RVing With a Purpose

Thought this published last night but guess it didn’t.  Sorry.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Another gorgeous day. Actually got pretty hot when we were working outside. Needed hats and sunscreen today.

Gene presented our devotion today and used “A Parable from Your Pencil Box” from his church’s newsletter and Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 . The team really enjoyed this parable and provoked good discussion. Gene ended by reminding us of the quote on the board in the dinning room last night “When the world shouts just give up, God whispers try again.”

We then reviewed our tasks list, and enjoyed marking off several items that were completed yesterday. Bill also added a few things to our list but we will probably be able to complete them by Thursday afternoon. Today’s goal was to complete the painting. This was our number one priority and with everyone helping we accomplished this today with the exception of some new outside work. We also have almost all the electrical work completed. Unfortunately, there was a new assignment today of the installation of a major electrical cable. The heat pump has not been working as it should and when the repair person arrived today it was determined that new wiring needed to be run to the outside unit. We hope that is completed tomorrow. Sure glad we have some guys with great knowledge of electrical work. Also Bill, our agency contact, is very knowledgeable as well. The stairs were completed today too. The ceiling fans and all but one light fixture were reinstalled. The pressure washing of the outside was begun. The LP tank looks amazing after the pressure washing. Almost looks like it was painted but, nope, just washed it. The picnic table and some additional benches were painted as were the railings for the patio. Wow – lots accomplished/finished today. Maybe that’s why we are so tired tonight.

This week there are a number of state troopers here at camp receiving PTSD training. Since the Chef has to cook for the other guests, NOMADS get to eat in the dinning hall too. WOW! Chef Phillip has out done himself. Last night was grilled pork chops and tonight BBQ ribs with all the fixin’s with cookies and apple cobbler for dessert. They also always have a really fresh, good, salad bar. Suspect our weight will be up after eating all this wonderful food. When we had the motor home we prepared most of our own meals but we sure are enjoying the dinners here this week.

Monday, May 8, 2917

This morning was cold – 39 degrees – but beautiful. We rested well in our little room in the basement of the Lake House. We seem to be over the stress of FRED’s sale last week with all the packing, etc. and are now sleeping better.

Dawn, the Director of Program Ministries at Hinton, graciously provided our devotion today. Dawn is responsible for the summer mission programs at Hinton. In just a few weeks mission season will start and they will have approximately 750 people on campus throughout the summer doing summer mission work in the community around Hinton. There are many people in the area with low income so there are a lot of handicap ramps, floor and porch repairs etc to homes throughout the area.

The scripture for today’s devotion was John 6:1-13 – the parable of the loaves and fishes. This will be the theme scripture for summer camp 2017 as well so Dawn has spent a lot of time with this scripture over the past few months. As you probably recall Andrew told Jesus “all we have is two fish and five loaves of bread” and that won’t do anything to feed the 5,000 people here. But he gave the loaves and fish to Jesus anyway. It was all they had to offer. Dawn reminded us that when we give all we have even though it seems like not near enough, God begins to make amazing things happen. As NOMADS we have seen it so many times when we are faced with what seemed like insurmountable tasks on projects. Dawn also reminded us of the left overs that were picked up. We don’t know the extra impact of our actions. They are so much more than the mere completion of an appointed task. They keep on keeping on – the ripple effect as God multiplies our gifts. We just have to give Him what we have.

After the devotion we all went back to work on tasks left over from last week – painting, drywall finishing, electrical work, trim work, and replacing ceiling tiles that were taken down to access the plumbing and electrical. One of the tasks completed today was the installation of a walkway light to the Carter hermitage. That is one of four hermitage cottages here. They are like the tiny houses so popular now and are available for rent. So if you want to try living in a tiny house before you buy one, this is a good place to do that. It was another full day of working on the remodel. We are getting close but there are only 3 days left. The cabinet man did not install the cabinets over the weekend and even though we would love to see the kitchen with the cabinets and counter tops installed, we sort of hope he doesn’t come while we are trying to finish up.

You have probably seen in some of the pictures a little white dog in a red vest. That is Gabriel (“like the angel”). He is a diabetic alert dog that belongs to Steve. Steve’s blood sugar drops dangerously low at times without warning. Until it reaches a really low point Steve has no symptoms. Gabriel can alert Steve based on his scent, to his sugar getting low before it becomes too dangerous. Today Steve and Sandy told us how they trained Gabriel. They taught Gabriel with gauze pads soaked in Steve’s saliva from when he was low using food as a reward. So now when Steve is low Gabriel alerts him and gets a treat and Steve gets to eat too to bring his blood sugar up. Gabriel is very well behaved and goes everywhere with Steve. He is Steve’s angel.

On another note – exciting for us – Tiffin started to build our new motor home today. We had hoped to be in Red Bay for the build so we could follow it through the factory documenting the build with pictures.  However, we were already committed to this project and time is too short to be able to take delivery before the Constructors for Christ project in June to postpone the build until we get home. But we are excited anyway.

Only three work days to go.

Sunday May 7, 2017

This morning was another cool morning in the North Carolina mountains here at Hayesville. The wind continued to blow most of the day so even though the sun was out and it was a beautiful afternoon, it was still cool. Sitting inside and looking out at the lake it looked like we should be spending the afternoon outside but when you went out it was just a little too cool.

The team decided we would go to Young Harris, GA today for church at Sharp Memorial UMC. Sharp is the largest of the three we have visited during this project and has a very pretty traditional sanctuary with pipe organ. Today all the music was done with the grand piano. The people were friendly and welcoming and since they have an active member who is a NOMAD they were all familiar with what we do and teams visiting while at Hinton. Many of them thanked us for our work at Hinton. The service was traditional following the usual order of worship. As is the custom in many Methodist churches the first Sunday of the month, we also celebrated Communion today. The sermon was on Jesus as our shepherd using the passage from John 10:1-11. During the introductory portion of the sermon the pastor described sheep as filthy and dumb animals that will just walk off a cliff and die without a shepherd taking care of them. At the end of the sermon the pastor said something about us going out into the world being good sheep – not sure exactly how he said it but we both took it as mummmm – go be sheep – dumb, filthy sheep. :). Pretty sure that wasn’t what he meant but we both got a laugh out of it.

For lunch we stopped at Mary’s dinner on the way back to Hinton. For having 9 in our group today and showing up right after 12:00, we had pretty fast service and the food was quite good. We would certainly go back there. We split a blackened chicken chef salad and a cup of black bean soup. The salad was fresh and the chicken not too spicy and the soup excellent. We tried to eat sort of light because Phillip, the chef here at Hinton, said he was serving us tacos tonight with fresh guacamole. The team ate at Hinton again tonight and it was very good. Guess we will be eating Phillip’s cooking every night this week since we don’t have a kitchen without FRED. We will be glad when we get our new rig and be Rver’s again. After dinner we were standing around by the RV parking talking to some of the team members when Els, the hospitality manager, walked up and made a joke about us not being allowed in the RV area anymore. You see, we just happened to be standing on the outside of the yellow tape marking the RV parking and everyone else was on the inside. Another good laugh. Hope you all have a good week.

Saturday May 6, 2017

Today, although pretty cold early, was a very nice day in Alabama. We got a little later start than we had planned but after not sleeping in the noisy Scottsboro Walmart parking lot on Thursday night we slept a little late today. We have determined that part of that lack of sleep may have been some anxiety over the sale of FRED. As Anne’s Dad use to say, “you haven’t sold it ‘til the money is in the bank.” You never know when there is going to be a last minute problem. So thankful all went well. We have spent so much time in the past month getting FRED ready to sale, showing him, selling him and then emptying him out while in Hayesville – no easy task – that we would have been pretty crushed had that sale not gone through.

When we did get on the road today in the pickup, we still had to go by the assisted living to take some supplies to Aunt Jean. So yesterday after selling FRED we had quick visits with Aunt Helen, Juno and then today Jean. Anne talked to her Mom but we just couldn’t squeeze in a trip to Tuscaloosa. We will soon, though. We also went to Dairy Queen last night with Barry and Donna. It was so great to just spend a little down time with our great friends. Really quick trip home but we squeezed a lot into the short time we were there.

The drive from Trussville to Chattanooga was a pretty drive. It was 71 and sunny in Chattanooga when we drove through. We had one traffic slow down for an unknown reason but much easier going through on a Saturday. We could see distant clouds building as we went through town. By the time we got off the interstate in Cleveland it was cloudy. The drive down through the Ocoee gorge was nice. They were releasing water in the river today and the rafters were out in full force. All the outfitters had buses on the road. By the time we got to the most popular put in point it had started very light rain. We have done the rafting trip down the Ocoee several times and that water is cold on a nice hot summer day. Many of the rafters had on wet or dry suits today. They still looked cold. Glad it was someone other than us on the river today. It was a much easier drive through the gorge today compared to the wind and rain of Thursday afternoon.

It was raining by the time we got to Murphy and intermittently from there to Hayesville we had really heavy rain. So it was 71 and sunny when we left Trussville and four hours later when we arrived in Hayesville it was 51 with a cold rain. What crazy weather we are having. We stopped and ate pizza at the local pizza place – Roma’s – before returning to camp. Good pizza and we have enough left for another meal. Arrived back at camp safe and sound, a little tired, and settling in for a quiet evening. Looking forward to taking the team to church tomorrow at Sharp UMC in Young Harris Ga – just across the state line. Remember to pray for your pastors.