A Snowy Week at the Jersey Shore

  1-Region 4 Feeding Team; 2-Westwood Baptist Church, Cary; 3-Billy helping Jersey Shore United unload their freebies from Home Depot; 4-Matthews Baptist Church, Matthews; 5-Jim from Westwood helping Billy; 6-Pastor Todd is doing a Wednesday night bible study on James at our site.  Everyone is welcome; 7-Our last night with Vicki and Tim for awhile.   Wanda Temple led a hard working feeding team.  They prepared great meals and kept the showers and common areas clean.  Even though we had snow and it was very cold they went for several walks on the beach.Although it has been an unusually cold and snowy week the teams stayed steady at work.  The Westwood team installed insulation, hung sheet rock, moved sheet rock inside, mudded, taped and sanded sheet rock and painted.  They still found time to help homeowners shovel snow.     It was so cold here that the Matthews’ team actually built a air condition platform inside and then carried it out to install it on the concrete pads.  They also built a raised floor for a washer and dryer.  They did more sheet rock finishing along with installing counter tops.

Yes it is cold here in New Jersey but many home owners are still not back into their homes.  I am sure as you read this your are relaxing in your warm confortable home. Please pray for the many volunteers who are answering GOD’s call to go and serve.  At present time we are working on 10 different homes.  We have new requests to help rebuild 6 others.  All 16 will be very happy when their homes are completed so they can move back in and relax.  Also each week we receive additional requests from the Long Term Recovery Group for help with additional homes.  So yes, long story short we are in need of volunteers now and through the coming months.

Old Friends and New Friends

This was a great week with a great bunch of men and women.  Most of them have been here before and have plans to return soon.  Some of them were on their first mission trip and plan to come again too.Phil and Billy with the feeding team did a lot of odd and ins around the church while Hollis and Kaye did most of the cooking – good choice. The Biltmore and Rocky Hock teams hung sheet rock, repaired framing, painted, finished sheet rock, built more bunk beds and under skirted the shower unit.  We have been having issues with the outside and inside showers so several of them lent a hand so we now have properly operating showers inside and out. 

We only have one week in February with volunteers.  If you are available give us a call.  There is lot’s of work to do.

A New Year, A New Location and New Staff

This week we have been busy making some more improvements at our site. We welcome Tim & Vicki Etheridge who have agreed to help with the operation in New Jersey during 2014.  Our team this week was from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. They were a hard working group from VCU’s Aspire program. Our cooking/plumbing crew was Gerald & Hervy. They cooked breakfast every morning and then plumbed the rest of the day.  Ann was in charge of supper with help from Tim and Vicki.  Ann was also happy to do some sewing even if it was just hemming shower curtains.

The college team hung sheet rock, helped Gerald plumb, cut up a dock that floated into a yard, poured concrete and installed a ramp.

NCBM is now staying in Seaside Heights.  Not as much room as we had at Grace Tabernacle but most of our work sites now will be from just a few blocks away to 10 or 15 minutes.  Several teams have already booked their return trip dates.  Still many weeks to be filled so get your team together, set a week and call Mary to book it.

FYI – The new location is 2 blocks from beach and boardwalk.                                                                                                                         

Home For Christmas and Moving Week

We had a wonderful week home for Christmas.  We worked in the bakery on Christmas Eve and spend many hours enjoying family and friends.We traveled back to New Jersey on the 30th and we celebrated New Year’s Eve by beginning our move.  We did not have any teams here but our good friends Paul, Chris and Elaine pitched in to help.  We got snow Thursday night.Here is our new home.  Top two pictures are our new kitchen with all donated equipment except for the stove.  Bottom two pictures are of our lounge and dining area.  We now have bunk beds.  We are ready for volunteers.  Get your 2014 week (or weeks) booked now before they’re gone.  Space is limited.

PS-Happy New Year!!!