RVing With a Purpose

Saturday, May 6, 2023

We departed Grand Isle on Friday April 7 with plans to overnight in Laurel, MS en route back to Blount County and our home church, Lester Memorial, for Easter Sunday.  Shortly before making it through New Orleans we had a check engine light on Fred.  We researched and called Freightliner.  Everything still seemed okay but we did determine that we were fine to continue driving for the short term.  Long story short – the only place who could find to work on Fred on Easter weekend was the Freightliner Oasis dealer in Jackson, MS.  We were so looking forward to being “home” for Easter for the first time in several years but seemed it probably would not happen.  We prayed and trusted God.  We arrived at Empire Truck Sales about 5:30 pm – without having to be towed the last few miles as we were warned could happen.  Thank you, Jesus!  All the folks there were great.  They gave us a tour of the facilities and said they couldn’t work on Fred that night (they work 24/7) but would get us in first thing Saturday morning.  They showed us where to park and provided a 50 amp power connection.  At 7 am Saturday the technician was knocking on our door.  Empire provides great service while you wait – large, clean, comfortable lounge, free laundry facilities and showers, and unlimited free popcorn.  Amazingly, by 11:00 am we were back on the road toward Alabama.  For the motorhome folks, the technician cleared the code, forced a regen on the exhaust system, rechecked everything and told us Fred was good to go.  If you ever need help, we highly recommend Empire Truck Sales.  We were back at Camp Sumatanga (our go-to campground when we are home) before dark and were at the Lester Memorial Sunrise Service at 6:00 am!  We love Easter – the most important day in our year and so blessed to be at our home church this year!

While in Alabama, we had dental and hair appointments and then Tuesday left to attend the Switch It Up Huddle in Sevierville, TN.  It was a beautiful time of year to be in the Smokey Mountains.  We were able to take time off from the Huddle and visit Cades Cove.  Always love to see the wildlife there – turkey, deer, and bear this time.  We had the Switch It Up Give Back on Friday, working at the children’s home in Sevierville.  As usual, we had a great time meeting new Switch Crew members, lots of fun activities and a great worship service Sunday and great entertainment.  Again it was hard to say goodbye to our friends but Monday we all went our separate ways.

We arrived back in Johnston, SC mid-afternoon.  Always great to be back with family.  While in SC, we worked on building an additional cabinet for BB (our Class B), visits with the nieces and nephews and made a another quick trip back to Alabama.

On Wednesday of this week, departed for Antigo, WI.  We again were reminded just how bad much of the interstate system in the USA has become.  It was 1,174 miles of mostly rough roads but fortunately three days of uneventful travel.  We arrived at Antigo Lake RV Park Friday afternoon and enjoyed the welcoming hugs of our friends Shar and Phil.  We will again be working with them and other A Year to Volunteer members, at Raptor Education Group, Inc (REGI).  We were here in 2021 and look forward to the next 2 weeks.  You can expect more eagle and other raptor pictures.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Last Friday (3/31) was an unusual day.  Sara, Ken and Michele, Levina and Herman, and Jack and Beth, all left us. We thank them for their service to this community and pray for their traveling safety.  Saturday we were joined by our new team, Kevin and Suzan, Mary and Phil, Mike and Carol and Dale and Anne.  Another great team.  Once again, we had a beautiful week in Grand Isle.  It did get pretty hot with highs in the mid-80’s a few days but with the wonderful gulf breeze and plenty of sunscreen we could continue to work and accomplish a lot on Chris’s house.  We spent all four days this week completing the house wrap, installing all but one corner piece of the trim, installing lots of siding using the lift and scaffolding, and of course painting lots of trim and siding.  This team gelled almost immediately and just jumped in and started working.  As leaders we just needed to make sure they had everything they needed and then just stay out of their way.  We feel we left the team for next week in good shape to complete Chris’s house in 5-6 more days.

On Tuesday, the team had the joy of participating in the dedication of a new home for Jane.  Sadly her home was a total loss from Ida and her husband died in January so he never got to see their new home. The Bayou Community Foundation, Rebuild Grand Isle (the agency coordinating all the rebuild work on Grand Isle) was instrumental in raising the funds to provide Jane a brand new home.  The team was very thankful we were invited to the celebration even though we did not actually work on the house.  Such a joy for NOMADS to be a small part of helping the people of Grand Isle.

Wednesday evening the team went out to the marina at the very far end of the island for pizza.  We sat outside overlooking the water and watching the large shrimp boats and work boats come and go.  The dolphins also put on a show for us.  We had a relaxing, peaceful evening getting to know each other a little better.

This week being Holy Week, there was lots of activity at Our Lady of The Isle Catholic Church, our host church.  Father Mark asked the team to participate in the Thursday evening service and joined us for devotion Thursday morning to explain to us what to expect.  During the service he thanked all the NOMADS that have served on Grand Isle since October and talked about how the people of Grand Isle had felt forgotten.  There have been many more disasters since hurricane Ida, so they felt Grand Isle is no longer of interest to most volunteers.  The people are still really struggling.  Father Mark told us that NOMADS have been instrumental in restoring hope for the people of the island.  Remembering how Jesus became a servant washing the feet of the 12 disciples at the Last Supper, Father Mark asked our 10 team members along with, the Mayor of Grand Isle, and Jane (the lady whose house was dedicated this week) to allow him to wash our feet as a part of the service.  It was a special time of worship for us all.

We turned over leadership to Kevin and Suzan Thursday evening.  They, and their teams, will stay in our prayers and we hope, your prayers as well.  Experiences such as our time on Grand Isle are the reasons we continue to be involved in NOMADS.  May we all be faithful servants.

Sunday April 2, 2023

It was another beautiful week on Grand Isle.  The weather has been really nice for our outside work with no rain.  It would seem the plants would be needing some water by now but everything still looks good.

With Herman and Levina and Jack and Beth joining us last Saturday, and Sara, Ken and Michele staying with us for one more week, we had a good team with big plans for the week.  Most of the crew worked at Chris’s house for the entire week with Ken and Michele taking a little time to return to finish up Denise’s house.  We set up the saw horses to continue to paint the siding boards and completed the first bundle – finally.  We will continue to put a second coat as needed and touch up the pieces that get a little scratched up in the installation process.  With the use of ladders, scaffolding and the lift, and the entire team, we completed the siding installation on one side of the house by quitting time on Thursday.  We also began the siding on the front.  We still need to install house wrap on the upper part of two other walls.  All the lower windows have been trimmed out with only the upper windows on the front and one side still in need of trim.  There was also a good bit of caulking completed this week.  We were all tired when the team sat down for dinner Thursday evening, but we were also happy that Chris’s house is looking better each day.

We were honored this week to present two families with their Bible signed by our NOMADS members.  The visits with the homeowners, listening to their stories, and praying with them is always such a special time. Please join us in remembering these precious people in prayer. They have been through so much and have scars that still need to heal.

Friday morning we had to say good bye to our entire team.  It’s unusual for us to have our entire team leave the same day.  However, we have some good friends and great NOMADS coming in to join us for next week.

Please continue to pray for the safety of our team as we continue to work on higher sections of the house and we will give you another update next week.

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Monday began as usual with devotion and team meeting.  We then divided up and Ken and Michele went back to the house they were working on previously.  Cliff and Ann, David and Jae, Max and Anne, and Sara all went to Helen’s house.  There we worked on installing trim, caulking and worked on some doors.  That project is very close to complete and may be finished up by the homeowner, although we might go back if we have a rainy day.

The rest of the week we were working on the exterior of another house.  There we are going to install fiber cement plank siding.  We spent the rest of the week preparing the walls for the siding (replacing soft plywood, removing nails, screws, vinyl siding, pressure washing some areas, and installing house wrap) and preparing the siding for the walls (painting it – lots of painting).  We have a lift for higher areas.  We may be able to start installing the first of the siding tomorrow.

We had to say goodbye to Cliff and Ann and David and Jae on Wednesday as they headed back north for a funeral.  Herman and Levina and Jack and Beth joined the team Saturday and Max and Anne are now leading.

Grand Isle is an interesting place.  Definitely a place you don’t just happen to visit.  You must be intentionally coming here.  All the people we have met have been very nice and friendly. We had been told that food was more expensive on the island but since we were fed by people in the community (such good food) three nights last week, we aren’t purchasing much food.  What little we have purchased was a little higher than on the mainland but Grand Isle is so far away from anywhere.  We will gladly pay a little extra to keep from driving 37 miles back to the closest Walmart – 74 miles round trip.  We are having a little trouble navigating to some of places we want to go.  Directions are more like “go down the main road and turn left and then just past the blue boat turn left and then left again right after the speed bump.”  The family knows how much Max likes such directions.  He wants address and GPS coordinates.  But… many of the street signs have not been replaced yet.  Interesting.  The weather has been beautiful – almost too hot by Thursday.  Lots of sunscreen required.  The Gulf of Mexico is right across the highway.  We can hear the waves crashing on the shore when we are sitting outside and the stars are beautiful in the evenings.  We expect to enjoy our next two weeks here.  Please pray for all our team members safety as we work, and that we will accomplish what God has for us to do in this place.