Author: rvingwithapurpose

Sunday April 16, 2017

Happy Easter!!! Hope everyone has had a wonderful day. We started the day when the alarm clock went off at 4:00am. It seemed like such a good idea yesterday. This morning at 4:00am it was really questionable. Not really. We love sunrise service. The entire team including Richard’s brother-in-law Joe, went to Lester Memorial UMC sunrise service at Palisades Park in Oneonta. It was a wonderful service, led by our youth pastor Skyler Jones. Some of the youth also participated playing the part of the women that went to the tomb to anoint the body and found the tomb open and Jesus not there. They did a great job! The sunrise was awesome. Up on the rocks at Palisades is a great place for sunrise service with the birds, the trees, the views from the top of the mountain. Great way to begin this day. After the service we went back to the church and had a wonderful breakfast. The team was surprised that there was no cost and thought it was the best breakfast they have had while here. As usual it was very good and we all ate too much. We visited and talked until time for the 8:30 service which was held in the sanctuary today. The music was very good. The acoustics in the sanctuary are better than the fellowship hall so the music sounded especially good today. Barry’s message was from Luke 24:13-35. Barry talked about our freedom in Christ and remembering our walk to freedom and encouraged us to share that freedom walk because it’s just too good to keep to ourselves.

After worship we returned to Camp Sumatanga. Most people were primarily interested in naps. There was a lot of sleeping going on. Later in the day there were lakeside walks, bike rides, laundry, reading and sitting around visiting. It was a wonderful Easter Day.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Spring has really sprung in Alabama over the past week. The trees are so much greener and the flowers are in full bloom. The dogwood is beautiful, as is the native azalea. We always love when the native azalea is blooming beside the lake here at Sumatanga.

The little wild irises are blooming between the campground and the lodge and one of Max’s mom’s favorite, sweet shrub is everywhere.

Anne however, didn’t get to enjoy it very much because she was still working on taxes. Such a PAIN!!! Oh, almost forgot. The blackberries are starting to bloom here too. Makes us wonder what the weather is going to do. We usually have a blackberry winter cold snap when the blackberries bloom. The forecast isn’t looking that way this week but….. don’t be surprised if we have some cold mornings in the next week or two.

Some of the team went to the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham today and thought it was very well done. Others hung out around the campground and did mundane things like laundry, and other chores. There was some hiking, baking and exploring today, too. Barry and Donna came by on their way home from riding the Chief Ladiga from Cedartown to the Alabama state line. When we notified the people that made the part for us that they didn’t but a valve core in it they immediately shipped the stem and tool for installing and were very apologetic. So, Barry finished the repair he started for us last week and now FRED has wonderfully cool air coming from the dash air. I’m sure we will really appreciate that dash air when we made the drive to Hayesville, NC at the end of the week. Thank you so very much Barry and Donna!!

The team plans to go to our church’s sunrise service at Palisades Park in the morning and then have breakfast at Lester Memorial afterwords. We will stay for the 8:30 service and then probably everyone will come home a take a nap. We will be wheels rolling for Palisades at 5:15. Guess we better go get showers and head to bed pretty soon. Hope everyone enjoys the beauty, miracle, and celebration of Easter tomorrow, but never forget the sacrifice that Jesus made for you – and us.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Another beautiful day in Alabama. The weather people say we are running about 10 degrees above normal for this time of year but our dogwoods are in full bloom and we have beautiful blue skies so we are really enjoying it. Four members of our team, Bill, Marty, Patrick and Harriet, went to Cullman to tour Ave Maria Grotto and have dinner with another NOMADS couple that lives near there. We had errands to run to gather some information to finish our tax returns and get ready for our cookout tonight and await Carol and Dave’s arrival. Carol and Dave are fulltime RVers that previously lived in Maryland. We worked with them on both our Sumatanga projects last year and they have become dear friends. We were so glad when they arrived. They will also be at our project in North Carolina next period. They arrived around noon and after getting their motorhome set up we sat around outside enjoying the beautiful day, and caught up with all that’s happened since we last were together. Well we didn’t have time to cover it all but we got a good start on it. We have four more weeks to get caught up.

When the rest of the team returned from Cullman they told us about their road trip. They all seemed to be glad they had gone to the Grotto and of course enjoyed their time with our Cullman NOMADS. A little later, Jim started a really nice fire in the fire ring and let it build up a good bed of coals for our planned campfire/cookout to welcome Dave and Carol to the team.  Around 6:00 pm everyone started gathering around the fire. We had different kinds of hot dogs, chips, dip, fresh sliced vegetables and the makings for s’mores. The team seemed to enjoy the time to visit and eat. As usual when we are together there was lots of laughter. Tim, who we have been working with at the new base camp, brought his wife, Susan, by to meet us. Susan is the summer camp nurse here at Sumatanga. She too came to Sumatanga as a young person so it was fun to share memories of camp. So glad she and Tim came by tonight. Hope you are having a wonderful Easter weekend and be sure to remember what it’s all about.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Before we start today’s report, we wanted to tell you that we changed some of the pictures on yesterday’s blog after the email notifications went out last night. So, that means that if you want to see all of the pictures you will have to go back and look at yesterdays blog again.

This morning Marti led a wonderful discussion of grace during our morning devotion. She started by asking, “What is grace?” After a few answers from others, Bill said insightfully, “Willingness to have dinner with Judas even though Jesus knew what Judas would soon do.” We then drew lots to read various verses about grace and Marti read a story about a professor teaching about grace through a practical application of it. It’s a very good story so check out the link.  Marti asked for our memories of examples of grace in our own lives and Patrick shared a touching story from his childhood of a learning moment he experienced with his father. After some good-natured ribbing, we ended by singing “Amazing Grace.” By the way, the ribbing of Patrick continued most of the day. It came up again at lunch and we all laughed our way through the meal.

After devotion, some of the team headed up the hill and others waited down below to help transfer lumber and supplies from one trailer to another to make the trip up. Once we were all on top, the ladies began stacking fire wood for camp and everyone else worked on setting the ridge beams to their (hopefully) final heights. Dennis agreed to lowering the highest one a few inches instead of trying to raise all the others several inches. That saved us some work by making it necessary to replace only one ridge post, instead of two. After stacking firewood, Marti, Harriet and Anne went back down to the administration building to work in the flower beds until lunch. The rest of the team continued to work on the last tent platform. By the end of the day, the frame and decking were completed on that platform and the ridge beams are at the correct level on platforms 1,2 and 3. It was a tiring day, but we felt we accomplished a lot. Before lunch, Tim and Bill brought down a tall dead pine tree that would have posed a threat to the campers this summer if left standing. The tree didn’t come down quite as easily as we all expected but it was eventually on the ground.

After getting back to the campground after work the tired team sat around for a while and talked and laughed. There was also some more good-natured ribbing going on.  Bill came up with the idea of code naming the team “Ringling” because we are a three ring circus. We have to admit, this team is unique in it’s chemistry and laughs a whole lot. Such a great team! We love our wonderful NOMADS friends. God has really blessed us in our retirement.