A Hard Working Group and Some Smart Kids

On Sunday evening our arriving team for the week  from Colonial Baptist Church in Cary took us out to eat at their favorite restaurant in NJ, the Brick Diner. They have worked with us several times before and we can always count on them to work hard and go the extra mile.  Two days they even worked past dinner time to get the job done.  Ann did the cooking this week and did some painting too. One day she had a little help in the kitchen from one of the home school kids.  On Tuesday night the home school Lego Robotics Team interviewed us and showed us their presentation on their idea for a tracking device they were taking to a state competition.Two days the team worked on homes but the other three were spent working on the Seaside Heights church that we will be moving into soon.  They put up sheetrock, installed a vent for our stove hood, installed doors and ceiling tiles and got some of our donated kitchen equipment in place.  We are in desperate need of volunteers to help complete this project and to help us move in after Thanksgiving.  We also have plenty of home rebuilding work to do also.

We are home now for Thanksgiving.

Getting Closer to a Move

We had a great group of volunteers this week.  1-Cool Spring Baptist, Sanford; 2-Oak Grove Baptist, Boone; 3-Region 5 Feeding Team; 4-Biltmore Baptist, Asheville; 5-James with the Cool Spring group showing us some clogging; 6-James and two of the ladies from Biltmore showing some of the handmade wooden toys he made and donated.  You may notice that James is in the feeding team picture too.  I think he liked having his picture taken with the ladies.So much work done this past week.  Teams hung sheet rock and installed parts of the ceiling at our soon to be new location in Seaside Heights.  Rudy & Robin brought up some kitchen equipment and several ladies cleaned it before installation.  The Oak Grove group and Paul finished removing the sand from Joanie’s pool and porch area.  The teams worked on 10 different homes and the church.  GREAT WEEK  Thank you LORD

Although the teams were able to complete several work request we received just as many new ones.  The work requests are starting to come in on a regular basis again.  However our list of volunteers signed up to come to New Jersey to help is very small.  We need help NOW and next year.  As for now – this week with the few volunteers we have we are hoping to get the new church building to a point so we can get a C.O. by Friday.  Then when we return after Thanksgiving (December 1) we will need volunteers to help us move everything from Grace Tabernacle to Grace Evangelical in Seaside Heights and setup our operation there.  Once we move most of our jobs will be with in 5 minutes of the church which will make things better for all.

Blessed to Work With Good Friends

This week all but two of our volunteers were good friends of ours.  Of course now the other two are now friends also. 1-Region 4 Feeding Team-Joanne, Judy and Randy; 2-Ike, Jamie, Eddie & Iva-Momeyer Baptist Church; 3-Sid and BettyAnne Shearin-Littleton BC; 4-Chris the HVAC Guy-Grace Tabernacle Bible Church; 5-Paul-Union Church of Lavalette ; 6-Tim and Vickie Etheridge-Greenville.

Tim, Betty Anne and Sid worked on flooring in Bob’s house two days.  It’s good to see volunteers and homeowners praying together.Our main focus this week has been working on the church building for our new location.  We are working hard to get it ready for our volunteers.  It will be so nice to be closer to our work sites.  With all the sanding, painting, cleaning, insulation hanging, staple pulling, door hanging and bed building this place is really changing.

A Little Time Off

No volunteers for last week or this week so we took a little time off.  On Wedneday of last week we left NJ and traveled to Momeyer. It was nice to visit with friends and family.  Ann worked two days at Yellow Dog Bread and went with Matt and Tanya to the NC State Fair.  Billy visited with his buddies at Rebuilding Hope in Henderson and helped to cut down two trees with the Momeyer Baptist Men.  On Monday we headed to Ohio to visit with Kim, Brandon and Matthew.  He is officially our grandson since the ceremony on October 30th.We got back to NJ on Thursday in time to enjoy Grace Tabernacle’s Fall Festival Trunk or Treat and Paul’s 3rd Missionary Journey.  The fall colors are spectacular here this week.  On Saturday we went to our friend, Pastor Todd’s 50th birthday party which had a 50’s theme. It was a lot of fun. Before leaving for vacation (and since coming back) Billy only had Ann to help him work.  We are ready for some volunteers.