Author: rvingwithapurpose

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

It was another beautiful day in Oxford.  However, it was hot and humid. At 6:00 am when we walked it was a cool 70 degrees but with 95% humidity. The calendar changing to September certainly doesn’t mean the start of fall in the south.

Kitty brought our devotion this morning from Isaiah 6:8, where the question is “Whom shall I send?” She reminded us that spiritual renewal leads to service. Likewise faithful service leads to spiritual renewal. Thanks, Kitty, for another wonderful start to our day.

Since Hurricane Gordon is headed for the Mississippi gulf coast which will probably lead to rain in our area for the next couple of days, our work plans have changed. Today we all worked on the outside items and once the rain starts we will all be inside. Max, Shannon, Peggy and part of the day Del and Sara the Intern, worked on installing 4×4 posts, digging the holes, installing the posts and setting in concrete. This will be a sun screen area when the project is complete. The post holes were the challenge. The ground is very hard.

Anne, Kitty, Mariel and Del for the first part of the day worked in the garden. We are moving 40 tomato cages from the lower garden to the new upper garden we are making. There are also a lot of additional older cages we are reading for disposal. We are also removing the fencing and will be pulling up all the 4×4 posts at the old garden. We are moving to garden to an area closer to the kitchen so that they will have easier access to the crops.

Carol, Dave and John continued to work on the barn area that is being converted to maintenance. Today they framing in some windows and starting the electrical rough-in.

We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day. The heat slowed us down. Even so it was another productive day and another fun day of serving our Lord in this place.

Monday, September 3, 2018

Happy Labor Day! Hope you have all enjoyed your day.

Yesterday was another beautiful day. Of course the team went to church and we again went to Oxford-University UMC. And again we went to the modern service in their nice new facility. This is the service that our camp director attends with his family. This week the senior pastor had the message, his first service in the new facility. It was a wonderful service in a very nice new facility. After service we were all going out to dinner together but the restaurant we chose had an hour wait so we just came back to Fred for lunch. We were really tired and spent the afternoon resting and napping.

Our team for this project is a little unusual. We had one team member with a birthday last week and two team members with birthdays today. So in addition to a labor day celebration we celebrated the three birthdays, Carol, Peggy and Dell. This afternoon we grilled out and each of us brought a side. We took mac and cheese we made in our Instant Pot. It was the first time we tried mac and cheese in the pot and were pleased with the results. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well. We also made some vanilla ice cream, with peaches and other toppings to go with the red velvet cake and brownies. It was a fun dinner and celebration. Otherwise is was just a laid back restful day.

Saturday, September 1, 2018

We knew today was going to be a long day so we were up early for our walk. Another beautiful sunrise. Definitely worth getting up.

We went out to breakfast with Anne’s brother Jim planning to go to IHOP. IHOP was packed and we were hungry so we just went across the street to Chick-Fil-A. We are so happy we made the change because as we were leaving we ran into our wonderful NOMADS friends Sheila and Frank. What are the chances? We were in Tuscaloosa and they stopped in Tuscaloosa on their way home from Sheila’s parents in Mississippi. We had a nice but short visit and look forward to seeing and working registration with them in Memphis in less than 4 weeks.

We completed a few things in Tuscaloosa and then headed back to Blount County to see Randy and Debra and check on the Aunts. It was great to see Randy and Debra even if for just a little while. The Aunts seem to be doing well. Both actually seem to have improved a little and they were both quite happy today. Soon it was time to make the drive back to Mississippi. We had a gorgeous sunset this afternoon. We returned to Camp Lake Stephens about 9:00, tired and very happy to be home.

Friday, August 31, 2018

We were up at 5:00am today and on the road back to Tuscaloosa at 6:00. Almost immediately we began noticing what was going to be a gorgeous sunrise. We got to watch it for about 30 minutes as the sun rose higher and higher. Late yesterday afternoon Dave and Carol called us outside to see a beautiful double rainbow and this morning a wonderful sunrise. What great reminders of God’s love for us.

We had an easy and uneventful drive to Tuscaloosa. We had a real estate closing at 10:00 and were concerned that traffic might be heavy since this is a holiday weekend but traffic was actually very light. We were able to finalize the sale of some of Mama Ruby’s real estate and then take care of some bank business while all three kids were in town for the closing. Very tiring and somewhat stressful day but we accomplished a lot. Since we are this close, we will probably try to go a little further northeast to Oneonta, to check on the Aunts and then head back to Mississippi. A lot of driving but we are anxious to get back to Camp and our NOMADS friends. Every one please be very careful this holiday weekend.

While Anne and her brother’s were meeting with the accountants, Max was outside looking at bugs. Max won.