RVing With a Purpose

Sunday, March 31, 2024

Happy Easter everyone!  It was a beautiful spring day in Alabama, perfect for Sunrise Service, church and family gatherings and we enjoyed it all.  As is customary for Alabama Easters, our Dogwood trees are in full bloom as well as the Red Buds, and Native Azaleas.  This past week you could almost sit and watch the colors change.  The mountain above the camp is a multitude of shades of green. Beautiful.

We began our NOMADS work at Sumatanga Camp and Conference Center last Sunday afternoon with our usual get acquainted meeting.  We are a small group of six, Sharon and Gary leading, and new to us NOMADS Pam and Dennis, and the two of us.  We always enjoy working with Sharon and Gary and it’s been fun getting to know Pam and Dennis. We all work together well so it should be three weeks of fun work.   Our highest priority work was the demolition of the bathrooms in three of the Pool Camp cabins, getting them ready for another group to come in and expand and remodel them.  This was some heavy-duty demo requiring jack hammers, sledgehammers and strong backs.  We completed two of the cabins and have probably completed half the work on the third.  We are pleased with the amount of work accomplished last week, because we had thought it would probably take two to three weeks to demo them all.  We hope to be finished sometime Tuesday, but a lot will depend on how hard it is to get the last furnace out of the cabin. The furnaces are very old and very heavy.

Each workday, the camp spoils us with a great lunch.  One day this week, we had a new to some of us, delightful turnip green soup and now we all have a copy of the recipe.   The entire team worshiped together at Lester Memorial for Good Friday.  It was, of course, a somber, but very meaningful service.  It’s been a great Holy Week ending in wonderful worship on this beautiful Easter.  Today, we attended Sunrise Service, worship service and Sunday School at our church followed by a delicious lunch with our cousins on Pine Mountain.  The rest of the team stayed for Sunrise Service at the camp.  Hope you all enjoyed your day and kept the true meaning of the day in your hearts.  Thank you, Jesus, for your suffering, death, and resurrection.  May we live our lives for You.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

After spending a month in Grand Isle, we have taken a month off from working mission projects, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t been very busy. While spending a couple of days at Randy’s and Debra’s and catching up with them, Max and Randy worked on Dave and Jennifer’s deck railing.  After transitioning into BB, we headed to Ocala, FL to help with a Class B rally and RV show.  We had about 75 Class B RVs at the rally and had such a great time renewing friendships and making new friends. We then returned to South Carolina for some additional work on the deck plus some fun times going to the Senior Follies, (a very well done musical at Anderson University).  We also went to a Wild Game dinner and fund raiser at a Baptist church near Johnston.  Debra and Anne enjoyed their time cooking together and catching up at home.  We took BB on a quick trip back to Cullman for a doctor visit and then returned to Johnston and readied Fred for another trip.

We are now back a Sumatanga for a three week NOMADS project, but we aren’t leading this one. We were able to do some hiking yesterday and be at our church for Palm Sunday today and look forward to being here for Easter.  As we celebrate Easter, we hope we will all remember it’s real meaning, and the sacrifice Jesus made for each one of us.

Monday, February, 26, 2024

This was our last week on Grand Isle. It was a busy and productive week.  On Saturday morning we said goodbye and a big thank you to Ken and Michelle.  They worked on the fall and spring project here on Grand Isle.  The joke has been that they have been here long enough to vote in the upcoming municipal elections.  All kidding aside, they have been tremendous servants to the people on the island and they will be missed.  Cliff and Ann joined us a few hours later and we were so excited to have them join the team. We served with them here last year.

This week we continued to work on the exterior of Bozo’s home. There was lots of high ladder work painting the soffit and fascia, but our team was up for the challenge and completed the job on Tuesday.

We also continued the work on Jay’s house with the entire team working there Wednesday and Thursday.  The team completed the installation of the ceiling tile in four of the five rooms and the hall.  Next week’s team will just have to complete about ½ of the kitchen and that project will be completed.

Thursday morning we had Bozo’s Bible presentation at the start of our morning meeting.   Bozo also stayed with us for our morning devotion.  It was a great start to the day and a great way to end our week.

This was Anne and Max’s last week in Grand Isle.  We want to thank all our team members over the past month for their hard work and servants’ heart’s.  It’s been a great month working with the people of the island and Dean, our construction coordinator.  It’s truly been a blessing to be a part of the disaster rebuild team.

We departed the island early Friday morning and arrived back in Oneonta, AL about 5PM.  It was a long drive day but it sure was good to back.  Saturday was spent visiting with friends and we were able to attend our home church, Lester Memorial, Sunday.  So good to worship at our home church again.  We are now back in South Carolina visiting with Randy and Debra and getting a little rest.

Max and Anne

Saturday, February, 17, 2024

This week we were blessed to have the exact same team as last week.  They are such a cohesive, hardworking team.  It seems that we have had a number of NOMADS return to Grand Isle this year.  This community is so welcoming and so appreciative of everything we do. The people are just so precious.  Neighbors around where we work come over and thank us for working on their friend or family members home.  We meet people at church, the store or the beach and they seem to know we are here to assist with the recovery and they stop us and say, “thank you so much for coming all the way here to help our island.”  Especially fun has been the chance meetups with people we worked for last year.   The women of the church are still after all this time still bringing us fantastic meals two days a week and leaving us notes of thanks.

The team did an amazing amount of work last week.  We completed the siding on Ms. Olga’s home and got to present her Bible on Thursday. (For those that might not remember, NOMADS traditionally have all the team members sign a Bible and include a note or bible verse for the homeowner and we present it to the home owner when we complete our work at their home.)  Richard, a representative of the Bayou Foundation and Dean, our construction supervisor, joined the team for the celebration.  It’s always such a joy to finish a home.  Ms. Olga was so appreciative of all the work all the NOMADS did for her.

Peanut’s home is very close to completion.  All that remains on the interior is the transition strip for the new flooring.  It was due to arrive on Wednesday but sadly we are still awaiting its arrival. (Materials are sometimes in short supply way out on this island.) Hopefully next week.  The outside looks so nice with the new coat of paint on the railings.

Bozo’s home is really coming along.  As soon as we completed Olga’s home, we moved the scaffolding and lift across the street to Bozo’s and began to tackle the repairs to the soffit and fascia, replacing all the vents, scraping,  priming, and painting of the siding and trim on the upper level.  The front and east side are completed except for some minor touchups.  The back has all the repairs completed and about 2/3’s of the painting complete.  Work has begun on the west side but it still needs a lot of love.

We also began work on Jay’s house on Thursday.  There we need to replace/repair ceiling tiles in five rooms and the hall.  The first step required removal of many, many staples in the ceiling that were left after the old tiles were removed.  There was also a lot of glue on the ceilings that had to be removed.  Virgie, Dan and Michelle volunteered to tackle that project and completed the ceiling preparations by the end of the day Thursday!

It’s been another wonderful week, of devotions, prayer, hard work and growing friendships.  We are so blessed by God to be able to do his work here on Grand Isle.  Please pray for our safety and for us to be able to share God’s love, light, and hope as we repair these homes.