RVing With a Purpose

Sunday, December 12, 2021

How to catch up and get things back in the right order so it makes sense?  We told you previously that we returned to Laurel, MS to work on tornado damaged homes.  Then prior to us giving you the information on our work there, we had to return to Alabama due to Aunt Helen’s death.

Two weeks ago, on Monday morning we of course began with team devotions and then were sent to a house a few blocks from downtown Laurel.  It had roof damage which had previously been repaired and NOMADS before our arrival had been working on the ceilings which had water damage.  There were some repairs done and new drywall was hung in the kitchen, a bedroom and the living room.  The seams had been taped and we picked up working on the finishing of the drywall.  There were also several broken windows to be replaced, and lathe work on the enclosed back porch.  After we completed the drywall, Wednesday the painting began.  After we had to leave Thursday after lunch, the team continued, reinstalling trim, and weather striping and storm doors.  They then had the Bible presentation.  Sorry we missed that.  It’s always such a special time.

After returning to Alabama, we, with the help of other family members, planned Aunt Helen’s funeral and handled all the “stuff” that need to be done.  Family and friends gathered to celebrate her life on Sunday evening and again at Lee’s Chapel UMC on Monday.  It really was a celebration.  Helen lived life for 95 years and now she is exactly where she wanted to be, with her Lord and Savior.  We spent the rest of the week taking care of business for Helen and Jean and today returned to Laurel after worshiping at Lester Memorial this morning.  It’s great to be back with our NOMADS friends and we look forward to helping the team finish up this last week of the NOMADS rebuild efforts in Laurel. We will keep you posted on the efforts.

December 3, 2021

Our regular readers know that Aunt Helen was the last of our self proclaimed LOLs (Little Old Ladies). All of them were remarkable. Aunt Helen (aka “Doc”) was remarkable in that, after becoming a nurse cadet then a nurse, she became a physician in a time when women were not very welcomed in that field. Her dream was to be a surgeon, but in the 1950’s that was not allowed for her. So she became an anesthesiologist so she could still be in the operating room. She worked the first open heart surgery at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta.

After a long career she retired back to her home community and continued to provide loving care for family and neighbors for many years until her mind was taken by dementia. As remarkable as her career was she is most remembered for her love of God, her church, her family and all others.

The last several times we visited her in the care facility she said “I think I’m going home tomorrow.” We incorrectly thought she meant she was going back to her house. Now we know she meant her heavenly home and a joyous reunion with her family members who went before her.

Yesterday was tomorrow.

Sunday, November 28, 2021

We did get back on the road on November 16 as planned, driving to Gaffney, SC to get Fred’s annual inspection, fluid changes and recall work done.  Of course we can’t go to Gaffney without a visit to Sunny’s Donuts.  Yes, we have blueberry bars and cinnamon rolls in the freezer.

After receiving a clean bill of health on Fred, we drove about 2 hours away to Randy and Debra’s (Max’s brother and sister in law) house for a wonderful 3 days of Thanksgiving celebration.  Such good family time!  We made the drive back to Alabama on Friday, saw Aunt Helen on Saturday, took care of some estate business, worked around Aunt Helen’s house and picked up some groceries for the week.  Then today drove to Laurel, MS to join the NOMADS fall disaster rebuild team.  If you follow us, you will recall that we were in Laurel in the spring as well.  We will continue to work on tornado damaged homes for the next three weeks.  It is good to get back to work!

While we were in South Carolina Barry, Donna, Brandon, and Chris completed the work on the Christmas Star.  Thank you so much for all your work.  Love you guys!! The star now looks better than it’s looked in several years with new LED rope lights!  In case you don’t know, the star hangs off the side of the mountain and part of the work must be done hanging off the mountain.  So thankful for answered prayers for their safety.  Also thanks to the people both far and near who have commented on the star and contributed to the expenses. It’s always a joy to hear the stories people share of their memories of seeing the star as they drive Hwy 75.  The star is on – it’s Christmas time!!  As you shop and prepare for Christmas, we encourage you to remember this is the time to prepare your hearts for the birth of our Savior.

Saturday, November 13, 2021

This morning we went with some friends out to “the Star” and worked on totally “rebuilding” our community star.  The Star is a huge star that hangs off a bluff on the side of our mountain that we light from Thanksgiving until the new year.  It’s so large that pilots of airplanes on the flight path to land at the Birmingham International airport will sometimes point it out to passengers.  The star was originally the project of Max’s parents Sunday School class at Lee’s Chapel UMC, over 50 years ago.  The original layout was done by one of our power company engineers as the star is located under a high-power line that runs across our mountain.  We sort of inherited the maintenance/lighting of the star a number of years ago and when we retired and aren’t in the community nearly as much, we sort of handed it off to Max’s cousin Donna and Barry who had been helping us for years.  We have done many repairs over the years but, with Barry and Donna, decided that this was the year for a major rebuild.  We met Donna and Barry and their son Brandon and friend Chris (who purchased our house) out at the bluff at 8:00 and began the work installing new anchors and cabling.  There is a lot of hiking and climbing involved and previously it also required repelling.  Since we aren’t so young any more with the new design installation we are hoping to avoid the need for repelling.  We had to drill holes into the rock faces, install new tie offs for the star points and clear a lot of debris as well as install cables.  By noon the drill and saw batteries needed recharging as did some of us, so hopefully some more work can be done over the next few days so the new star can shine this Christmas season.  We are so thankful for our wonderful family and friends who are helping to continue a tradition that means so much to so many in our community.