Off for Another Adventure!

Today Linda and I are preparing to leave on another venture. Our NOMADS adventure this time will take us to Dubach, Louisiana where we will be working at the Outdoor Wilderness Center of the United Methodist Children's Home. We do not have job assignments yet, but are certainly looking forward to the opportunity to serve others and use some of skills to make life better for others.

The trip will take us south through Illinois, crossing to the west of the Mississippi at Cario, Illinois, then traveling through the bootheel of Missouri, into Arkansas and on to Louisiana.  Dubach is located north east of Shreveport. We are hoping for some warm sunny days so we can thaw out from the cold Wisconsin winter.

As we travel south, we do plan on spending a day with my parents in Metropolis before venturing on south. Our goal is to be in Louisiana by Friday morning.

I will continue to blog as we travel and as are working at the site.

Traveling Home

The weather was nice when we left Florida and the first day we made it to Perry, GA. We made 400 miles trouble free. The night was spent at the Lighthouse Harbor RV park and we even had cable TV for a change. The temperatures dropped to 19  over night, but warmed up nicely on Saturday. Lunch was at the top of Monteagle, TN and the traveling went smooth, even through Atlanta and Nashville. As we traveled the winds picked up and we had our challenges so we decided to put the trailer in storage in Paducah, Ky and get it later.

Sunday, we spent some time with my parents and enjoyed lunch together before packing the truck to head north. We treated ourselves to a night in Drury Inn, before heading north.

We are expecting some cold weather and bad driving conditions tomorrow, but hopefully God will give us a safe and trouble free trip home!

Community Service Projects

This week has been an interesting week and I have had the opportunity to work with several different people in the community. The people I have worked for have ranged from single mothers to elderly people who have needed a little job around their home done. Some of the team have been doing interior painting, but I have been on several jobs that can be done by one person. My first project was to make a materials list for an elderly gentleman who needed doors in his home repaired. This included the replacement of the doors, repair of locks where someone had tried to break into his home, and  the repair of a pump house. I gave him the list and the team that will be here next week will be able to complete the task. The next project was to replace a light fixture at an elderly lady's home. While there she also asked me to repair her electric range (she had the parts) and I learned it is best to turn off the electricity to the appliance before working on it! On to the next project of changing some electrical receptacles in another home and to change the filter in a vent fan over the cooking stove. That was followed by a visit to a single mother who has been unemployed for quite some time. The repairs involved some exterior repair in the cement walls and to replace some of the tile in the bathroom that was loose. Tomorrow I have to install baseboards in a house and that will be my last project.

All of the visits left me with a wonderful feeling, not that I could just do the job, but that I had really done something that brightened someone's day.

Thursday evening Linda and I will start packing for our trip north. We plan on staying in a RV park in Perry, Georgia on Friday night, a RV park in Paducah, Kentucky on Saturday night, and then on Sunday make the final leg of our trip home.....weather permitting. Oh the temptation to stay in Florida is great given the weather reports we are seeing from Wisconsin!

More Projects

The Youth Room is nearing completion and the painting is in progress, so my work turned to other projects. The projects included repairing the drains on the church kitchen sinks, trying to fix a set of faucets for one of the sinks in the kitchen, insulating the ceiling near the windows in the office. Today I should be working on small projects at the Parsonage.

The story of the faucets is a very interesting story. To repair the faucets, new stems were needed since the old ones were stripped and would not stop turning. I took the entire faucet assembly and started to one plumbing supply store. They looked at the markings and determined the faucet was made by Chicago Brass so it should not be a problem, but after searching his inventory, no luck, so he sent me to another supplier, same story, no parts, and this process was repeated two more times before someone scrapped a little deeper on the assembly and discovered "China" so now we had to assume the CHB marking (which is the trademark for Chicago Brass) actually was China Brass. So after an afternoon of chasing parts, the only solution was to put the old assembly back on the pipes and tell the Trustees they would need to get an entire new assembly.

The day was finally beautiful, so at the end of the work day, Linda, Greta and I headed out to a wildlife area for a long walk. Several people were fishing and having some luck. Made me wish I had spent the afternoon fishing instead of chasing parts.

This was Martin Luther King's Birthday and there was a parade in town, the church office was closed, but we worked.

After another frustrating day of trying to use the WiFi the church is suppose to be providing, Linda and I gave up and made a trip to McDonalds for a milk shake and internet service!

Weather is to cool down, just hope it is not too cool to camp on the way home!

The Last Week

The last week of work at Rockledge is approaching. The weekend was cold (by Florida standards) so we did not do much other than the routine shopping and cleaning. Even though we did drive to the Oceanfront again, it was too cool to even get on the beach, so we just looked. Gretta did get quite a few walks in some of the smaller parks. This year she has been much better...I guess she is maturing and that will make travel easier.

This week the team will focus on finishing projects and preparing to go our different paths. For Linda and I will be to travel back to the Tundra! We will leave early Friday morning and hope to make Perry, GA to overnight. Saturday should find us as far north as Metropolis, IL where we will spend some time on Sunday with my folks before heading to Wisconsin. Our goal is to be home by Sunday evening. Please pray that we have a safe journey.

Community Projects

Today myself and two other NOMADS painted a tiny kitchen in this lady's house.  Her name  is Marcelle and she has lived in this house for ten years.  She has macular degeneration in her eyes and needed to have the walls painted bright white.  Marcelle lives alone and she is a member of the Rockledge UMC.  It tooks us two hours to complete the painting.  The kitchen was very small, and when we bumped into each other she told us it is a "one butt" kitchen.  When we were finished, she hugged each one of us and cried.  I expected a thank you but not tears.

That's Chick painting.  She was a good sport and agreed to get behind both the stove and the refrigerator.  I painted a lot of the edges.

The bird's name is Taquilla.  I started speaking Spanish to him and he'd danced around-bobbing up and down.  Marcelle said she never saw him dance like that before.  She had rescued the bird from a nursing home where some of the residents pulled his feathers out.  Well, I explained, he understands Spanish.  Ok, how do you say give me a kiss?  Da me una besso.  OK  I guess I'll have to learn so Spanish to talk to my bird and make hin dance.  What a blessed day I had today-Linda

Community Work Projects Started

Today as the projects at the church were nearing completion, some of the team started working on community projects. The projects are for persons who are elderly and do not have the resources to complete the work. In some cases it is single parents, or others with limited income that need help. The happenings for the day include:

Jim, Jay and I completed the construction of the office remodeling project. The finishing of the walls, sanding, and trim work was completed, now it is waiting for the paint crew. After lunch I worked some on raking pine needles and cleaning the outside area of the church. I also went out on community project and did my favorite thing....plumbing. I had to fix a leaky faucet, but luckily it only needed some tightening. I also looked at some other projects the person wanted completed and did schedule the crew for next week. 

Linda, Chic, and Bob painted the kitchen for an elderly person. The lady was very grateful

for the work that was done and I am sure Linda will write more about this. The lady was so happy that some one cared enough to do the simple task for her.

This is the lady the painting was done for. The goal of NOMADS is to not only talk about our faith, but to put it in action and show compassion for those who are less fortunate than we are. 

More projects are on the list for tomorrow....stay tuned!