sumatanga – Page 2 – RVing With a Purpose

Sunday, April 13, 2025

We arrived in Gallant, AL at Camp Sumatanga on Friday afternoon, April 4. It was an uneventful drive from Red Bay and we were fortunate to get out ahead of the storms. Saturday, we had a list of errands to run. It reminded us of when we were still working, trying to get everything else done on Saturday. Retirement is so good! Sunday we were blessed to be able to return to Lester Memorial again as we do so much prefer in person worship. We are very thankful for being able to stream the services when we are out of town but in person is definitely the best.

Monday morning Barry joined us to begin work at the camp. Our first priority is the completion of the remodeling of Cabin 5 as it is needed for summer camp. Cabin 7 is also being remodeled but is not needed quite as soon. Some of you may remember that this time last year we were here with a NOMADS team and demolished the old bathrooms in these two cabins (link to last year’s project). Since then the camp contracted to extend the concrete slabs, frame in new bathrooms and install new metal roofs. This year’s spring NOMADS project was cancelled for lack of sign-ups. (We need more new members – hint, hint.) We had a few weeks available and decided to spend them here.

Monday and Tuesday the roofers were still working on the cabins and we certainly didn’t want to be in their way so we were sent to start on the girl’s staff hut (with a few detours along the way). It needs lots of love but we are making progress. Barry did lots of cleaning, while Anne worked on some dry wall and Max worked on some flooring. On Tuesday, John from our church joined us and he and Barry replaced the leaking vent turbine on the roof. Barry’s life before retirement was also very helpful because he was able to repair the camps mini excavator. We also repaired a deck on Cabin 1.

First thing Monday morning the staff found out the 70,000 gallon water tank was empty. After some searching they found water shooting up out of the ground near one of the buildings. Barry was able to quickly fix the problem once the staff got him the parts.

New subfloor was in place when we moved over to work on Cabin 5.

The ceiling was damaged under the vent turbine

Anne carefully repairing the wall around the electrical panel

We did a quick patch job on Cabin 1 deck because it was rented out for the weekend.

After the roofers finished their work, we began concentrating on Cabin 5 and assisting the plumber with roughing in the plumbing. We also were able to get a lot of work done on the plumbing rough in on Cabin 7. On Friday, Donna joined us and we began the electrical rough in on Cabin 5. It was a good week, and we are enjoying being back with friends at Sumatanga and attending our church in person.