RVing With a Purpose

Monday, October 22, 2018

This morning was a cold one. We had to use the gas furnace to warm up FRED since it was too cool for the heat pumps to do the job. It was still 36 degrees when we left for the church for morning meeting. The day warmed up and was a wonderful fall day and a wonderful day to work. Certainly more pleasant than the 105 heat index when we were working her last summer. North Carolina is much nicer in the fall.

Today of course started with our team meeting at 8:00. It was our official start of the Lumberton DR and meeting of our team members who have already worked here for two weeks. We will work as team members this week and take over lead when Gary and Sharon leave this weekend. Of course we have known Gary and Sharon for some time but our other team members, Ogie and Bill and Ginger and Larry are new to us. After just one day we already love them all. The team has been working at two houses, one (Sheryl’s) needing bathroom, bedroom ceiling and kitchen ceiling due to leaks and outside work and another that is getting work on a storage building attached to a house or something of that nature. We haven’t been to that site yet and aren’t quite sure. The team has been doing a great job on the Sheryl’s house. It is looking really good.

 

Today Sharon, Max and Anne started on house number three. We were excited to meet the owner, Jackie, just before lunch today. She is a very sweet lady and we know we will enjoy working on her home. Her Mom who is 92 lives next door. A lot of the work has already been done, but much is left to do. Today we started with cleaning some paint off floors and covering the new laminate to prevent any damage. We also worked on re-installing electrical outlets, installing doors and began some painting. As is usual for the first day, it seemed to go a little slow today but we are sure things will pick up tomorrow.

 

October 21, 2018

Our temperature stayed in the 60’s all night and then about 5:00 this morning another cold front blew through and it became cold. It was still about 48 with a stiff wind when we left for church today. Later the sun was out and the wind calmed and it was a beautiful afternoon. Our low tonight is predicted to be in the upper 30’s but at least we do not have a frost advisory like some of you.

The team went to church at our host church, Chestnut Street UMC, today. They have the same pastor as when we were here last year, Pastor Lowry, and we really like him. He preaches the Word, and you can’t say anything better about a pastor. The congregation is very friendly and welcoming to the NOMADS and supportive of our work in their community. It was a good time of worship.

After worship we met with Jeff, our construction superintendent, who also worships at Chestnut Street, and drove over to a house we are going to start in the morning to see where we needed to start. The house still needs lots of work but it is looking good. Most of the drywall work is done as well as the flooring. There is still some painting, electrical, plumbing and lots and lots of trim. We will be in this house for a while which is why our leaders Gary and Sharon are having us start there tomorrow. When we take over leadership next week, we will still have several weeks work left to complete. We will try to see the other two houses that NOMADS have started tomorrow. We are looking forward to our time here.

After meeting with Jeff we went to Pier 41 with Gary and Sharon for a late lunch. Pier 41 was one of our favorite restaurant to visit when we were here last year and it was again very good. It is a local place that does a huge business. Since we were late arriving, we could sit around and visit with Gary and Sharon after we ate since there was no longer a wait line.  We had a quiet afternoon and then it was cool enough for hot chocolate tonight. Fall has arrived! Hope everyone has had a restful and safe weekend. Be careful when you get out in the traffic tomorrow morning!

October 20, 2018

Today was a cloudy and overcast day almost all day. It rained for just a moment while we were closing up Fred for travel from Johnston to Lumberton. It drizzled for a few minutes after we got settled in Lumberton. When we arrived here it was humid and much warmer than Johnston. The cold front had not yet come through Lumberton. It’s now 6:00 pm and the temperature has started to drop. We are down from 77 a little while ago to 66 now. Our projected low tonight is 49. It will be a windows open night – at least for a while.

We are at what used to be East Gate Mobile Home park and has now been converted to a RV park for volunteers of the North Carolina UMC in Robeson County. There are some pecan trees at the entrance. We have 50 amp power, water and sewer connections. We have clear view of the satellites for TV. There is a Walmart Neighborhood Market across the street. Don’t know yet how far we are from the job sites. For the record, we have seen no mosquitoes yet. We had been told they were huge and vicious. We were outside just before dark walking around the park and did not see a single one. Robeson County has had an aggressive spraying program to control the problem and it seems to have worked. We will see as time goes one. Probably the cooler temperatures this next week will help too. We do have some fire ants and have already put out some poison. Maybe the cooler weather will drive them back into the ground too. Anyway, we had a very easy, uneventful drive and are ready to meet the rest of the team and get to work. We appreciate your prayers.

October 19, 2018

Today was another beautiful fall day in South Carolina. After another great breakfast and time of visiting, Debra and Anne went to the church to help pack Christmas bags for the students at an elementary school in the area. The school was chosen because the students are from an economically depressed area with all but 3% of the students qualifying for free lunches. Some of the ladies had already acquired the items and arranged them on tables. We worked today to get everything into the bags and then seal the bags. The church will be providing 500 bags for the school. Not only do they do the Christmas bags, they also provide school supplies at the beginning of the year, hygiene items year round, two books per student at the end of the year for summer reading as well as food packs each weekend for a lot of students. Such a good ministry and Anne was so glad she was able to go assist on this project.

After completing their work at the church Anne and Debra stopped by the grocery store and then back home for a late lunch with the guys.

After lunch and a rest break the four of us went to the Wild Turkey Center of the National Wild Turkey Federation headquarters located just a few miles from the house. Who knew? Evidently it’s a pretty big deal. Randy drove a bus for a group to visit the museum several months ago and discovered there are at least 6 different walking trails, free for anyone to use. Today we didn’t visit the museum but it is suppose to be full of information on the reintroduction of wild turkeys into the wild. Max remembers riding along on the tractor and wagon with his grandfather many decades ago and releasing wild turkeys in the woods in Blount County as part of the repopulation program. We were interested in hiking the trails and getting some exercise today. We will have to visit the museum another day. The trails were in good shape and through nice wooded areas. There are lakes, butterfly habitats, and other specialty areas. We enjoyed hiking about 2.5 miles of trails and would definitely return to hike the others another day. Today we needed to get on home to start dinner and nope, we didn’t see a single turkey.

Our niece and nephew, Dave and Jennifer, came over for dinner. They both worked today and we appreciated their putting forth the effort to come for a visit. Great to see and visit with them! We all probably ate too much but dinner was so good and the fellowship even better. It’s been a great few days visiting and makes us a little sad to be leaving, but tomorrow we will move on to Lumberton, NC to get back to work.