Author: rvingwithapurpose

Monday, December 10, 2018

The rain continued all night and was still coming down this morning. Water is everywhere. The river is moving swiftly and is out of its banks in the downtown area. Crossing the Lumber River on I-95 the river is way outside it’s banks and getting fairly close to I 95 again. Right now they say the river will continue to rise until tomorrow evening and then begin to fall. There are no roads that we need to travel affected by the water but there are some roads that are impassable.

Mary Ann shared devotion with us today using “Meeting God In The Ruins”, a devotional book for disaster volunteers. She offered the team encouragement to continue their good works/efforts assuring us that what we do does matter. It does make a difference in peoples lives in many small and large ways. Thanks, Mary Ann. We are down to crunch time now and we keep telling ourselves that we just need to get out of the way and let God accomplish what needs to be accomplished in the next three days.

Today we added a new house that Jeff wanted us to finish up before we leave if at all possible. Max, Cindy and Gary went there to paint the living room ceiling, repairing drywall in the bathroom, caulking the tub and then painting the bathroom. Today they completed the living room and repaired the drywall in the bathroom. It should be ready for sanding tomorrow, then primer to cover the water damage and then paint.

Mary Ann and Bruce went out to Mary and Jim’s house. There they completed the caulking and painting. Tomorrow the transition strip will need to be installed and one area of water damage to be painted. The debris we have been piling in the backyard also must be removed.

That left Anne, Dave and Nancy to start at Jackie’s with Carol and Phillip starting by painting the wood trim on the pump house roof for Mary and Jim’s house. They then joined us at Jackie’s before first break. At Jackie’s we worked on general cleaning, installing transition strips, installing mirrors and bathroom accessories, caulking, and painting some newly installed trim. We are also having to work very hard to remove masking tape that was placed on the floor by someone when covering the floor with heavy paper for protection. It has been down quite some time now and does not want to come off the floor. Painters tape would have been a better choice. Much easier to remove. We will have several more hours of work to do removing tape.

Gene joined Max’s group for lunch and then took Gary to help him deliver and install the pump house roof at Mary and Jim’s. Mary Ann said they were so pleased. They were going to wait for it to quit raining and dry up a little before they walked out to check it out up close.

The rain had finally stopped by late this afternoon. It is cold and we decided to stay in for a quiet night at home. Another good day.  It’s now 8:00pm, 34 degrees, and it is sleeting.  Time to head south!

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Today was another horribly rainy day. It rained all day. At time the wind was really blowing and we had heavy rain. The river is still rising.

Despite the rain we went to worship for our last time this year at Chestnut Street UMC. It was another great time of worship and lots of hugs since it was our last Sunday here. We went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday and then back home to watch it rain all afternoon.

This evening, we had a Christmas gathering at our usual Sunday meeting time. We made grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the veggie soup that Mary Ann made and chili from Nancy. We also had pies from Cindy. Carol brought all the paper goods and some really good snack mix. The food and desserts were great but the we enjoyed the good time of fellowship even more. Jeff and Ann joined us for a time. We played the dirty Santa game with some gifts and we all signed Christmas ornaments with the NOMADS logo and 2018 on them. We will each have an ornament as a keepsake of this team. Good times.

Saturday, December 8, 2018

Today was a rainy day. Cold rain. And yes, the Lumber River is rising again. The team all went out to breakfast this morning. We went to a little local cafe, Betty Carol’s Diner, that was packed with people. The food was good and we got to meet Betty. Love these little local places. It was cash only and Miss Betty was working the cash register and out doing refills on coffee part of the time. Fun time visiting with our friends.

After getting back to FRED, we made a batch of cookies for the cookie exchange. We are getting better at baking in FRED, but still miss the Kitchen Aid mixer so we think we will just make a place for it and travel with it from now on. At least we will try it for a while.

After lunch Mary Ann, Cindy, Nancy and Anne toured the homes on the Lumberton Tour Of Homes. The proceeds from the ticket sales benefit the Robeson County History Museum which also was on the tour. The first home we visited was one of the county commissioner’s home and it was probably Anne’s favorite home on the tour. After all, he had a garage for his 45 foot Prevost motor coach and numerous antique cars. The garage also had a soda shop in one end. Upstairs in the garage was another area with numerous other antiques, not auto related. The home was also a beautiful open plan with Christmas trees in almost every room. The commissioner showed us through the garage while his wife and daughter showed us through the house.

There were other homes on the tour with even more elaborate and interesting Christmas decorations. One home had an upside down Christmas tree and the same home had a tree with owls. So pretty. There was one room with a tree decorated with the Native American pow wow regalia of the owners’ son. Gorgeous trees, table settings, stair case decorations, yards beautifully done. We also saw a couple of good signs is one house.

We ended the day at the History Museum. The museum has just recently reopened and is still on modified hours, due to ongoing repairs from hurricane Florence.  They sustained significant roof damage resulting in some water damaged ceilings and collapse of some ceilings.  Some rooms are still not reopened.  For an area of this size, economically depressed, and operating totally with volunteers and donated funds, the museum is remarkably good. The most recent display is on “When Tobacco Was King” and tells the story of when most of the farming in the area was tobacco. We have noticed a number old, no longer used, tobacco drying barns on our daily drive to Elsie and Bruce’s house. It was an interesting and fun afternoon.

Tonight it continues to rain with the rate increasing. The flood warning has now been increased from mild to moderate flooding. Some home may be flooded again. Please be in prayer for the sweet people of Robeson County and ask your friends, neighbors, and church members to do the same. Thanks.

Friday, December 7, 2018

It was another cold morning with another heavy frost. We stayed in for a while, until it stared warming up. Mike arrived last night and he and Lee headed back home this morning. We enjoyed having Lee for another week. Hopefully we will work with her and Mike down the road.

This morning we worked on laundry, grocery list, and business. Still a lot to get done before the end of the year. We made some cookies and went to the grocery store this afternoon. Also, Nancy and Gary returned today. So great to have them back!! Jeff called us today and the roofing material is in for Elsie and Bruce’s house. They had said it wouldn’t be here before we leave but now Jeff would like for us to try to get that finished. He moved the roofing to the top of our priority list. Flexibility. We do need to get the other two houses finished this week too. The stuff closing down a project is made of. We want to get it all done but we only have four days remaining.

This evening Cindy, and Bruce went with us to the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the Lumberton city hall. We were actually planning to head to the church but Cindy saw the announcement about the lighting on the evening news so we headed there first. There is a really large and nice Christmas tree in front of the Lumberton town hall. They had horse drawn carriage rides and music on the lawn in front. There is another beautiful Christmas tree inside city hall. Santa also paid a visit to the festivities. The mayor walked over and introduced himself to us. We told him were were with the NOMADS and started to explain what we were doing and he told us he knew exactly what we were doing and started thanking us profusely. After talking a few minutes he walk off and began talking to others and we noticed he was pointing at us. Turns out he told the others we were NOMADS and then the entire city council came over and introduced themselves and thanked us. The mayor then had us sit in the VIP section and during his opening remarks introduced us to all the people attending and they gave us a round of applause. So nice. Shortly there was the count down and the beautiful tree was lit. Fun.

 

After the lighting ceremony we headed over to Chestnut Street UMC to view the collection of nativities on display. Then we went by their Sweet Shop. The ladies of the church bake cookies and they are sold by the ½ pound and one pound boxes. You just pick up your box and browse through and fill your box with what ever cookies you want. They have a little of everything.  Since we really weren’t hungry and the team is having a cookie exchange this week, we just bought two cake pops and made a donation. The funds are being donated to the disaster relief fund. We drove around town to look at the Christmas lights and then headed back home. It was a fun day.