Author: rvingwithapurpose

Monday, October 2, 2017

Today was a gray, sometimes rainy day in Hattiesburg. The rain was really never much more than a sprinkle that lasted just a few minutes and sometimes it was just a little mist. It did keep the temperatures down so we could work with the windows open in the house with no worries of getting over heated. The rest of the week it is predicted to be sunny with highs in the mid to upper 80’s but that’s better than 90’s.

We of course started the day with devotion, by Gary, based on Proverbs 19:21. He reminded us to not let our work plans get in the way of God’s plans for our day, especially when it comes to spending time with our homeowners and their neighbors that sometime come to see us. A good example was when Sandra, the homeowner, came by at lunch today. We were still on site when she arrived and are so glad we didn’t go eat with the rest of the team today. We thought the bathroom was the number one priority, but Sandra’s priority is the bedroom. We discussed that with Gary when he returned and we will be adjusting some work plans.

We had a short morning meeting since we met last night and were in route to the job site by 8:00. Traffic is pretty heavy around here at that time. There are several schools nearby. It took about 20 minutes to get to our work site. We toured the house and then started determining what we wanted to start on first. We think the house was probably built in the 1940’s or early 50’s. Cute little house. Today we did some cleanup, some drywall repair, work in the pantry, striping of some trim to try to salvage it and Max and Anne spent most of the day working in the bathroom. We installed the bath tub and tub surround. We think it looks pretty good. It was more of a challenge because the walls, of course, were not plumb. We will be installing drywall tomorrow. Sharon is working on the fireplace, painting Kilz on the mantel and brick because it is now going to be white to match the rest of the trim in the room. We felt good about what was accomplished today and love being back at work on a project.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Today was another nice day. A little cooler, with a little slight touch of autumn in the air. We went to early church and then Sunday School. The early service was their smaller service but everyone was very welcoming. The SS class was also welcoming, casual and fun. They were in their final week of study of the J. Ellsworth Kalas‘ book, Parables from the Back Side. The book sounds interesting so we may have to get a copy. Kalas takes a parable from the Bible and looks at it from the point of view of one of the minor characters. Today’s lesson was from the parable of the 10 virgins. The back side was from the view point of the seller of the oil. Interesting. The teacher gave us a copy of the chapter of the book so we plan to read that over the next few days. We really enjoyed visiting Oak Grove UMC. We then went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. We were the first customers for the day. They hadn’t even unlocked until we got there. Since there were six of us they seated us in a side dining room which was nice because we were the only ones in there and it was okay for us to sit around the table a visit for a while.

After a nice meal of enchiladas we went back to FRED and did a little laundry and awaited our last team member. Dave and Judy arrived at about 4:00 and with great finesse backed their 40foot Pheaton in between FRED and Gary and Sharon’s motorhome. We are in pretty tight and not sure how we will all get out but we are good for the week. Dave and Judy may have to leave before we can get out Friday.

Of course we had our opening team meeting after Dave and Judy had some time to get settled. There were the usual introductions, and review of work to be done. We will start at 7:30 in the morning with devotional then about a 20-30 min drive to our first job site. We understand there are about 150 homes in this area that still need work from the January 2017 tornado. Lots to be done starting in the morning.

Saturday, September 30, 2017

There is a doughnut shop across the street from Oak Grove UMC where we are parked. You all probably find it hard to believe, but we arrived here last Monday and made our first purchase today. Oh my goodness they have wonderful doughnuts and cinnamon rolls. It won’t be our last visit.

We really debated riding our bikes today or staying at home resting. But we had planned to ride the Longleaf Trace rails-to-trails multi-use trail earlier in the week. The trail has a great reputation and since it was the last day we would have, we got up early today and hit the trail. The weather was perfect for a ride and this is probably the best bike trail we have ridden. Nice wide, paved trail. We understand why it is so popular. It’s a 41 mile trail and we road 22 miles round trip today. It was a really nice, fun ride.

After our ride we stopped and picked up some groceries before returning FRED. Later this afternoon, team members George and Lynn arrived. We have never worked with then so we will enjoy making new friends. Our final team members will arrive tomorrow. Otherwise it was a quiet afternoon. Just before dark we walked four laps of the parking lot to stretch out our legs.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to worship here at Oak Grove. Don’t forget to be in prayer for tomorrow’s services.

Update on Mama Ruby:  She is back at assisted living.  She is still weak but was discharged today without oxygen.  Still concerned about her, but glad she is out of hospital.

Friday, September 29, 2017

We are both in Hattiesburg!! It’s so nice for us to both be back at home. Thank you God for safe travel today.

Update on Mama Ruby: The cardiologist visit today was encouraging. He was pleased with the lab values and amount of fluid that we got off yesterday. Mom responded so much better to the lasix yesterday. He said he wanted to do one more day of IV lasix then we would see about changing to pills and talk about getting her home. That was very good news, although Mom was a little anxious because she wasn’t sure she had improved enough to go back to assisted living. Her oxygen saturation is still lower than we would like but we are hoping will slowly improve now that she has less fluid in the lungs. So today was about getting everything in place to assure a smooth transition back to assisted living. Anne and her brother Jim visited the assisted living facility to arrange for a nurse to visit Mom at the hospital today to do their paperwork to allow her to return. There is some state required stuff that has to be done if she is out more than 48 hours. We also made sure we had everything in place for oxygen to be delivered if it is determined tomorrow that she will need it. Mom had therapy today and walked further than yesterday. She also, late this afternoon, walked the hall two more times (using her walker) with Jim and walked a little further than with the therapist. We are so glad. We were concerned about her loosing some of the strength she has worked so hard to gain. She is such a hard worker at therapy. So Jim decided that Mom was doing enough better that he felt he could stay an additional night and move Mom back to assisted living tomorrow by himself. He suggested that Anne return to Hattiesburg and he would stay in close phone contact about everything. Thank you so much Jim. You are a gem! Anne rejoined Max and FRED about 6:10 tonight. Praying that labs are again better in the morning and the cardiologist still feels she can be discharged. Once again, thanks to all who have been sending notes and praying. It means more than you will ever know.

Another flashback: Since not much was going on in Hattiesburg today (except Anne making it back), we looked back to where we were this time last year. We were at Camp Sumatanga on a NOMADS 3 Week Project. For some reason we didn’t take as many pictures there as we usually do so some of these pictures were taken by friends. The project went from September 25th to October 14th. The main task was to remodel the rooms in Retreat Center 3 (a huge task) but, as always, there were many other tasks to keep us busy. We had a great team led by Bill and Jane and enjoyed meeting up again with old friends and making many new friends.