Sunday June 14, after church we drove to Randy and Debra’s home in South Carolina. It was great to be with them again after 72 days traveling the western US in BB. Debra had a wonderful homemade pizza waiting on us when we arrived. We had a busy but great four days with them before we were en route to Bowling Green, KY and the Constructors for Christ summer 2026 build. Randy and Debra joined us a day later, so we actually enjoyed twelve days together, but we had to share them with the other CFC volunteers.
The CFC project this year was building a 9,000 ft2 ministry center for Hope House that will assist the homeless and those in the recovery program. Their mission is “alleviating physical and spiritual poverty through gospel restoration.” There will be office space, classrooms, counseling rooms, etc. The programs they run to assist people getting back on their feet are impressive.
It was terribly hot for those working out on the job site and for those working to prepare the meals for everyone as well. Here is a day by day breakdown of the week:
Saturday:
The slab when we arrived
It’s always great to arrive a a project and see all the materials already on site …
… except maybe the 500 pounds of hand driven framing nails.
The Saturday crew
Our fine Saturday saw crew turned out …
… a bunch of corner and t-posts.
Installing exterior wall baseplates
Unloading the kitchen trailer
Sunday:
Sunday evening meeting
Monday:
Most days we got to enjoy sunrise on the way to work and sunset on the way back.
Each morning starts with prayer and instructions from Ray.
Moving materials
Installing interior baseplates
Building the first wall
Installing corner post for first wall
First part of the first wall
Rest of the first wall going up
Build site a the end of Monday
Another view on Monday evening
Tuesday:
Three more walls were erected before breakfast on Tuesday.
Build site at the end of Tuesday
Wednesday:
Our crew of lumber toters…
… sure saved us a lot of time – and steps.
One of our favorite things about Constructors for Christ is watching young people learn to be Christ’s hands and feet early …
… and learn new skills.
Part of our saw crew building headers
Build site at the end of Wednesday
Thursday:
First floor truss going up
Fastening trusses from the top and bottom
Getting a few more trusses up
This floorplan had lots of rooms, which means lots of doors and windows …
… which means lots of headers to install.
End of day Thursday
Friday:
We spent Friday morning putting the final touches on framing
The Constructors who have been attending the projects for many years are always willing to teach the newer volunteers.
When not otherwise working sometimes the younger mission volunteers practice building things out of scrap wood. (Hint: it’s a chair.)
End of week front view
End of week side view
The team on the job site got all the walls up for the first floor and all the floor trusses for the second floor leaving the project in good shape for week two to continue. The week 1 team this year consisted of 52 mission volunteers from 21 churches and 7 states. Please join us in praying for the next teams who will be completing as much as possible over the next four weeks.
We have been really busy since our last post. These are the states we have traveled to or through since then: SC-NC-TN-KY-OH-IN-OH-KY-TN-NC-SC-NC-VA-WV-DE-PA-NY-VT.
We drove back to SC on Saturday after the close of our portion of the 2025 Constructors for Christ build. Sunday we packed BB for a quick trip to Middlebury, IN to have the glass that was broken by the mentally ill man in California repaired. We left South Carolina Monday morning, over-nighted at a Cracker Barrel in Shelbyville, IN, across the street from a Culver’s. Yes, we had ice cream for supper and Cracker Barrel for breakfast Tuesday morning. We arrived at the Coachman campground in Middlebury Tuesday afternoon. Several friends were also in the campground after they attended the Coachman rally, and we were so pleased to have time to visit with them. Wednesday morning right on time, our service guys, Paul and Jake picked up BB. They were finished by lunch! They did a great job and even cleaned off all the black tape we had put on the side of BB. We cannot say enough about the great care and service we receive from Coachman. When we have a problem, they are always extremely responsive and have us back on the road in short order. Nick and his entire crew are the BEST!
At the Coachmen Class B Service Center
New window!
On the way to Middlebury we drove though this town and wondered why it was called Turtle Town, USA. You might want to Google that. We found it pretty interesting.
The town mascot
We picked up BB, and began our drive back to SC. On the way we stopped back by East Barbourville Baptist Church to see all the progress the Week 2 crew had made. We made it back to South Carolina on Friday, June 27th.
One of the reasons we stopped back by Barbourville was to see one of our friends who was not there on Week 1
They were making progress on the new building
And the Week 2 crew had all the interior walls framed and most of the electrical roughed in.
The front porch is being enclosed to make 2 more classrooms.
We had about a week to get ready to leave for Vermont for a disaster rebuild project so Anne and Debra decided they would use the time to visit the farmer’s market. We have some really good food in the freezer to enjoy this winter.
There were two boxes of peaches waiting when we returned from Indiana
South Carolina State Farmers Market
Our produce purchases
The bushel of corn ready for the freezer
We don’t really like to be on the road on the 4th of July so we waited to leave for Vermont until all those festivities we over. We took a more leisurely trip this time, stopping in Roanoke for a day of sightseeing and checking out the build site for next year’s Constructors for Christ project.
The church build site in Roanoke
We also checked out Dixie Caverns Campground as a possible place to stay for the project.
The campground guard cat
One of the sites we visited in Roanoke was the famous Roanoke Star. We wanted to see it because of our family’s involvement in building and maintaining a large lighted star on the side of Pine Mountain in Remlap, Alabama.
Star Cam capture
While at the Star we decided to visit the little zoo there.
The last zoo we visited had a Red Panda, but it stayed hidden the whole time we were there. We were glad this one was not as shy.
This giant tortoise kept trying to open the gate. We wondered why until one of the keepers told us they occasionally took it for walks around the zoo.
Superb Starling from east Africa
Red-billed Blue Magpie from China
We then drove some short days with stops at some really nice Harvest Host locations. They were all quiet and peaceful, off the interstate locations. We really enjoy Harvest Hosts locations. We have made some good friends!
First Assembly of God Harvest Host site in PA
Winn Hill Farms Harvest Host in Port Crane, NY
Some of our Winn Hill Farms purchases
Living Waters Church Harvest Host in Saratoga Springs, NY
We arrived at Cabot, Vermont about 2:30 Friday, 7/11/25. We will be spending the next six weeks working to repair homes and doing some sightseeing. We will bring you along to see what we are doing.
As noted in our previous post, we arrived in Johnston, SC on June 8, giving us just four days to “rest”, do all the laundry, move everything back into FRED, get both of us haircuts, wash BB, and probably other things we have forgotten, and be ready to roll in FRED Friday morning June 13. Randy led the way for us to make a rather long, slow trip to Barbourville, KY. There is so much construction going on from Helene and now I-40 is closed again due to mud slides making for a hard drive. We arrived at our campground Friday afternoon in time to get set up and then go to the church to see the job site and meet up with friends. It was such a joy to see friends we haven’t seen since this time last year. This year Constructors for Christ summer project will have teams in Barbourville for five weeks. There will be people from over 17 churches from many states. This year is also the 50th Anniversary of CFC. Fifty years of building churches, worship centers, and fellowship halls each summer. It is an honor to be a small part of this work. We have been with the group since 2015.
Our RV sites for this project were at Thompson RV Park in Barbourville. It is a very nice city owned park.
This map of Constructors for Christ projects was made for this year’s 50th Anniversary.
Saturday morning we got to sleep in – 7:00am – because we didn’t have to be at work until 9:00. Anne and Debra worked, along with some other ladies, moving cooking equipment from the trailer into the church and setting up the kitchen and doing some general cleanup, before everyone arrived on Sunday. Anne and Debra were also responsible for the merchandise table again this year so they spent a good deal of time working on that. Randy and Max along with some other guys began working in the old sanctuary, leveling the floor and readying the site for the rest of the crew. This year we actually have two job sites that are next to each other. The old sanctuary is being converted into classrooms, and the new sanctuary is being built next door. Unfortunately, due to way too much rain this spring, the concrete had not yet been poured nor the metal building erected for the new sanctuary. Sunday morning we worshiped with the members of East Barbourville Baptist . Such a welcoming community! We then returned to our campground to ready ourselves for a busy work week – gathering up tools etc. Sunday evening we had our opening meeting and were able to reconnect with more friends.
Reorganizing the kitchen equipment trailer
The church members had done a lot of work getting the old sanctuary ready for us.
The laser level was used to make sure the new floor would be flat and level.
Installing rim joists
Rim joists installed
Monday morning and every other morning we were on the job site working by 6:00am. We had breakfast at 7:30, Lunch at 12:30 and Dinner at 6:00 pm. All the job site work was in the old sanctuary this week. As always, we were very blessed to spent a week in service with our friends and family. God is good!
As always, each morning started with prayer.
The old sub-floor was well attached
It took several team members to get it all up.
Building new joist supports
Joist supports finished
Floor joist installation
At the end of Wednesday
The first pieces of sub-floor were at the door ramp.
Once the joists were finished the crew started on the rest of the sub-floor installation.
Lots of volunteers worked on the floor.
When not involved inside, the crew members cut studs …
… building headers …
… sorting and moving lumber …
… and building t-posts.
In addition to a lot of sweat, some people left their blood on the project.
When the youngsters weren’t working they taught themselves new skills.
The last piece of sub-floor being installed
The sub-floor was finished Friday morning
Laying out walls for next week
Since we didn’t put up any walls this time we wrote scripture on the floor joists.
Anne and Debra worked with the kitchen crew preparing delicious meals. (This is only part of the kitchen crew.)
This year several boxes of peaches were brought for the crew.
Randy addressing the crew after our evening meal.
The great news is that the concrete for the new sanctuary was poured Friday and should be ready for the erection crew to begin work on Monday. That means that our CFC crew may be able to start work on the new sanctuary sometime next week.
Concrete crew preparing for pour
The concrete contractors were already at work when we arrived Friday morning.
The contractors had a lot of finishing equipment.
The slab was finished by noon.
On Friday we finished work a little early so we went with Randy and Debra to see Cumberland Falls. It was a nice break from work.
Tuesday, May 6 was the official beginning of our Spring Road Trip 2025. If things go as planned, this will truly be a road trip. There will be lots of driving, lots of miles covered and not as much moseying along at a casual pace as our recent vacations. Tuesday, we drove to Asheville, NC to visit with the volunteer coordinator for the NOMADS disaster rebuilding project we will be leading in the fall. We met with Hannah at the church that will be providing our parking sites. The church is building camping sites on their property for people impacted by Hurricane Helene and will be including six sites for NOMADS to use. This should be a great opportunity for us to serve in a beautiful location while working to get families back into their homes.
Covenant Community Church will be the host for the NOMADS teams in Asheville.
The campground the church is building.
From Asheville, we drove to Barbourville, KY to visit the Constructors For Christ 2025 construction site. We will be helping to build the East Barbourville Baptist Church’s new sanctuary and perhaps build out some Sunday School classrooms. Since it was not too far off our route, we decided to take a quick look at the site and see the town. We arrived too late to see anyone at the church but got to take some pictures, try one of the local diners, check out the grocery stores, and the RV park we will be using. We also boondocked at the local WalMart (with permission). We are really looking forward to this project. This will be the 50th year Constructors has provided 5-6 weeks of labor to assist churches with their building needs. What a great ministry this organization has led. It’s an honor to work and serve with them and we look forward to seeing all our Constructor friends in June. We traveled 336 miles today.
Progress is being made for our project in Barbourville.
After a good night of sleep, on May 7, we continued driving northwest. We stopped at King Donut in London, KY for breakfast pastries and then continued to Big Bone Lick State Historic Park in Union, KY. This is a smaller state park but is in a beautiful setting and bills itself as “the birthplace of American paleontology.” We would definitely stay here again. The first sight we were assigned, we couldn’t get level. So the very helpful, “off duty” camp host quickly changed our site to one that was level and located immediately behind Randy and Debra. We spent the afternoon exploring the park and waiting for Randy and Debra to arrive. Another 171 miles traveled.
Our breakfast in London.
This old root cellar in the campground shows part of the history of this park.
The fossil and prehistoric display at the nature center.
RVing With a Purpose 