Author: rvingwithapurpose

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Today was another day about like yesterday weather-wise. Sweatshirts in the morning and t-shirts in the sunny, blue sky afternoon. Even had to use some sun screen today. The high has only been in the upper 60s, so it is great working weather.

We again started the day with devotion, presented by Barb. She used “The Seven Ups” which we really enjoyed. Thought you might enjoy it too.

When we arrived at the job site, Richard was again waiting to greet us with a smile. He is so excited so see some progress on his home. Today we got to meet his sweet wife. She had a doctor’s appointment and rode her scooter out to visit with us a while. It was so sweet to see the two of them sitting side by side watching us work. They had the biggest, sweetest smiles. They are both so appreciative.

We had another very productive day. The ramp crew is now probably 2/3 complete and it is looking great. They decked the upper landing and built the long run down to the lower landing. They should finish the ramp except for the hand rail tomorrow. Think the ramp will probably be complete by Thursday. The room addition is also going well. The sub-floor was installed today, the first wall was built and raised, and the siding was removed from the house side for the addition. We are pleased with the progress but more importantly our home owners are so happy.

We had a lot of fun today too. We were all excited because they finally delivered the our port-a-let. (Yesterday we used the facilities at Walmart.) We are in Baton Rouge, the home of LSU. And we are from Alabama, home of the Crimson Tide. Team members Dave and Rita are from Hoover and are huge Alabama fans. Wouldn’t you know the port-a-let would be painted LSU colors. Didn’t know if there would use it, but Rita gave in and visited the facilities. Thought we would need visual proof to show her friends. They may not let her back in the stadium for Alabama games.

We also heard a very funny story about dinner last night. Mark and Lisa and Mark and Jo went back to City Cafe last night to try out the boiled crawfish. Well, Jo didn’t want crawfish. So the other three decided to split the five pound tray. At least that’s what they thought they were doing. The waitress delivered the three trays and everyone began to eat and eat and eat. Then the check was delivered, they learned they had indeed each eaten five pound rather than the 1.5 pounds they thought they were eating. Hearing them tell the story of the evening was hilarious. We think they will be a little more careful next time the want to share an item for dinner.

Today was another beautiful, fun, spring day in Baton Rouge.

Monday, March 12, 2018

Today we began our day with devotion at 7:30 which of course seemed really early due to the time change. Think we need to go to bed early tonight. We got a report on Cindy from Avis and Gary and learned that the truck and trailer were possibly totaled, but of course that will depend on what the insurance company has to say. Today Cindy salvaged as much as she could from both vehicles, and boxed it up. She tentatively plans to rent a U-Haul and drive back to PA. Her brother was flying down today to help her. Of course, we are all just thanking God for Cindy’s and her puppy’s safety. Both truck and trailer ended up on their side so things could have been much worse.

We headed to the job site at 8:00 and traffic was not too bad but it was still a full 30 minute drive. The team went right to work framing in the bedroom addition and removing the wheelchair ramp. At the end of the day we had the floor joists in place, the wheel chair ramp removed and the rebuild begun. Certainly accomplished more than our hosts thought we would get done on day one. Everyone worked well together, laughed a lot, and worked hard. Most importantly, everyone remained safe. It was a very good day.

Sunday, March 11, 2018

We had storms this morning. There was a tornado warning for the Baker, LA area, where our job site is located. Have not heard of any damage. The area where we are parked was not included in the warning but we did have a thunderstorm warning and there was some nasty lightening and thunder about the time church started at 10:30. We were watching carefully and all our team understands that we can’t stay in our rigs if it gets really bad. By noon the sun was out and it was a beautiful afternoon, short sleeve weather.

We worshiped with the congregation at Francis Asbury this morning – such a sweet, welcoming congregation. We enjoyed our time with them today. The sermon was from John 2:13-16. If you recall this was where Jesus was angry and threw the money changers out of the temple. Pastor David talked about good anger and bad anger, and that even with good anger there can be a significant cost.

Most of us went out to lunch after church to one of the restaurants recommended by our volunteer coordinator, Glenda. This lady knows good restaurants. We have been to two she suggested and both were very good. Today we went to City Cafe and we all enjoyed our food and the service was good too. We had shrimp and grits and it was very, very good. Everyone’s food look really good and there are so many things on the menu we wanted to try that we just may be making a return visit.

After lunch we made a grocery store run to pick up a few things for our meeting tonight, made some brownies, printed out all the necessary paperwork for tonight and relaxed a little.

Our first official team event was our 6:00 meeting tonight. We had the requisite snacks, introductions, and review of project information and a lot of laughing. The laughing tonight was good for us. Sunday’s are hard for us right now and maybe it’s a good thing we will be having 6:00pm meetings for the next three weeks.

Someone asked me about Aunt Helen. From the reports we have gotten she is doing pretty good. She sees the orthopedic doctor tomorrow so we will know more after that.

Please be in prayer for a NOMADS friend, Cindy, who had a traffic accident today pulling her trailer. We understand her truck and trailer were significantly damaged and Cindy required stitches. We understand that Cindy and her dog are okay but that’s all we really know for now.

Tomorrow we start working. Praying we accomplish what God desires.

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Today was a partly cloudy day with some sunshine at times. We had some dark clouds and threats of rain but only got a few sprinkles. They don’t need any more rain in this area. They had some heavy rains early last week and the ground is still saturated. The Mississippi River is in flood stage already and they haven’t got the northern snow melt water yet. Hopefully we can get down to the river tomorrow afternoon and get some pictures. Rita and Dave were down there this afternoon and said it was impressive.

For breakfast today we had a wonderful omelette.  Our construction coordinator’s wife has chickens and he brought us a dozen very fresh eggs.  Thanks, Charles!  Today was official move in day and we now have all six couples and RVs safely in place. It was great to meet the new arrivals and start getting to know them. Always good to get everyone settled in. We also helped unload food for the college kids today, lots of food, and moved in some additional furniture for them as well. We will attend church together in the morning here at Francis Asbury UMC and then have our opening team meeting at 6:00 tomorrow evening. Tonight we are still waiting for the bus load of 50-60 college kids to arrive. Suspect our quiet little parking lot will change drastically in the next 30 minutes. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.