RVing With a Purpose

Saturday, November 4, 2023

We continued leadership of the Oklahoma disaster rebuild this week.  We had to say goodbye to Lee and Beth, our new NOMADS and friends, but welcomed Ken and Michele and Bob and Leone.  Before Beth and Lee left the team had a great barbeque dinner at one of the local restaurants.  Since we all worked at different houses on Thursday, we were very thankful for one last dinner together.

This week we continued the work on William’s home, almost completing the new roof.  Tuesday and Wednesday, we were all either on the roof or working to support those on the roof, cleaning up and keeping us in supplies.   Unfortunately, we ran out of shingles with one small section remaining.

That meant more people were available Thursday afternoon to work on caulking and painting the new fascia and soffit Laura and Chris installed.

Bob took on the task of replacing an exterior door that had rotted at the bottom.

Bruce and Jan completed the repair of the vanity in the large bathroom and began the work on the smaller bath, removing the vanity, removing and reinstalling bathroom drywall damaged in the flood as well as damaged drywall in the closet.  Next week we will begin with the finishing and painting of the drywall and then paint and install trim and the new vanity.  Hopefully we will complete everything for William next week.

Max and Anne began work at Tiara’s home in Okmulgee, OK, about 45 minutes from Muskogee, Monday afternoon.  This house is also being worked on by a TV show, “Fast: Home Rescue”, a show for the Weather Channel. It’s a small house and sometimes it gets very crowded.  Monday, we worked on tearing out and shoring up the beams, and joists and reinstalling subflooring in the bathroom.  Anne and Leone returned on Thursday for some exterior painting and painting the living room.

The weather was not our friend this week. We had record breaking cold weather with very heavy frost.  We had to postpone our start time for an hour some mornings because we had to wait until the heavy frost melted off the roof.  On the positive side, the grass and fields we drove by were beautiful. It was another great week in OK with lots of work accomplished for our homeowners still recovering from the flood waters.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

We took over leadership of the Oklahoma disaster rebuild team Friday October 20th after working a transition week the previous week.  Most of the homes we are repairing have suffered significant flooding, some with six inches of water in their home and some with several feet of water.  Working with us this week were Laura, Chris, Bruce, Janette and two NOMADS participating in their first project, Lee and Beth.  This week we completed and had Bible presentations at two homes bringing to a total of four presentations in Muskogee.  We completed Ken’s home, which is the converted 100 year old passenger train car we began last week.  We enjoyed Ken’s stories of how his father acquired the “home” and set it up on their property when Ken was a young boy.  We replaced the flooring in the middle room, the kitchen and bath/laundry room, and made some improvements in the booth dinette. The home created some unique challenges for the team due to the curved walls.

In Christine’s home we completed the NOMADS portion of the work.  NOMADS removed rotten subflooring at Christine’s and installed new piers and floor joists and new subfloor in the kitchen and bedroom.  The remainder for the rebuilding at her home will be done by another agency.

In addition to completing two homes, we worked on two others.  Margaret’s home was begun by previous weeks NOMADS and hopefully will be completed early next week.  The house required roof repairs and drywall removal and repairs and our work this week of sanding drywall, and re-texturing and painting the ceiling and walls.

William’s home is still a work in progress without an anticipated completion date yet.  His house requires total roof removal and reinstall including replacement of part of the decking.  Also, to be replaced is the soffit and fascia which is partially completed and some drywall repairs and bathroom vanity repairs.

The weather has been great for work this week and since we can walk to Braum’s Ice Cream from our full hookup and level campsites (and the BBQ restaurant is only a mile from the campsites), all is really good in OK.

On Friday we had to say goodbye to our wonderful new friends and NOMADS, Beth and Lee.  We hope to work with them again soon. Friday also brought a change in our weather.  It has rained all weekend.  Much needed rain due to the drought conditions but now the temperatures are dropping like a rock.  Next week may require lots of layers for work.  Hope you all had a great week.

Sunday, October 22, 2023

When we arrived last Saturday in Muskogee, OK we were greeted by our leader Charlotte and then later our friend Suzanne.  We got Fred setup and then relaxed the rest of the afternoon.  Sunday the NOMADS team visited one of the local Methodist churches. The early service was held in a lovely little chapel.  We were warmly welcomed, and the service was good.  In the afternoon we tried to get our tools organized and ready for work, and then had the usual Sunday team meeting where we met the remainder of the team.

After Monday morning devotion, we were taken to Mr. Ken’s house where we spent the week installing laminate flooring and luxury vinyl plank, after preparing the subfloor.  This was one of our more interesting home repairs.  Mr. Ken’s house is a 100 year old train car.  Train cars have more curves than regular homes so there were a few challenges.  Hopefully we will complete this project tomorrow when we return to do some caulking, and cleanup.  Thursday we had two Bible presentations for homes that were completed this week.  It was a good team but sadly they all left for other projects or home and we have a totally new team who arrived today.

This weekend, we enjoyed the Okie Jeep Jam that took place here at the event center where we are all parked.  There were about 300 jeeps in attendance.  It was a family oriented event with some groups of 3 generations enjoying the fun.  We enjoyed watching the various events.

This afternoon we had our first team meeting with our new team and we are looking forward to another good week of work for the people of Muskogee.  Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Monday, October 16, 2023

Last blog post we had just returned to SC to visit with Randy and Debra.  We, of course, had motorhome projects – just like keeping up your house – and other routine maintenance items.  We also spent a few hours one afternoon assisting Randy and Debra with one of their ministries through the Edgefield Baptist Association.  They collect magazines and devotional books and Sunday school literature and donate it to the International Seafarer Ministry in Charleston. We sorted and boxed up the books/magazines and Randy and Debra will deliver them to Charleston in a few days. The ministry in Charleston provides the reading/study material to the people who come into the port on the big seagoing ships.  Please read a little about this really great ministry.

We had a nice but shorter than planned visit.  We received an invitation to a retirement party for the first dispatcher Max hired when 9-1-1 was first implemented for Blount County.  We couldn’t miss the opportunity to attend her party, so we returned to Alabama.  Carrie dispatched 37 years, 30 years for Blount County 9-1-1.  There aren’t many people who stay with anything for that long.  Thank you, Carrie, for your dedication.

Having extra time in Alabama, we were able to see a number of our friends at Camp Sumatanga and around town.  Sunday we met Donna and Barry at the Huddle House for breakfast and then worshiped at our home church and Sunday school class.  Good times!

Sunday afternoon we drove up to Red Bay.  Monday morning we dropped Fred off at 1st Class Glass for a new windshield.  We were hit by a rock while driving on the interstate on our last trip. The windshield replacement takes two days.  They removed the broken one and installed the new in less time than it took us to go to Jack’s for breakfast and return.  Then Fred had to stay inside for the rest of the day and we spent the night inside the shop in Fred.  Tuesday morning, they put another coat of sealant on the windshield which then had to dry for another 2-3 hours, and reinstalled our mirrors and wiper blades and we were out of the shop shortly before noon.  The people at 1st Class Glass were very professional and proficient.  Very nice as well.  We really appreciated them working us in so quickly.  We then took Fred across the street to Trevor Nichols to get one of our slide toppers replaced.  Again, very professional and fast service.  Trevor even had his people replace the trim on our floor coverings we bought from him six years ago and didn’t charge us for the work. After parking Fred for the night, we visited our friends at Hometown Pizza.  Pizza and lasagna are still just as good as ever.  Wednesday morning, we took Fred to Fowler Detailing for a wash, wax, roof treatment, and rims polished.  Of course, about an hour after we left the shop if rained.  Oh well Fred still looks better than before.

Thursday morning we departed Red Bay, so pleased with the service we received from all the nice people who call Red Bay home.  We drove to a COE park in Arkansas to relax for two days and prepare for our next NOMADS project.

Saturday morning we drove the final leg of our journey to Muskcogee, OK.  We will be working here for four weeks repairing flood damaged homes from a 2022 flood.  Please remember us in your prayers for the safety of our team, the work we hope to accomplish, and the lives that will be touched.