After a few days with family in South Carolina we moved back into BB and headed to Middlebury, Indiana to have some upgrades done on the van. Of course, we had to get our first Chick-fil-A peach shakes of the year before we left.
On the way to Indiana we overnighted in Berea, Kentucky. Coincidentally, just before the trip one of the YouTube channels we watch posted a video about the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea. We delayed our next day travel for a couple of hours to visit the center. We are glad we did. The Artisan Center is a state agency that supports local artists and provides a place for travelers to shop for unique craft items and art pieces. It is a fascinating place.
Metal lawn art
There were several displays of ceramic pieces.
We wondered if hanging this in our RV window would keep the real cardinals for attacking their reflections.
Many wooden toys
Anne and the junkyard moose
We saw many beautiful paintings.
The Center also has various food products …
… but we don’t think we will try this pepper jelly.
We had another productive visit to the Coachmen factory service center and after some good Amish food we drove to Bath, New York for a Switch It Up huddle. More about that next time.
At the end of our last post, on Friday afternoon, we had arrived in Pikeville, KY to start our annual project with Constructors for Christ. It was a beautiful drive up from South Carolina and most importantly, it was uneventful.
Our campsites at Pikeville RV Park
This is the slab when we arrived on Friday.
Saturday morning, we all began our work. Max and Randy along with about 9-10 others, met out on the job site to begin the construction of a distribution center for God’s Appalachian Partnership (GAP) in Minnie, KY which is about 30 minutes from Pikeville. This is a new organization for us and as we learned more about the mission of GAP and the missionaries, the more we fell in love with the place and the people. GAP’s number one mission is the sharing of the gospel of Christ. Everything else is a tool to reach that goal. Our project, the construction of a new ministry center is one of those tools. GAP has outgrown their current center, which is an old, abandoned coal mine office/warehouse. We began building a 7,500 sq ft building that will have a huge impact on additional services to the community. Saturday was work on base plates so they would be ready for the full crew Monday morning.
GAP’s current office
GAP is celebrating 25 years of ministry to the local residents.
We start each morning with prayer.
Fastening base plates.
It’s great to see young people developing a mission mindset.
Sunday morning before church we drove up the mountain from our RV park to get a good view of the “Pikeville Cut-Through”. Pikeville had a history of horrible flooding. The mayor had the vision to re-route the a four lane road, the Big Sandy river and a railroad to prevent future floods. It was the largest engineering feat in the US and second in the world only to the Panama Canal. The project was begun in 1973 and completed in 1987 at a cost of $77 million dollars. An amazing site to see.
The Pikeville Cut-Through
By Sunday evening we had 54 people ready to get to work. Approximately 18-20 people were working in the kitchen preparing 3 meals a day for 54-60 people and 30-35 were working on the job site. It was horribly hot (90+ degrees) most days. No rain all week and very few clouds. Despite the hard conditions, tremendous work was accomplished. In five days, we went from empty, flat, slab to all walls except one short wall in place. We needed just a few more studs. Most importantly, there were just a few minor scratches, but no serious injuries.
Building the first walls
One of the best part of these projects is teaching people new skills.
Raising walls
Preparing the walls for the top plates
Kelly (on her site built step stool) was the main saw operator for Week 1. She had very able helpers.
One of the advantages of having all ages participate is that young people learn how to work together to accomplish tasks.
We had a new family join us this year. One of their jobs was to build the door and window headers.
On Thursday morning we had to move the trusses so the crane could set up in the correct spot.
As usual the team members wrote scriptures references on the framing.
We wrote this where the water fountain will be.
Here are a few pictures showing the daily progress:
The building site Saturday morning
Saturday evening
Monday evening
Tuesday evening
Wednesday evening
Thursday evening
Half of the building at the end of the week
The other half. We shouldn’t be, but sometimes we are amazed at what God can do when His children volunteer to come together and be His hands for a specific purpose.
Such a good week, making new friends and renewing old friendships. The crane should have been on site this morning and the trusses should have begun to go up. Sorry we were not there to see that accomplishment but looking forward to some pictures from the folks that are still there. Please pray for their safety as they work and travel.
On a sad note, we were notified Thursday morning that two of our friends had passed away in a house fire in Cleveland, Alabama. They were both dedicated Christians and spent their lives in public safety making our county and state safer places. Kennith was in law enforcement and Regina was Max’s right hand while they helped build and operate Blount County’s 9-1-1 Central Dispatch for 22 years. In fact when Max was pulled away by his Emergency Management duties, she had to be his left hand, too. We left Kentucky Saturday morning to attend a celebration of their lives. The law enforcement, fire and EMS communities in the county turned out in force to honor them. We are comforted knowing that they are in a better place and that we will see them again.
The procession of emergency vehicles was over a mile long.
We start a new project with Constructors for Christ this weekend, so we better get caught up on what we have been doing the last few weeks. So here it is.
We have been to Red Bay, Alabama to get some work done on Fred – to Edisto Beach State Park in South Carolina for a day trip that included a visit to Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve– participated in a volunteer day at Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries in Greenwood, SC– made a quick trip to the historic city of Selma, Alabama to scope out an upcoming NOMADS project – and spent a good bit of good time with family.
We have been to Red Bay enough times that it may not still be on our bucket list.
At Botany Bay you have to pay attention to the tides to keep from having to wade back to the parking lot.
Driftwood beach at Botany Bay
At Connie Maxwell Randy and Max worked outside on some landscaping while Anne and Debra worked inside sorting clothes and moving goods.
Entering Selma
Some of the Selma tornado damage
While in South Carolina we bought peaces from the packing house and Debra and Anne fixed them and froze them (at least the ones we didn’t eat).
We also did some more work on our nephew’s deck – this time under close supervision.
Of course in our travels sometimes we just look for a sign that it’s time to pause for a few moments …
… and this was the perfect time.
Also, if you haven’t seen it, the Project Volunteer TV episode NOMADS participated in back in April has aired and is now on YouTube. Click here to see it.
And today we drove from South Carolina through North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia to Kentucky to get ready to start work tomorrow. More about that next week.
Hope everyone has had a great two weeks since last we posted. The first week, 5/5-5/11 we enjoyed our time spent with Randy and Debra catching up on all things. We helped each other on various projects, cooked and shared good meals and great family time. We were blessed to be able to attend our great-nephew’s infant dedication last Sunday and afterwards enjoyed a meal and afternoon of family time. We also planned and prepared for our camping (glamping) trip to Huntington Beach State Park. HBSP is just a few miles south of Myrtle Beach and not as crowded. None of us had ever visited this state park and we all loved our time at Huntington Beach this past week. Highly recommend this park. It was just a short walk from our RVs to the beach. The sunrises and beach walks were great! Some guests were enjoying the ocean waves, but we decided it was just a little too cool for us.
Sunrise on Huntington Beach
One of our sunrise walks on the beach
Within about an hour of our arrival, we had located and were enjoying the ice cream shop. Ice cream is a good lunch, right? We also visited the Atalaya Castle on the park’s grounds. Take a look at the link. We did the self-guided tour and found it very interesting. We learned so much but know we would have learned even more on the guided tour.
Inside Atalaya
Our Atalaya tour guides
We did an alligator tour that was also very educational and while on that tour saw in addition to the alligators many beautiful shore birds, some of which we had never seen before. This was a long hike but so worth it! Did you know that an alligator can live on one good meal each year. They usually eat more than that but in less-than-ideal circumstances they have survived 3 years with only one meal. We wouldn’t do well as alligators.
Some of the birds we saw included many red-winged blackbirds …
… anhingas …
… a black crowned night heron …
… and several great egrets. (We didn’t notice what was in the background until we downloaded the picture.)
We also attended a turtle presentation at the Nature Center. We saw diamond back terrapins and watched them capture fiddler crabs for their dinner, along with seeing sea horses, box turtles, rays, alligator, and again lots of birds.
Ranger presentation on turtles
These fellows really like fiddler crabs.
One of several seahorses in nature center
When we weren’t hiking or enjoying the nature at HBSP, we did some touristy things like playing 36 holes of miniature golf and eating some great seafood.
Our neighbors are not going to be happy when they get back to their campsite.
This trip was scheduled to celebrate Randy’s birthday and we certainly did enjoy the celebration. We are already planning for next year. Wonder if we could talk Randy into have more than one birthday each year? Until next post, praise and thank the Lord for all your blessings, and stay safe.
Also, if you haven’t seen it, the Project Volunteer TV episode NOMADS participated in back in April has aired and is now on YouTube. 
RVing With a Purpose 