RVing With a Purpose

Friday, January 25, 2019

This morning was another beautiful morning in Falfurrias. Still a little cool at 43 this morning when we got up. We slept about an hour later than normal after our busy day yesterday. We first completed Fred’s travel day preparations. Then we walked down to Whataburger to pick up breakfast and returned to eat in Fred. It was then time to raise the jacks, air up the air bags, hookup the truck and then say our goodbyes to our team. Today we were the first to leave at 9:35 so we got hugs from everyone. We look forward to working with this group of NOMADS sometime soon. It’s been another great team.

After our hugs, we headed toward San Antonio, Tx with Anne driving the first leg. We headed out like we came in, on US 281 toward Alice. Rather then turning toward Corpus Christi, we continued on 281 toward San Antonio. Before arriving in San Antonio we stopped at a rest area and changed drivers. Today Max got the hardest part of the drive going through all the construction on I-10 in San Antonio. There were some really tight cattle chutes and nasty road construction. From there we continued north on I-10 toward Kerrville, in the hill country of Texas. Tonight we are comfortably parked in the Kerrville-Schreiner Park right on the Guadalupe River, and plan to be here for a week. This park was a Texas State Park at one point but was transferred to the city of Kerrville.

Anne’s cousin Ross, and his wife Barb from Houston have a house just down the road from the park and are spending the weekend here so we can spend some time together. It is great to see them. The past several years it seems we only see cousins at funerals so it’s nice to spend some good time visiting. Barb and Ross came to the park shortly after our arrival and took us on a drive of the immediate area so we could get our bearings. Since tomorrow may be wet, we also drove up one of the hills to The Coming King Sculpture Prayer Gardens. What a wonderful garden in the shape of a cross. In the centerpiece of the gardens is the 77 foot 7 inch Empty Cross. Click here for more information on the gardens and cross. There are many beautiful sculptures in the park as well. We might try to go back to see the cross at night.

After a quick tour of the town, we had an early dinner. Later we went to Ross’s house and just sat around and visited. Good times.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

It was cold this morning with a low of 35 but the wind was not nearly as bad as yesterday. By lunch it was great working weather with a bright blue sky and bright sunshine.

Dave and Rita led us in devotion today and talked to us about being worker bees. Dave read Ecclesiastes 3:1-13. The Bible speaks to us about work. What do workers gain for their toil? What does God gain from their toil. A bee makes 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey over its lifetime but that 1/12 teaspoon is necessary for the pint of honey sitting on my shelf. No one’s work is insignificant. It just might be the 1/12 teaspoon needed to complete the pint. God needs all our work to take care of His children and His earth. After devotion Dave and Rita gave us each a pint of honey from one of the church members and his bees. It is virgin honey primarily from Mesquite and other native flora and it is very good. We will forever remember the 1/12 teaspoon each worker bee makes in its life. Almost makes one feel guilty for covering a big biscuit with tablespoons of honey. Thanks Rita and Dave.

Today most of us headed back out to Josefina’s house to try to finish everything up. Stel, Jodi and Bev stayed at the church to do some touch up painting and cleaning up of that project. God really blessed us and with us all working together we were able to complete the back steps and handrails as well as the touch up painting, water heater shelter, and clean up by about 12:30. Didn’t think we would get it all done that quickly.

 

 

After lunch Max and Anne reinstalled the shoe mold in the church restrooms. The bathrooms look so much nicer now. The doors that Bev and Jodie sanded and touched up the stain and polyurethane look great. They make the entire narthex look better.

This team has been another great one. We’ve completed all the tasks we were asked to complete plus a few other things we just did because they needed to be done. We made wonderful new friends and have been blessed by the sweet congregation at Falfurrias UMC. Tonight the church gave an appreciation dinner for the NOMADS and the winter Texans. We had an authentic TexMex dinner prepared by the ladies of the church. Everything was wonderful. We will be sad to leave tomorrow but hope to return here another year.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Today started as a very overcast day, and with the 25mph sustained winds, it felt much colder than the 47 on our thermometer this morning. It was 11 degrees cooler for our high today (70) and we are going to be back down in the 30’s tonight. It’s really not suppose to be this cold here. We came to south Texas to wear t-shirts and shorts and today we all looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy we had on so many layers of clothes. Guess we aren’t quite far enough south. The wind was so bad today that Rita, Dave, Max and Anne got wind burned working outside all day. By the way, if anyone is interested, the Lumber River in Lumberton, NC is still not below flood stage. It was almost there at 13.4 (13 is flood stage) but now with the storms it’s going back up again. Still hasn’t been below flood stage since the floods of hurricane Florence last September.

Roger and Bev led us in devotion today. Bev read the story of the author of the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul” and then we all read the works together rather than singing. Sometimes when simply reading the words we listen more attentively and think more about the meaning.

Stel asked us all to be flexible today and switched things up a bit. Rita, Dave, Max and Anne went to Josefina’s to install more of the trim on the exterior of the house and build the back porch and steps. The trim is completed and we built the deck area and steps but have not quite completed the hand rails nor installed the pavers at the bottom of the steps.

 

Roger and John stayed at the church to work on the bathrooms, installing water lines and the lavatory. Stel also worked in the bathrooms and installed a new light fixture in the ladies room. Bev and Jodi worked on the bathroom doors, giving them a little sanding and then some polyurethane. The doors look really good. Tonight we all went back to Strickland’s for dinner and of course there was lots of great conversation and even more laughter. We have such a good team! It has been a real pleasure to work with this group and as usual we will be sad to say our “see you down the roads.”

We will have to really push tomorrow to finish everything up but hopefully things will go well and we can make it happen. We would like to finish a little early so we can begin packing up but if not we will just leave a little later on Friday.

Tuesday, January 22, 2018

Today was another gorgeous day. The high was in the 80’s, bright and sunny. The wind was 25-35 again so we were again under a fire warning but still a nice day.

John lead us in devotion time this morning. He used 2 Corinthians 12:9 for the scripture. He postulated that it is good for us to have troubles and adversities. Every trouble has some use. A crisis has two components, opportunity and danger, and it depends on how we respond. We need to understand what the pain is trying to accomplish in our lives and let the pain be instructive. There was some good conversation and thoughts.

We then all went back to work. Rita and Anne began working on the flooring in the bathrooms at the church that Stel had started. Max, Diane and John went back to Gilberto’s to do the caulking and install the remained of the trim. Dave and Roger went back to Josefina’s and Max joined them after completing his work at Gilberto’s. Gilberto’s house is now completed and we know they are be glad to have their home back. Several of us went back to Gilberto’s to do the outside cleanup after lunch but the wind was blowing so hard we decided to wait and return tomorrow. Things kept blowing off before we could get them secured. Back at the church Rita and Anne completed the flooring in the bathrooms and then John installed the toilets. Max help Rita and Anne and then worked on the shoe mold. There is still a lavatory and more shoe mold to complete tomorrow. We didn’t go back out to Josefina’s this afternoon and don’t know exactly what is left to complete there. Roger and Joel were working on the back porch when Max and Dave left for lunch. Things are really coming together and we should be able to complete all the church has asked us to do. A week ago we weren’t so sure about completing it all but it’s looking a lot better now. Two more days. Then we will be on the road again.