RVing With a Purpose

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Happy MardiGras! It’s a really big holiday in Baton Rouge. Everyone (except NOMADS) is off today and there are multiple parades and parties. Everything ends at midnight when Ash Wednesday begins. Our day was considerably colder. It was 32 degrees when we got up. We all had on many layers when we headed out to work today.

Nancy led us in devotion today. She shared a reading from a journal of memories and messages that she is leaving for her children to one day read. Today’s entry was her thoughts on the story of Timothy and how many of the issues faced by Timothy are the same today. She encouraged them to remember their foundation of “being raised in the church but encouraged them to rely on their own personal moments with God.” This made us think about how precious these writings will be to her children one day. It also reminded us of the devotional notes and writings of our mothers that we found after their deaths – how precious they are to us. Perhaps we should all think about doing some writing to our families? Some might should be shared now. Others saved for later.

Today after devotion, we made a three way split. We now have a third project house. It is a new mobile home to replace the home that was flooded. It has been placed on a raised berm to hopefully avoid future flooding. The homeowner is a veteran with mobility issues. He is already living in the trailer but needs a front porch and steps and a back ramp for his scooter. Right now the only entrance is by way of some stacked concrete blocks. Not very safe. Max, Larry, Harry, and Gary began construction on the back porch because the VA is suppose to be bringing a metal ramp to attach to the porch. We will also be building the front porch and steps.

While they enjoyed a little time away from drywall and getting to do a little construction, Janet, Lisa, and Anne O continued working on finishing the drywall at Baker Drive. Bob and Mark worked on sorting out strange electrical problems on the Baker trailer. Today they were able to locate the light switches for the front of the house – behind the front door, covered by insulation and dry wall. Over at Norwich, Anne A, Rita, Dave and Jean continued finishing the drywall. They got second coat on the master bedroom and bath and hall. The third bedroom was also sanded. There was a lot accomplished at all three locations. The drywall is going slower than we would like but we are trying to cover as many things as we can for the agency. It was a beautiful sunny day that we all enjoyed – even if it was cold all day.

Monday, March 4, 2019

It was a lot colder today. The high yesterday was 75 and today the high was 49. It was mostly cloudy and tonight we had another heavy rain. Our low tonight is predicted to be 29. Average low for this date is 49. We know it’s not nearly as cold as our northern states, but it’s considerably colder than we all expected when we signed up for Baton Rouge. Oh well, we will survive.

Today Janet and Harry led our devotion time. They pulled their information from the book, “Enjoying The Presence of God” by Jan Johnson. We talked about how to integrate prayer in everything we do. Father Lawrence had four suggestions to assist in the integration. First reflect before each task. Remember you are doing it for God, no matter how simply or seemingly insignificant the task. Repeat a short prayer as you work. Reflect after you finish each task. Turn your thoughts to God as you work, keeping God in your head, much like getting a song stuck in your head. We had some good discussion during our devotion time. Probably more importantly, conversations returned to doing our work for God as we worked on each job site today. Some of us were having a little trouble finding Jesus in our drywall mud. We all eventually came around. Thanks, Harry and Janet.

We were glad Bob felt like working with us today, but today his wife Anne was too ill to work. Nancy just worked til noon because she was sick, too. We will be so glad when we are all well again. Today, Rita, Anne, Jean, Larry and Dave returned to Norwich and worked on sanding and mudding the drywall. Rita, Anne and Jean decided to attack one of the bedrooms while the guys worked on mudding corner bead. We have one bedroom we think we will call complete tomorrow after we take a look when everything is dry. It may need a little sanding. We will be excited to declare one done! We are making progress. Out at Baker Drive Bob and Mark worked to frame in some cabinets in the kitchen. Lisa, Janet and Nancy worked on finishing the sheetrock. Harry, Lisa and Gary worked on hanging the last of the drywall and and corner bead. A good part of the afternoon was spent tracing and trouble shooting the electrical wiring. It was another busy day. BTW, Max says Anne’s group didn’t do anything because there are no pictures. Yep, Anne is in trouble again. Maybe pics tomorrow.

The congregation of Francis Asbury UMC provided another delicious dinner for the volunteers tonight. This week we are being joined by 20 college “kids” from Grand Valley State University in Michigan. We really enjoyed the dinner and visiting with the young volunteers.

Sunday, March 03, 2019

Between the weather and most of the team feeling poorly with pollen allergies, upper respiratory infections and one case of pneumonia we didn’t do much this weekend. Friday was spent mostly with house cleaning and grocery shopping, Saturday was spent working around the church and on the RVs. We did move a large brass cross and picture in the sanctuary at the request of the pastor. Today we worshipped with the host congregation then went out to eat together followed by a stop for frozen custard. Then it was back home to rest. Please pray that the team will be back to full health this week.

Thursday, February 28, 2019

NOMADS Friday! And we are all glad it is Friday for us. Today began with clouds and mild temperatures. We ended the work day with rain, put all our stuff back in the truck in the rain, and the rain continues tonight. Hope it’s good sleeping weather.

Max and Anne led devotion today and used the Seedbed Daily Text. Since today’s Seedbed and our other daily devotion both were very similar in thought and scripture, we decided that we needed to listen and use that for our discussion.

For a treat this morning, Gary and Nancy brought us a fresh hot boudin king cake. The locals say don’t ask what boudin is, but then say it is a pork and rice sausage. The king cake was very good with the pork filling and some maple syrup and bacon on top. A savory king cake vs all the sweet king cakes we have been eating. Nice. Only five more days of king cakes. They are very strict with king cakes. They are pulled from the shelf at 12:00 midnight Fat Tuesday (Mardis Gras) and won’t return until next year. No decadent king cakes during Lent. We are hoping we can go to a Mardis Gras parade tomorrow night. Please no rain!

After our king cake and devotion we headed off to work. Rita and Dave, Anne, Nancy, Larry and Jean worked at Norwich all day. We have all pretty much decided we are very thankful we never had to support ourselves finishing drywall. We are happy to do it for others but would hire it done at our house unless it was a small repair. We finished the week with all the drywall with one coat of mud and tape. One bedroom has a second coat of mud. There was a lot of great work done. It will take us at least another week, maybe more.

 

Max, Gary, Anne O., Lisa and Mark worked at Baker Drive. Gary installed lots of corner bead. The rest installed drywall. They are now almost complete on hanging drywall and will begin the taping and mudding Monday. There is a lot that needs second coating since we cleaned up what we inherited from another group and a smaller amount that will need first coat. The Baker Drive location is a trailer so not nearly as large as the Norwich home.

 

Everyone was very tired at the end of today. No dinner tonight. Everyone wanted a hot bath and rest. We will see what we can get into this weekend.