminded us that God has an important mission for our lives. If you don’t see your purpose, you are probably looking in the wrong direction. The question is not can God use us but will we be available for Him to use? He closed by reading “Daniel’s Gloves”. If you haven’t read this, you should. Thanks, Gary! We also were treated to doughnuts this morning by Joe and Jayne. Very good. Joe and Jayne had to leave after devotion because her brother flew in from Mexico for admission to the hospital in Houston with very serious heart problems. We will miss Joe and Jayne and will continue to lift them and Jayne’s brother up in prayer.

We returned to Norwich Drive with Bob, Virginia, Janice, Marvin, Sharon and Suzanne to continue working on the flooring and cabinets. Today the cabinets were completed and counter tops are to be installed Saturday. The kitchen is beginning to look like a kitchen and after Saturday it should be beautiful. We also made good progress on the flooring, completing one bedroom and closet, the huge master closet, and started in the hall and second bedroom. The plumber/tile man is almost done with the master bath so we will start finishing that drywall next week. The bedroom wall that had to be removed to install the roll-in shower hasn’t been reinstalled yet but hopefully that occurred today. Dave, Ruth Ann and Gary went back to Groom Road to work on cabinet installation and the bathroom there. They also made good progress. The cabinet install there is made considerably more difficult due to the floor not being level but it will look good when we finally get it done. We were told Thursday, the Groom Road house will be our top priority Monday and Tuesday because the home owner must be out of the FEMA mobile housing unit. FEMA is supposed to pick up the trailer Wednesday. Hopefully, with two hard days we can have a working kitchen, bath and the flooring in one bedroom. We will need lots of energy next week.

 

After work and showers, we all went back to Ms Pam’s house for a visit and Bible presentation. For all of you that worked on that house earlier this year, she wants you to know how much she appreciates the work you did, “even when I was cantankerous.” The house looks so good and she now has a range, and refrigerator and table in her kitchen and a working washer and dryer. She is very pleased. After our visit, we all went to Chili’s for a really good dinner and better conversation.

 

Today, we did laundry, house cleaning and NOMADS business. Anne has been working on updating the policy manual and today Max helped with some of the reformatting. We also went to the park and had a great walk on a beautiful Friday afternoon and came back to FRED for ice cream sundaes. A great way to end the week! Hope everyone has a great weekend.