Last weekend was shortened due to working on Friday with the Fannie Mae employees. Saturday became our usual Friday meaning there was laundry to do and groceries to purchase and the team went to Hancock’s Barbecue for an early supper. Excellent barbecue! It was worth the schedule change to be able to work with the FM people. On Sunday, we welcomed one additional team member, Dave, for a total of nine Nomads. We began the work week much like we ended last week, working with the Fannie Mae employees. The FM folks from last week left on Saturday and a new group of about 25 arrived on Sunday. They were just as enthusiastic and fun to work with as our first group last week. At the request of our construction coordinator we again divided the team to four houses and accomplished much more work than if we had only worked in our traditional role. On Tuesday evening the NOMADS were invited to the closing dinner of the Fannie Mae SERVE360 project. The FM leaders were very appreciative and complimentary of NOMADS assistance and are interested in possibly pursuing additional joint projects in the future. The NOMADS members were also very complimentary of the working partnership, and we were sorry to see the FM members leave. It was such an amazing way to meet new people of different cultures and be able to share our life and faith stories.
This is the finished siding from last week.
… and laying out a new piece of paneling for the bathroom …
… then cutting it to fit.
Our Serve360 friends were eager to take on any task, such as patching a hole in a wall …
… painting the kitchen ceiling …
We had a great time Tuesday evening telling the Serve360 folks how Christ works through NOMADS to help others.
On Wednesday morning the team resumed normal operations with members working in two houses. We continued to work at Marie’s home and were pleased to present our first Selma Bible to her on Wednesday afternoon. Bible presentation is always a highlight of the week. There were just a few small items to be completed on Marie’s home – items that couldn’t be completed until the paint was dry. Next week’s team plans to complete those items Monday morning. Since we worked last week on Friday, Wednesday was our last workday and we turned leadership over to Carolyn and Gene and departed Selma on Thursday morning. Please continue to remember the Selma team in your prayers as there is still much work to be done.
While we worked on Ms Marie’s house, other team members installed laminate flooring at a house two block away.
Dave spreading adhesive for the bathroom flooring
The almost finished bathroom
Bible presentation for Ms Marie
NOMADS team picture for this week
We will be back in South Carolina for a few weeks and hope to have some fun adventures to share. Until then, stay safe and always remember to try to make someone’s day a little brighter by showing Christ’s love.
We had to go back to our property in Alabama before going to South Carolina. While there we were blessed with a display of the northern lights.
January 12, 2023 brought 15 tornadoes to the state of Alabama, including one tornado that tracked right through the heart of Selma, with top winds of 130 MPH. Monday, September 30 marked the official start to the NOMADS efforts to assist in the long term recovery of the city of Selma. As team leaders for the beginning of the project we first visited the site in June of 2024 to meet with Bud, the construction coordinator. We returned September 24th to prepare for the arrival of our teams and visit job sites.
Before the team arrived we spent some time helping Bud finish the electrical installation …
… trimming low limbs …
… and a little landscaping.
Friday, our first team members arrived, Carolyn and Gene. Unfortunately, our next couple, Herman and Janis had to cancel to return to their home which had been damaged by Hurricane Helene. On Sunday Bill and Becky arrived after having to delay travel due to the effects of Helene. We were very excited when we received a call that Bob and Leone were joining us Monday afternoon due to their NC project being cancelled. In the mist of all the tragedy caused by Helene, we remind ourselves that places like Selma are now off the TV news and masses of volunteers are no longer arriving. There is still much work to be done in Selma and we are so proud to have NOMADS as part of the long term recovery efforts.
We had to hold one of the low hanging communications cables for some of the RVs to get into the parking.
Monday morning, the team began work on our first house. Tommy’s home suffered wind and water damage and was further damaged and emptied by looters. The first priority was to replace the exterior doors so the house would be secure. While that was being done, the rest of the team then began demo work, removing damaged drywall and paneling and flooring. Then began the repairs to the wall framing and drywall. That continued through Tuesday and Wednesday.
Installing one of the new doors
Preparing to patch a large hole in a ceiling
As usual, when you open up a damaged wall you find more than you planned for.
The team filled up this trailer a few times.
Thursday began a new adventure for our NOMADS team. We began working alongside some employees of Fannie Mae, a government lending agency, that came to Selma to volunteer in the recovery. Fannie Mae encourages their employees to volunteer to serve in communities and allows them some time off to do so. There were about 30 people, most with minimal construction experience, that volunteered to help make a difference for the people of Selma. They came with their own team leaders and our four NOMADS couples became the “expert” advisors. We really were Bud’s (construction coordinator) eyes and ears at each of the five homes where we worked on Thursday and Friday. Team one continued our work at Tommy’s home, continuing the demo work we had begun and began hanging drywall. Team 2 worked at a home that had ceiling and wall drywall work. Team 2 moved to a house needing exterior painting on Friday. The third team worked on windows, and drywall at house 3.
Thursday morning meeting with Fannie Mae volunteers
Team 1’s crew installing ceiling drywall
Team 2’s crew repainting a house
Removing a broken window at house 3
We were at the fourth house both Thursday and Friday. It needed exterior siding to be replaced and bathroom flooring and ceiling repairs. The house next door had burned, and the fire damaged the siding on about half the right side of our house. We had two volunteers that had some experience with siding and after we helped them get started, they moved right along, mostly completing that job by Thursday afternoon. The two ladies working on the floor in the small bathroom seemed to really enjoy learning new skills. They had never used the tools we used to removed three layers of subfloor to repair damage from a leaking toilet. They worked hard on a dirty job and we got most of the subfloor and the toilet reinstalled before the end of the day so our homeowner had a working bathroom. Friday we assisted the team in installing the last of the subfloor, installing a ceiling fan and removing the ceiling tiles and replacing them with drywall. Anne even taught a beginning class on taping and mudding the ceiling.
Our crew taking down the old siding. They finished installing the new siding but we forgot to take a picture of it.
Adding a brace under the toilet
Our crew got enough of the new sub-floor in by Thursday afternoon to reinstall the toilet for the night.
Teaching taping and mudding to one of our Fannie Mae volunteers
It was a very busy week, and yes, we NOMADS worked on Friday. We will be taking an extra day off next week and all the team members were in agreement that it was the right thing to do. It was a great experience for us too. New friends were made, faith discussions took place, and we have two people interested in NOMADS membership. Great way to start our DR in Selma.
We have been attending Church Street Methodist Church which has some beautiful stained glass windows.
These little fellows frequent the edge of the lake where we are parked.
We left the NOMADS Annual Meeting on Thursday, September 19, 2024 (a day early) and overnighted at Cracker Barrel in Bentonville, Arkansas and then drove on to Arcadian Moon RV Park in Higginsville, Missouri Friday morning. We were meeting with some of the Switch It Up Crew for a Crew Campout Friday and Saturday night. We had about 70 people – which is very large for a Crew Campout and included about 20 new members. We had a good time meeting the new crew and it was great to renew friendships with people we had not seen in a while. The weather Saturday didn’t cooperate, and we had several downpours that curtailed some of the morning and afternoon activities. However, we were blessed with late afternoon sunshine and cooler weather for the great potluck Saturday evening. What a great time we had eating and visiting with friends from several states.
Todd and Sheila visiting with the Crew
Lots of good food at the potluck
After the heavy rains, this heavy RV that was parked in the boondocking area got stuck …
… but was rescued by another Crew member.
This truck was also rescued by a Crew member.
One of the odd sights we saw along the road in Missouri
We also spent some time with Sheila discussing future plans for the crew. For those that are not aware, it is through the sponsorship of Switch crew that we lead a Bible study for our RVers on Wednesday nights. It’s our “small group” since we are not able to attend small group at our church due to our travels. Such a special group of friends helping each other grow in faith. We are hoping to begin additional faith groups soon.
A really special time with some of our Wednesday Night Bible Study Group
We are now in Selma, Alabama setting up for a NOMADS Disaster Rebuild project to repair home damaged by last year’s tornado.
Well, it’s been one month since our last post. When we last posted, we had returned to Randy and Debra’s home at the completion of our summer trip to New York, Michigan etc. It was a wonderful trip.
We spent almost three weeks in South Carolina enjoying family time. We caught up on some chores like changing the oil in BB and helped Randy and Debra take down some trees in their yard but mainly we just enjoyed our time together.
One of several trees we took down during our short visit
We always enjoy making sawdust with Randy and David.
In between cutting trees and working on a deck, we took a day trip to the Revolutionary War battlefield in Ninety-Six, SC.
We departed SC in BB on Thursday, September 12, with our first overnight on our property on Pine Mountain in Alabama. Max drove BB and Anne drove the truck loaded with tools. When we stopped at the Alabama Welcome Center we saw a new Beyond in the parking lot and we met Jeff and Susan the owners. We enjoyed visiting with them for a little while especially since they were just two hours into their second trip in their new Beyond. Great to see Beyonds in the wild and quickly make new friends.
Our chance meeting with new Beyond owners Susan and Jeff
Shortly after leaving the rest area Max began to feel something was wrong with one of our tires and we stopped by our Ford dealership on the way back to Pine Mountain. So glad we did, because we discovered we were having tread separation on both our front tires. Several of the Beyond owners on a Facebook group we follow have recently had tire problems at about the same mileage (34,000) and their posts were one of the reasons we stopped so quickly to check the tires. The interstate is so rough sometimes that you don’t know if the problem is the road or your vehicle. End result, we replaced all 6 tires. Thank you, God, for your protection and thank you Beyond owners for sharing your information. Because of their posts, we probably avoided some significant damage to BB due to blow outs.
Thursday evening we visited with friends and left the truck on the mountain. Friday, we drove to Shreveport, Louisiana and overnighted in the Cracker Barrel parking lot. It was a quiet night, a good breakfast Saturday morning and we arrived in Mineola, Texas around 10 am.
We had never been to Mineola and found it to be a very nice, friendly, cowboy town and the Civic Center/RV park was a great place for our meeting. Saturday evening, we drove to Canton, Texas to have dinner with some Switch It Up friends. We were so excited to see them that we forgot to take any pictures. It was great to spend time with Mark and Debbie. Hope we see them down the road sometime soon.
Our NOMADS Annual Meeting began Sunday morning with our worship service. From then on we were busy with classes, meetings, great food, great entertainment, our fund raiser charity auction and most importantly, great time renewing old friendships and making new friendships. We think this was one of the best annual meetings we have attended. The Board and committees did a great job and deserve a big thank you.
Our theme this year was Circling the Wagons for Christ.
We walked early each morning while it was cool.
This year Wayne presented a great class every morning based on the book “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
Our morning devotion was brought by a different person each day.
The annual remembrance service is always a solemn reminder.
Isaac Witty provided a hilarious comedy routine for the group, but he also followed the routine with his powerful testimony of God’s work in his life.
There are always several educational sessions, such as this one on drywall finishing …
… and this RV electrical class.
The passing of the gavel is a big moment each year – especially for the outgoing chairperson.
This map of projects shows all the opportunities we have to be the hands and feet of Christ around the country.
This was the first year NOMADS experimented with streaming the business meetings.
The two of us always assist with the auction. We check in and set up all the items.
In addition to bidding on items, we assist with the silent auction.
And assisting as a spotter and bid recorder during the live auction. The live auction is a lot of fun and shows the extravagant generosity of the NOMADS attending the meeting.
This year the live auction was streamed so people who couldn’t attend could participate.
On Tuesday night the board bought most of the tickets at The Historic Select Theater for a showing of this old movie. It was such fun watching it with a bunch of RVers.
One evening we were treated to a partial lunar eclipse.
In addition to the classes and meetings there are always fun activities like cornhole …
… golf …
… pickleball …
… and of course, plenty of delicious food.
The week ended with a wonderful choir concert.
Next year the meeting will be in Tennessee. We left Mineola Thursday afternoon in route to our next adventure which will be the topic of our next post.
RVing With a Purpose 