Author: rvingwithapurpose

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

What another wonderful day this was. It of course started again at 4:30 when all of us had to get up and head up the mountain to Rosalie at 5:30. Debra, Anne and Cecelia had breakfast duty today so we started work at 6:00 just like the folks working on the building. Breakfast is at 7:30. It takes a while to cook 60 biscuits, sausage, bacon, eggs, slice watermelon, tomatoes and cantaloupe, make gravy, grits, and chocolate biscuits. Of course there is also juices, milk, coffee, and dry cereal options as well.

Out on the job site, there was big, big work going on. Right after breakfast the big crane swung the first truss into place. It took to until 4:30 to get all but one of the trusses for the sanctuary into place. There was one short truss missing and it will arrive special order in the morning so the sanctuary will be complete. Then they will start on the trusses for the fellowship hall and Sunday School rooms. The fire blocks were also completed today. Also finished was roughing in all the windows and installation of the top plates.

 

It’s a tradition at Constructors projects that we all sign some of the boards that are going to be covered with drywall. Generally we write a favorite scripture and sign our names. We started that today and even one of the guys hanging the trusses did that way up high above the sanctuary.

 

This construction project is having a big impact on this little community. People from other churches have been coming and asking what they can to do help (not that unusual), but yesterday and today we also had people who not involved with any churches come by to help. We also have people in cars parking across the street and just sitting there watching us work for hours. The preacher talked Sunday about us being examples to the community and being willing to tell them why were are here. We haven’t experienced this in previous years with Constructors but the preacher was right, the community is watching.

Tonight was our annual “talent” show. It’s a time when we have some fun with roasting a few members of the team, enjoy the musical talents of others and have a testimony from one of the team members. We then ended the night with a Rosalie tradition of opening the doors, lifting our hands and shouting “Praise the Lord” loudly three times.

 

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

It was another early morning with Randy, Max and David leaving the RV park at 5:30 heading up the mountain to Rosalie. Debra, Anne and Cecelia followed at 7:00. We all drove in fog. It was clear in the valley but on top of the mountain it was quite foggy but pretty. Out on the slab today they finished framing the interior walls, placed most of the top plates and installed most of the window and door headers. Again today we had great food and too much of it. The cooking team that Anne, Debra and Cecelia are on prepared lunch today and as is customary for lunch there were sandwiches, chips, salads, fruits and various desserts. After lunch the fire stop placement was begun as well as the truing of the walls and bracing in preparation for truss placement tomorrow. When the work day ended at 6:00pm we had a wonderful meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, green beans, salad, rolls, fruit and peach cobbler with homemade ice cream. It was delicious.

 

Channel 48 News came out to Rosalie just before lunch today and there was a nice story on our project on the evening news tonight even though to begin with they had our name incorrect. (Click here to view the segment.) Constructors is a wonderful group of Christians who are being the hands and feet of Christ. It’s also really neat to follow the churches and communities where we have worked in past summers and see what God is doing thru the churches we have helped.

After dinner we drove back down the mountain to the RV park by a different route that took us through Flat Rock, Free Hill, Hog Jowl Gap, Crow Town, Roaches Cove, Mud Creek and back to Hollywood. Interesting and pretty drive. Of course when you are as tired as we are this evening you tend to get a little silly and we had a great and almost continuous laugh as we drove home thanks to all the strange names. Our favorite was probably Roaches Cove – NOT! Back at the rig we were treated to an absolutely gorgeous sunset. One of the prettiest ever! God’s beautiful world – Thank you God!

Monday, June 19, 2017

Today was an amazing day. Max, Randy and David left for work at 5:30 this morning. We forgot to mention earlier that David and Cecelia, friends of Randy and Debra from North Augusta, have joined us at the Constructors project this year. They also have a motorhome and arrived Saturday afternoon and are parked right next to us. We are really enjoying getting to know them. So, the guys can go to work together early and the girls can ride together and go to the job site later in the morning. The weathermen predicted 70% chance of storms today but they were WRONG!! It did start raining on the girls at the campground at 6:03 but not the guys on the mountain in Rosalie. To be honest they did get wet about 8:30 and they did stop work for a short time but there were NO storms today. The temperature was lower than it was Saturday and the guys accomplished an amazing amount of work. All the exterior walls of the new building are now up and a few of the interior walls are up. It was truly wonderful to see the transformation. There were about 25-30 people working on the job site and then of course another 25 or more working to prepare the three meals for the day and they were 3 good meals. Its so much fun to see everyone working together – the younger ones being mentored by the older guys and gals. Even the children get in on the mission by serving the building crew Popsicles and snow cones. Anne and Debra and Cecelia’s team of 7, prepared dinner tonight. It was a good meal of ham, sweet potatoes, marinated salad, green salad, squash casserole, English peas, cantaloupe, watermelon, dessert of coconut cake and other cakes, rolls. The folks that had been working on the job site were really hungry so there were not many leftovers to put away at the end of the day. We are now all back to the RVs and really tired but know that it was a really great day! We will start it all over again at 4:30 in the morning.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

It was another nice day in Rosalie, AL. We went to church at Rosalie Baptist Church, a small rural church on top of the mountain above Scottsboro, AL. For those of you familiar with 4-part harmony and Fa-So-La singing, Rosalie uses a hymnal with shaped notes and the congregation definitely knew how to sing 4-part harmony. They also have a young girl with a beautiful voice who sang “The Anchor Holds” for special music. The young lady has quite a voice. The message was from Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace. The pastor challenged the fathers and all the men of the church to be the leaders in their household and their community and take a stand for God as did the men thrown into the furnace.

After church about 15 of us drove back to Hollywood to Mud Creek Fishing Camp and Bar-B-Que. Randy had read some reviews online so we decided to give it a try. It was located way out in the middle of no where. When we arrived we knew the food must be great because the parking lot was full and people were waiting outside. We had to wait about 30 minutes for a table but wow was it worth it. The specialties are fried catfish and barbeque both of which were very good. We would definitely go back there. It was then time for a Sunday afternoon nap and then back to the church.

The church members provided snacks, there was a short message from the pastor and then we had our opening meeting. We have a good crowd of workers – don’t have the number yet but appears to be a few more than last year. We did all the necessary paperwork, and reviewed procedures and then the cooks met to plan the meals. While the cooks were making plans some of the guys were outside with a drone flying over the slab. The forecast of tomorrow is not good – rain – but the work will start at 6:00am, hopefully, raising walls. Please keep the entire team in your prayers for a safe week.