RVing With a Purpose

Friday, May 18, 2018

Today was another beautiful HOT day. However, just before leaving work a little before 4:00 it started raining. Amazingly, when we were driving home this afternoon it was 72 degrees. All week long it has been above 90, 93 the past two days, when we drove home. 72 – Nice!

We started the day this morning with Pastor David coming over to take a picture of the team before everyone started leaving. He frames a picture of each team that stays at Francis Asbury UMC and hangs it in the hallway of the church. After visiting with Pastor for a while, Stel, Dave, Carol, Anne and Max headed back to Richard’s house to try to finish up some of the loose ends we left yesterday afternoon. The project is officially over but we decided to stay one additional day. We all have other places we have to be next week so today was the last day. We missed Lisa and Mark today but they had to head home this morning. They will be enjoying some grandparent duties tomorrow. We feel really good about what was accomplished today. When we left today all the doors were hung, all the flooring was completed, the shower was caulked, most of the base was down, trim work was up, transition strips were installed and a lot of clean up was done.

We brought a lot of the tools and other supplies back to Francis Asbury for storage and use by the summer volunteers.  There is a youth group already scheduled to go to Richard’s to do all the construction debris cleanup, get the large heavy tools back to the church and install the insulation under the house once the plumbing is complete.  The plumbing should be complete next week and Richard and Sandy should be able to move into their new home. They are very excited and happy. We can only try to imagine our home being bulldozed down after a flood and still living in a FEMA trailer 22 months later. May God continue to be with Richard and Sandy as they finally get to move in their home. We have promised them we will visit them next February when we return to Baton Rouge. Looking forward to that reunion and seeing them enjoying their home.

Thank you to all the Louisiana UM Disaster Response team members, Francis Asbury church members and the entire Baton Rouge community for so warmly welcoming us and allowing us to assist in your rebuilding efforts.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Today was a repeat of every other day this week from the weather standpoint. Beautiful, HOT 93 degrees, few clouds, no rain. Very thankful for indoor work.

Lisa brought our devotion today, and talked to us about our purpose. God calls us to His purpose. The devotion was from God Hunger which you can get from YouVersion. We use devotional readings from the YouVersion reading plans every day and really enjoy our YouVersion Bible app.

Today was officially the last day of the Baton Rouge project. (More on that later.) Darryl and Charles were on site most of the day working on plumbing and they still have a ways to go. Anne, Lisa and Carol worked on flooring. They made good progress in the hall, kitchen and pantry but did not get that job completed. Close, but not complete. There were several complicating factors like taking the doors off the refrigerator and moving it, moving the stove and cleaning out the pantry. All that took almost to first break. Dave and Susan worked on reinstalling baseboards, and other trim. Stel and Max worked on installing doors while Mark and Paul worked on some electrical issues. Mark and Paul joined Max and Stel on doors later in the day. There are still two doors to install.

 

 

For lunch today, the team purchased the food and Richard cooked for us. Richard and his wife Sandy and one of his daughters joined us for lunch. We had wonderful brisket, garlic mashed potatoes and green peas with onion. Wow! It was hard to go back to work after that. Richard did a lot of catering in the past and really knows how to cook.  Darryl, Charles and two of the case managers from the conference also joined us. We presented the Bible that all the NOMADS members who have worked on this project signed, wrote notes and scripture for Richard and Sandy. We also had a prayer of special blessing on their home. We really wanted to be totally finished but we aren’t. So… some of us have decided to work one more day. We think with one more day we can complete everything that we were asked to do.

 

 

After work and showers, the team went to Freddy’s for supper and dessert, or just dessert, (ice cream sundaes.) You can guess what we had. There is a Freddy’s within walking distance of Mama Ruby’s house but we have never been. The custard from Freddy’s gives the milkshakes from Cookout a run for the money. We may be having to split the visits when we return to Tuscaloosa.

Please be remembering all the NOMADS that are traveling this weekend, including this entire team, in your prayers.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

No record temperature today as it was only 93. But it was a hot and humid 93. Again there were some scattered showers but nothing any where close to us. We didn’t even hear any thunder today.

Paul and Susan led us in devotion today. They started with the question, “what inspires you?” We each thought about that and then shared our answers. There were some similar answers but all a little different. Thoughts included, doing things with people, beautiful sunrises, nature, grandchildren, morning devotions, seeing God’s hand in daily events, and we think we all agree that NOMADS inspires us. They closed with “volunteers are not unpaid because they are useless, they are unpaid because they are priceless.” Like that.

We then loaded up a couple of doors onto Stel’s and Paul’s trucks and headed back to Baker. Charles and Daryl had already delivered 4 doors, so we now have all six we need to install. Today was primarily a flooring day. Max and Anne completed bathroom one and then build out the cased opening between the shower room and the remainder of the bathroom. While we were doing that Stel and Lisa completed the flooring in bedroom two and bath and closet two. Dave, Mark, Carol, Susan and Paul all worked at some point on cleaning out the living room/dining room area and preparing the floor for the laminate. Paul and Mark also worked on electrical as well as trimming out the windows in bedroom one. The rest of us all worked on the laminate in the main room. We pushed really hard and completed all but one piece of the laminate in the main room. All that remains is the kitchen and small hall and pantry. Not nearly as large an area but lots of corners and will be time consuming. Daryl was there part of today working on plumbing but it is a long way from being complete. Don’t think he will complete that tomorrow.

 

We basically still have 6 doors, window trim and trim for the cased opening, and the remaining laminate to install. Also, a lot of clean up outside. Doubt we will get it all completely done tomorrow but it will be close. This has been an extremely hard working team and much has been accomplished.

We were too hot and tired this afternoon so we didn’t go to the park to walk today. We did have ice cream for supper for the second day in a row. (Confession is good for the soul.)

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Today was a record high in Baton Rouge for May 15 – 96 degrees. We knew it was hotter today but didn’t know it was a record until tonight. It was sunny with scattered clouds. There were some scattered thunderstorms late afternoon but none at Francis Asbury.

Today at Richard’s was about like yesterday. We were all very busy and didn’t take many pictures. Max, Anne, Stel and Lisa on laminate flooring. Max and Anne also repaired the rotten subfloor in the bathroom. Carol, Mark, Susan and Paul painted bedroom 2 and the kitchen and trim. Most of the painting is now complete. Of course there is still touch up to be done and some areas may need another coat. Dave, Carol and Mark installed the underlayment in bedroom two and the closet and bath so Stel and Lisa could start the laminate on that side. Mark and Dave also worked on electrical.

 

We all did some clean up and trying to get the main room cleaned out a bit. We have got to get it empty in order to put the flooring down which we would like to do before Thursday afternoon. But, we also need to get some doors and trim installed. We have made lots of progress this week but still a long way to go. We probably won’t have everything done by Thursday but it will be very close to move in ready – we hope.

This evening we again went to Forest park and walked a couple of miles.