RVing With a Purpose

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Again, another beautiful day in Cedartown. We have been so blessed with wonderful weather these three weeks while we have been working on the barn. It would have been impossible to accomplish this task of re-siding the barn without the wonderful fall weather we have experienced. We did have a rain shower this afternoon after work but it didn’t last very long.

Tom had our devotion today and used the “Disciplines” 2017. The scripture was from Revelation 7:11-17. Again, the meditation made us think and sparked good conversation.

After team meeting, we resumed where we left off yesterday.  The barn crew completed all the windows today as well as trimming out the rear barn door. The only small things left at the barn are putting in a few more screws in some windows, trimming off any screws that may have gone through the wood into a stall, cleaning up and using a magnet to find any dropped nails/screws and caulking a few places. The barn may be complete before lunch tomorrow. The floor crew completed one room today and started on the smaller second room. There are a lot of intricate cuts to be made so it is time consuming. Still the flooring should be down tomorrow. What may not be complete is the shoe molding. James Hall is now complete. Today the remainder of the donated furniture was uncrated, and the final cleanup completed. After completing James, Bobbi and Cheryl painted the shoe mold for Nobel. Max again spent most of the day making sure everyone else had what they needed to complete their tasks and offering suggestions and help as needed. Anne spent the day on her knees installing the vinyl plank flooring. It was another productive day and things are now winding down to our last day tomorrow.

 

Tonight we were invited as guests to the First UMC fellowship dinner. Again, the members were so welcoming and interested in what we have been doing at MHCC. They all thanked us for what we have done and encouraged us to return next time we are in town. We hope we can do just that.

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Happy Halloween! It was a beautiful Halloween. It was 42 this morning, no ice on the truck, and the sun was out brightly. There were no clouds and just a wonderful day. Wonderful night for the kids to go trick or treating. MHCC was having a Halloween Carnival for the residents tonight and they were getting to go to various locations on campus and trick or treat and get the requisite candy. The kids were really looking forward to tonight.  Bobbi and Cheryl were also excited about Halloween.  They said they were wearing their costume to work today.  They came as painters.

Cheryl brought us a very moving devotion this morning using John 1 and Romans 9:35-37.  She shared some of her life story and reminded us that many of the children at MHCC are chronically love starved and feel rejected, which is often the root cause to their bad behaviors and choices.

Today the “barn crew”, Joyce, Tom and Evelyn, went back to work on the stable windows. Today they completed the windows on the south side and started on the north side. They have four more windows to complete. They are doing an awesome job. Cheryl worked at Noble painting the bathroom. It is a small half bath and only one person can work in there at a time. It looked so good when she completed the paining. Bobbi and Anne returned to James to complete the painting there. That work was completed by lunch. Ken and Don returned to Noble to start on the vinyl plank flooring. Max went between the barn and Noble helping where needed. After lunch, Anne worked on the flooring with Don and Ken while Cheryl and Bobbi returned to James to do some cleaning. We still think we are about on schedule to complete the barn and Noble. It was another full work day.

Today we had lunch with the chief operating officer of MHCC, Diana Barber. We had never met her. She and the COO position is new, although through the years there have been COOs at various times. She told us that MHCC is licensed for 60 residents, 30 males, 30 females. They currently have 53 residents. Currently she is focusing on growing the transitional unit and getting an on campus GED program.  Interesting in light of our morning devotion, Ms Barber told us that most of the kids here have never had their own bedroom before arriving here.  Ms Barber was not familiar with NOMADS so had a lot of questions for us. We really appreciated her taking time to eat with us.

After work we rested a while and then decided to ride our bikes again and rode through downtown and out towards the west. The stores were having trick or treating for the community kids and there was a crowd downtown. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. We rode on out the Silver Comet and then back to the campground riding about 10 miles. Another good day in Cedartown.

Monday, October 30, 2017

30 degrees this morning. Wind chill 27. Ouch, it was cold! We were the only ones who didn’t have a frozen water line this morning. Don’t know why ours didn’t freeze except maybe we didn’t have as much hose on the ground since we have a hose reel in the FRED 2. The truck was coated in ice, all the windows and mirrors. YUK! Yes, we are spoiled with our garage and we like being spoiled. Of course the better solution is to be where it is a little warmer. Anyway, after about 10:00, when it warmed up a little, it was a beautiful, pleasant fall day.

Don brought us our devotion this morning based on James 1:22-25. He gave us the example that if we looked in the mirror and saw we had mustard on our face we would quickly wash our face. Likewise, Don challenged us, we should take routine inventory of our spiritual life and make quick corrections when we find ourselves off track. Again there was a good amount of sharing and discussion. Thanks, Don for another great devotion.

It was so cold this morning we didn’t start on the barn until after first break. Instead we worked in the Admin building and James Hall. Ken and Don ended up working there all day in the Admin building and got the vanity, lavatory, and toilet installed today. The flooring was delivered so they will probably start on that sometime tomorrow. Joyce and Evelyn got the big desk put together. YEA! Finally finished. We began to think it was going to take longer than rebuilding the barn to put this desk together. Of course we were all working on it when we had a few minutes between jobs and never spending very long on it. We found one more blind for Tom to put up this morning and then he worked on unpacking a lot of office furniture that was donated and delivered Friday. Nice furniture. An early Christmas present for Murphy Harpst. Cheryl and Bobbi did some additional cleaning in the Admin building and then started some touch up painting in James Hall. By the way, the final count on girls dorm rooms painted was ten. We have a really good paint crew. Later in the day Tom, Joyce, Evelyn and Max returned to the barn to get started on the windows. All the stalls now have windows for the horses but they have to be trimmed out to cover the sharp edges of the metal siding. Today they determined how they wanted to do that and completed one and another almost done. The remainder should go faster now that they have their system in place. Hoping that can be completed Wednesday, but could take the remainder of the week. If it gets too tight we will pull some additional help so we can complete the barn. After helping the barn crew get started, Max bounced around helping where needed. Anne floated between all the projects today, making sure everyone had what they needed for their work and doing a little trim painting as well. It was another really busy and productive day. Hopefully we will have good weather the remainder of the week so we can finish up.

This is some fruit we got off the food truck today: Moon Drop grapes and kiwi berries. We had never tried either before, but they are delicious. The kiwi berries are like little kiwi fruits, but sweeter.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

We woke to another cold morning, but there was no ice on the truck this time. We had a quiet morning with french toast and smoked sausage for breakfast then got ready for church. Today we attended Cedartown First United Methodist Church. The congregation was very friendly and several people thanked us for our work and invited us back for their Wednesday night dinner. The speaker today was the Church Stewardship Director for Murphy-Harpst. Using the ninth chapter of Second Samuel, he spoke on kindness and related that to the MHCC mission and also to Christ’s kindness to us.

After church we ate at a local Mexican restaurant then we all returned back to our rigs and stayed in out of the cold wind. After a little rest we finished up some bookwork and a few tasks and rested some more. Tomorrow we start our last work week with a lot to do. Please pray for our safety and ministry.