Author: rvingwithapurpose

Saturday, March 17, 2018

It was another rainy, cloudy day in Baton Rogue. The high was about 82 and the humidity was way up.

It rained off and on until early afternoon. Like yesterday the amount of rain was insignificant. However, it was enough that we elected to not go bike riding this morning. Every time the sun came out and we thought we might go riding with Jo and Mark,  it would be raining again within five minutes.

The fifty college kids staying here at the church loaded the bus for the 26 hour trip back home at 5:00 this morning. They were actually pretty quiet loading out. It’s nice to see young people spending their spring break on mission projects. We appreciate their work here in Baton Rogue. Since we were up, we went back to Mary Lou’s for doughnuts. They were just as wonderful as last week. The blueberry doughnuts are probably the best blueberry cake doughnuts we have eaten.

Our new team members, Stel and Jodi arrived shortly before noon. We are so thankful they arrived safely. After helping them get parked, we headed into Baton Rogue to run errands. Since the sun was out we drove down to see the Mississippi River and walk the levee. We took the umbrella for our walk so of course there was no more rain. We were amazed at the height of the river. We saw up close and personal why the Mississippi is sometimes called the big muddy.  If not for the levees all of downtown and the LSU campus would be under water right now. The river was running very swiftly and the flooding is now causing problems for the barges. Another 6 feet and the water would top the levee. We had a very interesting walk, taking in the sights. We also discovered that parking is a problem downtown so when we get to ride the levee we will probably drive to the other end of the trail to start.

 

After getting a pretty good walk, we completed our errands and returned to the church. The team decided that we would play more games tonight. Six of us played Farkle while the others played a card game. We all had a good time and it was a time to get to know Stel and Jodi a little better.

Another good day. We will see what we can get into tomorrow.

Friday, March 16, 2018

Unfortunately, the weather forecasters were very accurate in their forecast for today. We have had rain off and on all day. It’s not been hard rain but it began between four and five am and while it is not currently raining it’s sure looking like it will any minute. It’s not heavy rain and probably not enough to add to the flooding in the area but just messy and puddles everywhere. Except for the levee system, Baton Rouge and the LSU campus would be flooded right now. The Mississippi River is in flood stage and expected to peak next week somewhere in the top ten levels recorded. They give all the river levels at different locations on every newscast here. Our plan for today had been to ride the bikes on some of the levee trails but we never had a long enough break in the rain. Maybe tomorrow.

This morning we said goodbyes to our team members Barb and Mike. They will be making their way on to California to see family and we pray for their safety as they travel. This was our first time to work with this sweet couple and we will be looking forward to another project with them.

The rest of the day was filled with mundane things like laundry and grocery shopping and an afternoon nap. Tonight the team is getting together for some games.

For those concerned about Aunt Helen, the reports we have received from cousins this week have been good. No one has reported her fussing to go home. We will take that and be happy.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and that those of you stuck in snow country get some warmer weather soon. Some of our friends here checked the weather at their house and said it was still too early to head home. Reports like that make us enjoy the beautiful spring flowers here even more.

Addendum: So we completed the blog before the games tonight but did not post it. After the card games tonight all we have to say is this. There is only one thing wrong with this team. We just do not have enough comedians. 🙂 It is really a shame that no one ever laughs. But really – thank you team, for all the laughs. Just maybe that is one of the many reasons you are here – to make us laugh again.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

We have been so blessed this week with perfectly wonderful weather. It has been great for working. The morning temperature was 42 this morning, a little cool in the shade but by 10:00 we were in our T-shirts. Beautiful clear, blue skies all day.

Today the ramp crew came close to completing the ramp and Richard tried it out in his scooter. He is a happy man! The smile on his face and the laughter was priceless. It’s why we enjoy working disaster rebuild projects. The bedroom addition crew got all the rafters installed, all the hangers in place and all the hurricane straps installed. After receiving the new shower pan, the ladies installed part of the base plates for the new handicap accessible bathroom. Progress was made in all areas today. The weather forecasters say we are going to have a very wet weekend with rain predicted Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so we cleaned the job site really well and then we placed tarps over all the lumber this afternoon.

The best part of our day was lunch. Richard ran a catering business at some point. He wanted to show his appreciation to us so he made us jambalaya for lunch today. We can attest to the fact that Richard is a mighty fine cook. He has this huge pot and he cooks the jambalaya outside. It was by far the best jambalaya we have ever tasted. The only downside was that it was hard to go back to work this afternoon. We all ate too much.

Today was the end of week one of the NOMADS Louisiana Disaster Rebuild. As is our tradition, tonight the team went out to dinner. Yes, even after all the jambalaya. Team members Barb and Mike will be leaving in the morning so they chose the restaurant, Sammy’s Grill, and we all had our final meal together and said our goodbyes. Except for the goodbye part, it was a very good week. This team has been amazing in their teamwork, work ethic and just how much fun we all have had. Yes, it was a very good week.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Another gorgeous day. 42 degrees this morning and 65, bright and sunny this afternoon. Just about perfect working weather. We still need sweatshirts in the morning but by 10:00 it is great. Its going to be 36 in the morning. May take two sweatshirts.

Today our team again worked really hard. The wheelchair ramp is almost complete. The hand rails will go up tomorrow and a few other finishing touches. We think it looks great! The room addition went slower today. We had to make some decisions on how we wanted to proceed. The original plans for the attachment of rafters to the existing structure resulted in less slope on the roof than we felt was required. So there had to be some adjustments made. A good deal of time was then spent brainstorming, head scratching and trying different options. We ended up taking down the wall we raised yesterday to make those adjustments and then raised it again. We now have what we believe is a better plan and should be able to move forward tomorrow on getting the rafters and other two walls in place. Today we also did more demolition inside the existing structure in preparation of removing two windows and cutting in an additional door. There was also more demo of fascia and soffit. This afternoon the handicap accessible shower was delivered. That delivery allowed us to then have exact dimensions in order to lay out the bathroom. Several of the ladies looked at different options and presented them to Richard who then decided how he and his wife want it built. Looking forward to moving ahead on that tomorrow, too.

Tonight the members of Francis Asbury UMC prepared the team a wonderful dinner. They are preparing a meal one night each week that there are volunteers here at the church working the flood relief. Such sweet people. We had wonderful food including many great desserts and a very nice time of visiting with the team and members of the church. A very special night.